Michelle Dockery is featured in a short teaser video that announces the production of a new film from series creator Julian Fellowes.

Fans of Downton Abbey are cordially invited to the third motion picture from Focus Features and Carnival Films. The third entry will follow the recent installment, Downton Abbey: A New Era. The most recent outing from the popular British drama had been released back in 2022. Our own Chris Bumbray would mention in his review of A New Era, “Show mastermind Julian Fellows has written this as fan service, and it shows. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you’re looking to finally get into Downton Abbey, this is a bad place to start as it not only assumes you’ve seen every episode, but it assumes you know them well. It’s strictly for fans, but I’m willing to bet there are still a lot of those out there.”

Downton Abbey 3 will be written by Downton creator and Academy-Award® winner Julian Fellowes, as well as produced by BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning Gareth Neame, Fellowes, and BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning Liz Trubridge. BAFTA and Emmy Award nominee Simon Curtis is returning to direct after helming 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era. Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Phyllis Logan, Robert James-Collier, Joanne Froggatt, Allen Leech, Penelope Wilton, Lesley Nicol, Michael Fox, Raquel Cassidy, Brendan Coyle, Kevin Doyle, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sophie McShera, Douglas Reith return for the third film, alongside exciting new additions, Paul Giamatti, Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale, Arty Froushan, and many other fan favorites.

The official Downton Abbey social media accounts have also released this small teaser of the announcement.

Last Updated on May 17, 2024

The episode of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? covering Insomnia was Written and Narrated by Mike Holtz, Edited by Jaime Vasquez, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

In 2002, Christopher Nolan directed a film set in a small town in Alaska where the sun doesn’t go down for days at a time. The film starred the great Al Pacino as a once again decorated but tortured Detective at full Heat level intensity, squaring off against the legendary Robin Williams in an against-type role as a creepy, cerebral murderer of a teenage girl. And somehow……some way…..it’s considered underrated. Christopher Nolan. Al Pacino. Robin Williams. Underrated. These are not words that go together. So, let’s talk about just WTF Happened to Insomnia.

These days, in the year of our dark lord 2024, Christopher Nolan is an undeniable titan in Hollywood. After films like his Batman trilogy, Interstellar, and his most recent film Oppenheimer, he’s as much of a household name as a director can be. He’s won everything there is to win. The guy could direct a movie about a toasted cheddar chalupa and just the sound of the words leaving his lips with his smooth accent would make it sound regal and grandiose: “Toasted Cheddah Chalupa” and you just know it’s going to be huge. As it should be. They are delicious. So, when I tell you this next bit, it’s going to sound strange. When Christopher Nolan heard Warner Brothers was trying to remake a 1997 Norwegian thriller directed by Erik Skjodbjaerg and starring Stellan Skarsgard called Insomnia, his agent couldn’t even get him a meeting with the studio. Baffling, considering the same studio executives would probably do a cannonball into the needle pit from Saw II just to get Nolan to eat a bagel with them in 2024. But again… they hadn’t even seen Memento yet at this period in time. Which is the movie that would change everything for Nolan. But not without a little help. According to the book The Nolan Variations by Tom Shone, established Hollywood director, producer, and experimental filmmaker Steven Soderbergh was the catalyst that made all this happen. After screening Memento for himself and hearing of Nolan’s inability to get in a room with Warner Bros, Soderbergh allegedly stormed across the lot of Warner Bros and told the head of the studio at the time, whoever it was, (I’m picturing Satan personally, you go with whatever you like) and said, “you’re insane if you don’t meet with this guy” and eventually offered to Executive Produce the film himself, along with George Clooney, were they to give Nolan a chance. In Christopher Nolan’s own words, “Steven Soderbergh basically got Insomnia made”.

What was it that made Nolan so interested in remaking a film like Insomnia so early in his directing career? Nolan had stumbled across the film while working on the unreleased at-the-time Memento and was so enamored he watched it twice in one sitting. Of the experience, Nolan said, “I’d love to do this in a slightly different way. If you take that situation you can make it into a Hollywood movie with big movie stars. You could make it like Heat.”

At the time when Warner Bros finally decided to give Nolan a chance to direct the film, they had already given the script writing duties to an extremely new to the scene Hillary Seitz. Because of this and the lack of official writing credit on the film, many cite Insomnia as the only film of his that Christopher Nolan didn’t write. This is factually correct if IMDB is watching but it isn’t the full story.

