Earlier this year, cryptic teasers started popping up for something called Greatland. It turned out to be a dystopian sci-fi horror film from production company Popcorn and Friends, and since its pandemic-themed plot happened to coincide with real-life events at the same time, they decided to take advantage of that fact in their promo campaign. As of the release of the trailer below, the movie’s been given a November 1 release date.
It’s the future, and it’s awful…except for the elite few that are privileged enough to live in Greatland. It’s within this protective bubble that young Ulysses lives, but he’s not happy about his current situation, nor the state of the world. His childhood sweetheart now lives outside of Greatland, which is now a wasteland dominated by a deadly virus. Can he topple the social order, save his woman, and make things right for everyone?
Greatland stars Academy award-nominee Eric Roberts, Nick Moran (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), J.P. Manoux (Veep), former boxing champion of the world Shannon Briggs, Arman Darbo (And Then I Go), Chloe Ray Warmoth (Fuller House), and horror icon Bill Oberst Jr (The Devil’s Rejects). It was written and directed by Dana Ziyasheva (Defenders of Life). The movie was screened at the Moscow International Film Festival earlier this month, to positive reactions.
Greatland will be available on-demand through Amazon starting November 1. Here’s that trailer….
AB Productions has reported it has now wrapped production on its time travel western Showdown In Yesteryear, filmed at Dogwood Pass in Ohio.
Dogwood Pass is a tourist attraction aimed at recreating the days of the Wild West, with period-accurate costumes and props already available, which made it the perfect spot to shoot a film…it’s basically the Ohio equivalent of Paramount Ranch in California. The center character of the movie, though, is a man from our present…Daryl Dumwoody, a down-on-his-luck loser who discovers a portal that transports him back to the 1800s.
While he’s there, he might find love with a fierce young widow..if he can survive encountering a gang of outlaws, as well as the villainous town boss Orson Kane.
Showdown in Yesteryear stars Jeff Grennell as Daryl, Vernon Wells (The Road Warrior, Commando) as Kane, and Debra Lamb as the widow, along with Timothy O’Hearn as “a desperado.” O’Hearn is the one who directed the feature, along with Aaron Bratcher, working from a script by Gregory Lamberson (Widow’s Point). The film is now entering post-production, and distribution rights are still up in the air.
Showdown in Yesteryear follows Grennell as contemporary sad sack Daryl Dumwoody, who discovers a mysterious door in the woods which transports him to a frontier town in the 1800’s. There, Dumwoody contends with oppressive town boss Orson Kane (Wells), a fiercely independent widow (Lamb), and a gang of ruthless outlaws while attempting to find a way back to his own time. O’Hearn plays a desperado.
The Society Of Illustrators has just inducted another artist into their Hall of Fame..it’s poster painter Drew Struzan. And everybody who knows him is celebrating.
If you know who Drew Struzan is, then your only comment right now is “why didn’t this happen sooner?” If you don’t, he’s the painter behind some of cinema’s most iconic posters. The original Star Wars art with Luke lifting the lightsaber aloft? Struzan. All three (yup, there are just three) Indiana Jones posters? Struzan. Marty McFly lifting his sunglasses and looking at his watch with a shocked expression? Totally Struzan.
Filmmaker Erik Sharkey once directed a documentary about Struzan entitled Drew:The Man Behind the Poster. Upon the announcement of his induction, Sharkey pooled his resources with another filmmaker named Jim Sanders, and they called up everyone they could get whose careers have been helped by Struzan for a special congratulatory video.
Special guests of this presentation include: Harrison Ford, Frank Darabont, Dean DeBlois, Sam Witwer, Bob Gale, Greg Nicotero, Leonard Maltin, Floyd Norman, Greg Hildebrandt, Steve Chorney, Paul Shipper, Mark Raats, Dylan Struzan and Michael J Fox. You’ll also see some never-before-seen footage of Struzan at work, painting the posters for the How To Train Your Dragon films.
