A new trailer has gone online for director Oleg Stepchenko’s long delayed adaptation of Russian novelist and poet Nikolai Gogol’s Viy, a short story about a philosopher forced to read psalms over the body of an evil witch for three nights in a village overrun by demonic forces.
To survive the ritual, he must draw a circle of protection around himself and not flinch at the horrors that will fall upon him, including the undead witch, flying goblins, and… Viy, a grotesque and powerful demon.
Stepchenko’s Viy appears to retell the classic story, but from the perspective of new protagonist Jonathan Green, a cartographer who stumbles upon a cursed village when he gets lost during a research mission near the Carpathian Mountains.
Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Academy Award-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister’s directorial debut Transcendence, a sci-fi thriller starring Johnny Deppas an Artificial Intelligence creator whose brain is uploaded into a super computer when he’s shot by anti-technology activists… I think.
Better read the official synopsis:
Dr. Will Caster (Depp) is the foremost researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence, working to create a sentient machine that combines the collective intelligence of everything ever known with the full range of human emotions.
His highly controversial experiments have made him famous, but they have also made him the prime target of anti-technology extremists who will do whatever it takes to stop him.
However, in their attempt to destroy Will, they inadvertently become the catalyst for him to succeed—to be a participant in his own transcendence.
Transcendence co-stars Rebecca Hall (Iron Man 3) as Will’s wife and Paul Bettany (Legion) as his best friend Max Waters, both fellow researchers frightened by Will’s omnipresent quest for power. Rounding out the cast are Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy (Dark Knight), and Kate Mara (“American Horror Story”).
20th Century Fox has released the first trailer for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, a sequel to its 2011 blockbuster Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The film stars Keri Russell (Dark Skies), Gary Oldman (Dark Knight), Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty), Kodi-Smit McPhee (Let Me In) and Andy Serkis (The Hobbit) as Caesar.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a post apocalyptic story set a decade after the director Rupert Wyatt’s 2011 reboot. The sequel is directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) and co-written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes).
Kiele Sanchez is set to star in the sequel to Blumhouse Productions’ sleeper hit The Purge. Sanchez joins a cast that includes Frank Grillo (The Grey), Michael K. Williams (“Boardwalk Empire”), Zach Gilford (Last Stand), and Carmen Ejogo (Alex Cross).
According to THR, original Purge writer and director James DeMonaco returns to helm the sequel. No word on an official synopsist, but it will build on the plot introduced in the first.
The Purge is a government sanctioned 12-hour night during which all criminal activity is permissible by law. The original starred Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey as parents put in peril when their young son shelters a victim in their home. It was produced for $3 million and went on to earn more than $89 million worldwide.
Sanchez is coming off the A&E crime series “The Glades.” Horror fans will recognize her from roles in the vampire sequel 30 Days of Night: Dark Daysand the island thriller A Perfect Getaway. The blonde stunner also recurred as actress wannabe Nikki Fernandez on ABC’s “LOST.”
“Friday Night Lights” and Legion star Adrianne Palicki joins the cast of “From Dusk Till Dawn,” a small screen re-imagining of the 1996 Robert Rodriguez film about fugitive brothers trapped by vampire strippers while on the lam in Mexico.
The 10-episode series stars D.J. Cotrona (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) and Zane Holtz (Vampires Suck) as brothers Seth and Richie Gecko. Palicki plays Vanessa Styles, a mysterious woman from Seth’s past.
The abducted Fuller family is portrayed by Robert Patrick (Terminator 2) as preacher and patriarch Jacob, Madison Davenport (Noah) as his teen daughter Kate, and Brandon Soo Hoo (Ender’s Game) as adopted son Scott.
Rounding out the cast are Don Johnson as Sheriff Earl McGraw, Jesse Garcia (“Sons of Anarchy”) as Texas Ranger Freddie Gonzales, Lane Garrison (“Prison Break”) as Benny’s World of Liquor clerk Pete, and Eiza González as Titty Twister stripper and vampire-queen Santánico Pandemonium.
A trailer has gone online for the indie Canadian thriller Dead Rivalry. Directed by Garret Henry and written by Jeremy Thornhill, the film is inspired by the crimes of serial killer Edmund Kemper, dubbed the Coed Killer after slaughtering six female hitchhikers during 1972-1973.
If that isn’t fucked up enough to whet your interest, the plot synopsis offers up a wicked twist:
Two serial killers end up in the same car on an old deserted road. Brendan, hitchhikes and kills the people who pick him up, while Winston picks up hitchhikers to torture and murder them.
Dead Rivalry stars Evan Stern, Stephen Davis, Mark Buck, Jon Ambrose, and stunner Alysa King (pictured above). Keep up with the film by following its Facebook and Twitter pages.
Australian model-turned-actress Courtney Eaton is set to play the female lead in Summit Entertainment’s Gods of Egypt, an epic fantasy adventure from Alex Proyas (Dark City, The Crow). Eaton joins co-stars Gerard Butler (300), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (“Game of Thrones”), Brenton Thwaites (Maleficent) and Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean).
Penned by writing duo Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (Dracula Untold), Gods of Egypt follows Bek, a young Egyptian thief (Thwaites) out to kill the mad god Set (Butler) when Horus (Coster-Waldau), son of murdered underworld deity Osiris, fails to avenge the death. According to THR, Eaton plays the slave girl Bek is smitten by.
The role is Eaton’s second. The sexy Shelia makes her acting debut in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth installment in the franchise made famous by Academy Award winning actor and blow-job enthusiast Mel Gibson. Eaton co-stars alongside Aussie models Megan Gale and Abbey Lee Kershaw as one of the Five Wives in need of rescue from “Mad” Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy).
Filming wrapped this week on Snoot Entertainment’s (You’re Next) new psychological thriller Faults. The film is writer an director Riley Stearns’ feature debut and stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (The Thing) as a brainwashed cult member in need of rescue.
Winstead plays Claire, a young woman caught up in a new cult called Faults. Leland Orser (Taken) is Ansel Roth, an authority on cults and mind control, hired by Claire’s parents to abduct her from the group and deprogram her. Lance Reddick (“Fringe”) and Kellie Matteson (Odd Thomas) co-star.
Lifetime has released a trailer for Lizzie Borden Took an Ax, a biopic based on the notorious life of Lizzie Borden, the acquitted suspect in the 1892 hatchet murders of her parents Andrew and Abby Borden. The film premieres Jan. 25.
Directed by Nick Gomez (”Flash Forward”), the Lifetime Original movie stars Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan) as Lizzie Borden and co-stars Billy Campbell (”Helix”) as Lizzie’s lawyer Andrew Jennings and Clea DuVal (Argo) as Lizzie’s older sister Emma Borden.
Emilia Clarke will play iconic heroine Sarah Connor in the Terminator reboot from Skydance, AnnaPurna, and Paramount Pictures. The part marks Clarke’s first major role since breaking out as Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen on HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
Clarke, who reportedly beat out Brie Larson (“United States of Tara”) for the part, is the first cast since Arnold Schwarzenegger was announced to be reprising his role as the T-800. Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) is in talks to portray John Connor.
Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) is attached to direct the Terminator remake from a script by Laeta Kalogridis (Pathfinder) and Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry). The film is slated to open in theaters July 1, 2015.