The truth is, Nolan did his own rewrites of the script in 2000. Of this situation, Nolan said, “I don’t have a writing credit on the film and I didn’t ask for one. Because when I came on as director, Hillary Seitz really rewrote the script in the ways that I wanted her to, but I did do a set of rewrites for Pacino that were reasonably substantial.” So, take from that what you will. I definitely consider Nolan a writer on this one.

In the film, we follow Pacino’s character, LA Detective Will Dormer (whose name actually means “sleep” in multiple languages) as he’s being investigated by Internal Affairs for allegedly going too far to have his criminals put behind bars. He’s sent to the small town and Halibut fishing capital of the world, called Nightmute, Alaska to get away from it all and help solve the case of a murdered teenage girl. The kicker here is that the town is currently in one of its phases of the year where the sun doesn’t go down. Like, at all. For days. Now, if you’re like me and you’ve had your brain go coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs after working the night shift for an extended amount of time, you can already feel this situation taking hold. It’s not good for someone like Dormer who’s already stressed and exhausted and whose partner just informed him he’s going to cut a deal with internal affairs to cover his own ass, possibly putting child murderers Dormer put away back on the streets and ruining his life’s work. To make it worse, this jerk (played perfectly by actor Martin Donovan, who would later work with Nolan again on Tenet) just casually tells him all this as if it’s no big deal, then tries to use the waitress as a human shield of awkwardness to which Dormer gives him this amazing stare.

Eventually, in one of those unforgettable movie scenes, that just make films such as the diner scene in Heat or the pool sequence from The Strangers Prey at Night, Dormer is giving chase to the killer in an intense fog when he fires his weapon and realizes he’s mistakenly shot and killed his partner Hap instead. Hap thinks that Will has done this on purpose and screams “Get away from me!” in his last moments as Will tries to help him and the killer watches from the fog. Will has to lie and say that the killer was the one who shot his partner, knowing that no one would believe him once it gets out his partner was about to cut a deal with Internal Affairs. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game with Dormer and everyone else, including the killer who’s blackmailing him to frame someone else for the crime, as he struggles with the weight of his guilt and decisions. While also going seven straight days and nights unable to sleep. And for those of you wondering, that’s really f*cking hard to do. No human being on record has ever gone more than eleven days straight without sleeping and lived to tell the tale.

Though the film was a remake, it was the rare version of a remake that changed enough to have its own identity, even pleasing the director of the original film who said, “It was quite close, stylistically, to the original. I felt lucky that it’s such a well-crafted, smart film and that it had a really good director handling it, because as a remake I think it did really well, and it doesn’t hurt any original if a remake is well done.” Nolan’s Insomnia not only honored the film it was remaking but was also clearly inspired by the others who had come before. There’s a Hitchcockian feel to the movie that Nolan himself mentions several times as well as multiple similarities to Johnathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs. Ironic, considering Demme was at one point attached to direct the film himself. But Nolan had the job and the rest was history. He would use his cast to make one of the biggest changes between the original and his own, stating “The original film is very brilliant in its process of slow alienation from the protagonist. My film’s the opposite. You go with him on the journey and in a way you get closer to him at the end than you are at the beginning. I love the idea of going okay, take this exact plot but you just change a few things. You change your relationship with them. That’s the point of stars. They have a relationship with the audience. You tend to trust them.” The studio, though still wary of Nolan agreed with him on this point. Which led to the hire of maybe the biggest star of all… Al Pacino.

Pacino was coming off a ten-year stretch that included some of his most fun and intense roles. Movies like Heat as mentioned earlier, The Devil’s Advocate, Any Given Sunday, and Carlito’s Way. He brought that same intensity to the set of Insomnia. With limited time to rehearse, Nolan and Pacino worked hand in hand in either reigning in that intensity or letting it off the leash. Nolan said that Pacino would request to do multiple takes with varying levels of intensity during his scenes but that Pacino was one of the greatest actors to ever live and he very easily could have simply used the first take each time.

On the opposite side of the spectrum was the late Robin Williams, one of the funniest people on planet Earth, taking a turn for the dark side for the second time in 2002 (as the film One Hour Photo released the same year) in the role of an author turned teen murderer, Walter Finch. Though Nolan noted that Williams was a delight on set, there was a method to Williams’ madness as well. Williams said that he had watched an interview of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer where Dahmer calmly explained to a TV crew how he would store the bodies of his victims and how it freaked them all out. He said “The creepier, the more normal and regular it seems… the creepier it is because that’s the way it is. To play it just straight and regular and much like this because people like that feel like they are not entitled, but it’s how they function.” In the end, Williams would deliver an amazing subdued, and complex villain that is hard to shake….even as you see his body disappear into the cold Alaskan water after being shot by Dormer at the end of Insomnia. He disappears into the nothingness as if he were never there… which was exactly the intent. Nolan would later say of the character, “In my conversations with Robin, I did actually say to him ‘This is something we’ll only talk about, but the guy could be unreal… as in he might not exist. He’s very much Dormer’s conscience”.