If you ask most people if all the ideas in science fiction have been done, they would say yes — it just stands to reason. It’s pretty rare we can run across an idea and say “Huh, never seen THAT before”…but that’s something we can honestly say about the idea behind Monochrome: The Chromism, a film coming soon from Tempest Studios.
The premise? The entire world is in black and white. No one knows what color is, until one day when urban citizen Isaac Ward is sent to the hospital after being wounded in a shootout. He does recover, but something weird starts happening…he starts bleeding red. What on Earth is RED? No one knows, but the color starts spreading throughout his body until he visibly stands out.
The doctors don’t know what to make of it, but then they start hearing about other incidents around the globe of people going full-color. is it an epidemic? Is it safe? Societies start tearing each other apart over the phenomenon. Isaac, meanwhile, is determined to find some real answers.
Monochrome: The Chromism stars Josh Bangle, Cat Merritt, Devin Leigh, Ryan Barnes, Andre Pelzer and Shashana Pearson. It was written and directed by Kodi Zene and produced by Lozen Fükem, and it’s heading to on-demand platforms October 16.
MONOCHROME: THE CHROMISM, follows Isaac Ward, the first person to turn “hue” in this black and white world. After being shot in a downtown crossfire, he is found bleeding “red”. As Isaac’s body also begins to streak with color, other outbreaks develop across the globe. Isaac now struggles to survive while society tears itself apart to try to capture and comprehend these new unexplainable “hues”. Leaving countries at odds, at war and Isaac determined to find answers.
If you’re ready for a decidedly different kind of film festival, think about attending Mr. HoleHead’s Warped Dimension, a screening of shocking, experimental and downright crazy indie movies that will last for six whole days.
Most film festivals these days are being conducted online for obvious reasons, but Mr. HoleHead’s Warped Dimension is aiming to create an experience as close to a real festival as they can get..by eliminating the video-on-demand advantages online provides. If you want to see a movie, you’d better be there for the screening, for as in life, there will be no second showing.
This year you can expect all sorts of genres — Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Horror, Thriller, Dark & Off-the-Wall Comedy, Animation, and Art/Experimental are all listed, as well as Music Videos and Documentaries. There will be a total of 13 feature films (including some new stuff from quality schlock brand Troma) and a whopping 97 short subjects screened!
There will be interactive elements as well. The festival will be screened entirely on Zoom and contain a chat window along with a Polling Button and a Q&A Button. Viewers will have the power to instantly rate the films after viewing them, as well as write in questions during the screenings which will be answered by the filmmakers afterward.
To attend Mr. HoleHead’s Warped Dimension Film Festival, head to ahith.com. The full festival pass currently costs $50. The insanity begins September 24.
The Japanese indie horror studio Tokyo Bay Films is prepping its latest creation for release in the US and everywhere else. Tokyo Home Stay Massacre will get a simultaneous worldwide release in all major markets.
The tale of hapless young people getting trapped in a middle-of-nowhere house with crazies is a well-worn one, first popularized in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and retold countless times since then. When America makes such movies, though, they tend to set them in the backwoods South. Does Japan — a much smaller, island nation — have an equivalent for such remote areas? This reporter wouldn’t know…chime in through the comments if you do.
The plot: three American teenagers travel to Japan to party on vacation as well as to put their past behind them. Through a series of circumstances, they wind up staying in the home of an eccentric Japanese family, who seems friendly at first. But as the family’s behavior gets weirder, the teens start thinking they should perhaps make a run for it. But the family insists they stay….permanently!
Tokyo Home Stay Massacre isn’t quite as grim as its American counterparts — some of the bizarre things the family does are intentionally meant to be funny. Based on the trailer, we anticipate a lot of agonized screaming, a lot of gore, and…a lot of wacky dancing.
Tokyo Home Stay Massacre will be out October 2 on digital platforms.
Dark Sky Films is putting out their new sci-fi horror film The Honeymoon Phase in two days. The film will be released simultaneously on digital VOD platforms and in virtual theaters around the country.
Tom and Eve are newlyweds who have each other, but not much else. One day they find out some organization called “The Millennium Project” is offering $50,000 to any couple who would be willing to seal themselves inside a high-tech smart home for one month, with no contact but each other. Hey, why not?
They’re dressed in space suit wear, locked in the house and left to their own devices…at least at first. What they don’t know is that this experiment is meant to study why couples fall out of love. The house starts messing with their heads, especially Eve’s…she begins to question her own sanity and if she truly knows her husband. Was this all worth $50,000?
The Honeymoon Phase stars Jim Schubin (Boardwalk Empire), Chloe Carroll, Tara Westwood (The Grudge 2020) and Francois Chau (Lost, The Expanse). It was written and Directed by Phillip G. Carroll Jr, and it will be out August 21 in select theaters and VOD.
Down on their luck and needing some quick cash, struggling young lovers Tom and Eve lie about their relationship in order to enter THE MILLENNIUM PROJECT, an experiment for married couples run by the mysterious Director and Handler. A paranoid sci-fi thriller about the nature of trust in relationships, The Honeymoon Phase is as much classic Twilight Zone as contemporary Black Mirror, and an all-too-terrifying answer to the question, “How well can you ever really know someone?”
Dark Star Pictures is releasing The Prey in virtual theaters and VOD later this month.
As a general rule, we can’t go one year without somebody making a movie based around The Most Dangerous Game. It’s simply impossible to avoid. This time, however, the film is Cambodian, and features a mix of Chinese and Cambodian cultures.
Xin is a Chinese policeman working deep undercover. His mission is so secret that not even the local law enforcement knows about it. That turns out to be an issue when the criminal activity he’s infiltrating is hit in a surprise raid by the Cambodian police. He’s taken along with them, and since the warden is horribly corrupt, he likes to sell off his prisoners to rich residents who hunt them for sport in the jungle. You know the story from here.
The Prey stars Byron Bishop, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Nophand Boonyai, Vithaya Pansringarm, and Gu Shangwei. It was written by Jimmy Henderson, Michael Hodgson and Kai Miller, and directed by Henderson. It’s coming to American virtual theaters 9with English subtitles) August 21, followed by a VOD rollout on August 25. Here’s that trailer we mentioned earlier…
Undercover Chinese cop Xin (newcomer Gu Shangwei), is on a secret international mission when a surprise raid puts him in a remote Cambodian jungle prison that plays by its own rules.Ruthless warden (Vithaya Pansringarm of ONLY GOD FORGIVES ) sells prisoners as human prey for rich hunters looking for thrills in the jungle.
After years of hunting down ruthless criminals, Xin suddenly finds himself running for his life. If Xin manages to survive this sadistic game, he’ll walk out of the jungle the same way he came in: as a free man. If Xin fails, he’s just another hunting trophy.
Different Duck Films has announced their anthology horror movie Immortal will be hitting digital platforms early next month.
If all horror has one common theme, it’s death — mortality is why we have a sense of fear to begin with, after all. Every anthology we’ve highlighted here focuses on it to some degree, which is what makes Immortal so unusual. Its stories are about the exact opposite. In other words, the horror of NOT dying. Different Duck, indeed.
How is immortality scary anyway? They find ways. DD tells us “the film follows Chelsea, a high school track star who comes clean about sexual misconduct with her coach only to find out her confession might be too late, Gary and Vanessa, a young, expecting married couple who scheme a morbid solution to their financial issues, Ted, a man filled with sorrow who agrees to euthanize his cancer-ridden wife Mary, and Warren, a young man with little direction in life who is forced to discover his new gifts after a tragic accident.”
Immortal stars Mario Van Peebles (“Posse”, “New Jack City”), Lindsay Mushett (“Blue Bloods”), Jason Stuart (The Infiltrators), Tony Todd (Candyman), Dylan Baker (“Hunters”), Robin Bartlett (Shutter Island), Samm Levine (Inglourious Basterds), Vanessa Lengies (Waiting…), and Agnes Bruckner (The Woods). Check it out September 1 from Different Duck Films.
Thrown into the face of death only to emerge unharmed, the characters of Immortal are left staring at eternity in the face with uncertainty and fear like they’ve never imagined.
Dark Star Pictures has announced they’re bringing the Greek horror film Entwined to the US later this month. The film will include English subtitles.
The briliant doctor Panos has relocated his business from the big city to a small village in the middle of nowhere. He’s beginning to think he made a hasty decision…there aren’t many patients to check up on in this place, and he’s left with little to do.
Then he literally runs right into a strange woman who lives in a remote cabin in the woods. She has a skin condition Panos hasn’t seen before, and he’s determined to get to the bottom of her affliction and find a cure (besides, what else is there to do anyway?) As Panos and the woman work together, they grow attached…which may not be the best idea. Turns out there’s a lot more about her he doesn’t know….
Entwined stars Prometheus Aleifer, Anastasia Rafaella Konidi and John De Holland. It was written by Minos Nikolakakis and De Holland, and directed by Nikolakakis. The film will open in select virtual theaters August 28, followed by its debut on VOD platforms September 8.
Panos (Prometheus Aleifer), a city doctor, relocates his practice to a remote village and quickly falls for Danae (Anastasia Rafaella Konidi), who lives in isolation with a mysterious skin condition. Determined to find Danae a cure, Panos learns of her dark secret and that all is not what it seems.
The makers of Automation, half sci-fi thriller and half comedy, describe it as “a genre mash-up of Robocop and The Office.” That took our minds to interesting places…
DWIGHT: “Nice body armor, Mike. I’d buy THAT for a dollar!”
ROBO-SCOTT blows Dwight away with 570 rounds of ammunition
ROBO-SCOTT, after the smoke clears: “THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID.”
But you won’t be seeing Steve Carell in Automation — these indie productions can’t afford the man. What you WILL see is a satirical thriller about an office robot that learns he’s being replaced with a more efficient model. The robot concludes the only way to prevent his destruction is to cause everyone else’s. It’s now up to the office staff to stop the bot’s deadly rampage. (They probably won’t be paid overtime for this.)
Automation is the creation of Garo Setian, who served as writer, director, producer and editor on the project. “It seems every day there is another news story or article concerning the threat of machines replacing people in the workplace,” Setian says. “We are also seeing stories about the development of robots that can learn to behave more human by observing human behavior.
“So what would happen when a robot with this ability to learn, replaces humans in the workplace, but then faces the prospect of being replaced by more advanced technology? Our movie AUTOMATION is a cheeky take on this concept. Our goal was to tell an interesting and timely story with characters the audience cares about.”
Automation is available starting today on Blu-Ray and digital platforms.
A workplace robot, AUTO, transforms into a killing machine when he discovers he will be replaced by a more efficient model. AUTO fears being terminated and will stop at nothing to prevent his own destruction. The human employees must band together to stop him before it’s too late.
For a long time, Netflix had been secretive on the ratings of the originals they have on their Library that is why sometimes fans get shocked when a show that is thought to be popular got canceled because Netflix had been secretive of their ratings for a long time. There will be movies you will be expecting to be on this list but shockingly didn’t make it.
But now they just revealed the ratings of their Originals but movies and not the programs. Netflix released a top 10 list of the most-watched Netflix original movies of all time. What did the 167 million subscribers of Netflix watch the most?
Surprisingly, Noah Centineo stars only in one of these movies because Netflix surely likes to hire him a lot.
These are the most-watched Netflix movies on their debut! Thanks to the Pandemic. I get to watch all of these movies so I can give you a glimpse of their synopses without giving out spoilers. I
1. Extraction – 99 million
This action movie starring Hollywood Superstar Chris Hemsworth is about an Australian former SASR (Special Air Service Regiment) turned Mercenary who was hired to rescue the teenage son of a drug lord who got kidnapped in Bangladesh. It is a fun and fast-paced action movie that action fans will enjoy even though it got a fair amount of criticism from critics. The pacing of the movie reminds me of video games where the talking portion is cutscenes and the action scenes are gameplay. This movie is successful that a sequel is already in the works.
2. Bird Box – 89 million
This horror-thriller is based on a novel of the same title. It is about A mother named Mallory Hayes (played by Academy award-winning actress Sandra Bullock) Who tries to survive a road of obstacles together with 2 children as they try to escape an entity that drives people to suicide when they see it. Malory and the children will try to survive blindfolded!
This movie makes you fear the unknown that you can’t see. This movie became a huge hit by getting viral in social media. So it is a hit because of word of mouth. It thrilling and intense experience where you will feel vulnerable for characters.
3. Spenser Confidential – 85 million
This action movie starring Mark Wahlberg and Winston Duke is a typical Buddy cop action movie that will give you nostalgia from past Buddy cop hits like Lethal Weapon, 21 Jump Street, and Rush Hour. If those movies are your Jam you might enjoy this one even though it follows a lot of typical Buddy cop tropes.
4. 6 Underground – 83 million
“6 UNDERGROUND” (2019) – Pictured: Corey Hawkins, Adria Arjona, Ben Hardy, Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo Photo Courtesy of Netflix
Is an action movie about a secret group of Vigilantes lead by A billionaire named Gray who was played by Ryan Reynolds. The group is planning to assassinate a dictator to free a country from its cruel regime. It is a visual experience because of the eye-catching special effects but this movie is kind of a Walmart version of The Fast and the furious franchise.
5. Murder Mystery – 73 million
A comedy starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. It is about a married couple who ends up investigating a murder that happened in a Billionaire’s Yacht. I know Adam Sandler recently redeemed himself with doing movies like Uncut Gems but this movie is before Uncut Gems and after Jack and Jill.
6. The Irishman – 64 million This is a very amazing epic crime film starring some of the greatest actors of all time like Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Ray Romano. Rather than talking about the plot, I want to talk about the visual effects of this movie. CGI managed to make elderly actors become decades younger again! A movie like this could be the future of Hollywood. Actors won’t be needing plastic surgery and botox to look younger. The age-defying visual effects put me on awe. This movie is also the most praised by critics of all the movies on this list.
7. Triple Frontier – 63 million This heist action movie stars Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac. It is about some former US Special forces members who reunited to heist Mission in the Multiple borders of South America. I found this to be a better movie than Extraction but It was my acquired taste and I understand why the latter is more successful.
8. The Wrong Missy – 59 million This comedy stars David Spade and Lauren Lapkus. It is about a man who accidentally invited a bad date he tries to avoid instead of the girl of his dreams. Imagine being stuck on a cruise with the terrible date you want to get rid of. Lauren Lapkus was entertaining as she plays a crazier and over the top version of the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl trope. Usually, in Romcoms, The Manic Pixie dream girl is the ideal girl men wants but this movie proves how terrible they are if they are real.
9. The Platform – 56 million This is the only Foreign film that made it on the top 10. This Spanish horror film is loved by the critics and got higher rotten tomato scores that most movies on this list that is on the top side. Though this movie is not about a viral outbreak, it is going to resonate well with people suffering from quarantining.
10. The Perfect Date – 48 million It’s A typical teen rom-com starring Noah Centineo. It is about guy teenage girls who can hire via an app and be their perfect date. Netflix loves Noah Centineo and this movie so much that there is another movie titled Swiped with the same plot and also stars Noah Centineo.