An interesting idea that would give you a great excuse to watch Insomnia again, although that isn’t the reality they decided to go with. It’s fascinating to consider. But as Lucas from Empire Records once said, “Always play with their minds.” Nolan would go on to praise William’s work in Insomnia further, saying, “I wound up watching the film hundreds of times as we cut it, and I never hit that point with the performance where you start to see the acting. Most performances, at a point, bits start to peel off and away…but with Robin’s, he was very much in that character. Not that he’s a very dark person to work with- he’s very lively and friendly and amusing to work with. He really found something within himself. I think it’s a very underrated bit of work on his part.”

Hillary Swank was cast as Detective Ellie Burr, who idolized Dormer’s work and was eager to get her chance to affect the world in the same way. Her character in the end would use all she learned from Dormer to realize that he was indeed the one to shoot his partner and the final conduit for Dormer to finally receive a cathartic release for his guilt, telling her not to “lose her way” by throwing out the evidence, though she knew it was an accident. And though it was the last moment of his life, he was finally able to get some sleep, his soul finally unburdened.

It was this guilt that was the main theme of Insomnia and the reason that if you wanted to you could watch the film under the spell that its killer was simply a figment of Dormer’s imagination. Watching such a talented actor as Pacino in his bag of goods, playing a character being broken to the very core by his guilt and lack of sleep is something to behold and by all accounts the main story at play here. Nolan himself said, “To me, the film is about responses to guilt and you’ve got two characters who deal with guilt in opposite ways. In fact, that’s what makes the relationship between them quite interesting.” On the lack of sleep front, Soderbergh was quoted as saying that was the most difficult task in making the film, saying, “The biggest challenge in a movie like this is creating the impression of fatigue and what it means to be tired without making the audience tired. You have to come up with some interesting visual ways to suggest that state of mind without lulling people into some stupor” Which, Insomnia did in spades using fragmented editing, up close camera shots, and the acting talents of Al Pacino. Yeah, I know, I know. You get it. I love Al Pacino.

The sunlight and setting played as important a role as Pacino, Williams, or Swank. The sun becomes an unrelenting metaphor for Dormer’s guilt and his inability to escape his current situation. The setting of Alaska (though mostly filmed in British Columbia), framed beautifully by Christopher Nolan’s right-hand man Wally Pfister, provides the ambiance for multiple memorable moments. From the plane ride at the beginning of the movie to a chase scene that ends with Dormer trapped in the water under a series of logs smashing together violently, to the famous and aforementioned fog scene. Pfister and Nolan also used the sun to their advantage in terms of cinematography with Nolan noting “We wanted to make a very dark film that had ever-present light.” Amidst all the beautiful settings, cinematography, metaphors, and intrigue…we were still treated to one-of-a-kind moments and one-liners like this one between Pacino and Williams: “You’re about as mysterious to me as a blocked toilet is to a plumber.”

So, Nolan had his cast, his cinematographer, his locations, and the wind at his back. But he still didn’t have the full trust of the studio. Who put him through multiple test screenings and even made him film an ending where Pacino’s character lived. Nolan explained “Probably the trickiest thing with Insomnia was we had to shoot two endings. I changed the (original) ending actually at Steven’s suggestion. He said to me, ‘He should die at the end and then it is like a John Ford film’. And I thought ‘yeah, that makes a lot of sense’. The whole thing becomes much more about the man’s interior and ethical journey. The studio was not happy about this. And so, they made me promise to shoot it both ways. And I did shoot it both ways. Pacino was not happy about it. But basically, I said to him ‘Look, I gave them my word I would do it’…and he respected that.”

Warner Bros never even as much as asked to see the other ending and Nolan never even edited it together. But the test screeners were still a pest for Nolan who said, “First Alcon, then Warner Bros made us test it. I haven’t done it since, but that is where they literally write you a book of how to fix your films, and it’s a brutal process. We had to do it three or four times over many months and it was a very, very stressful process of being almost pitted against the audience in a way, which is not what filmmaking is.”

Regardless, the film would be released on May 24^th, 2002 to the tune of 114 million worldwide (on a 46 million dollar budget). The reviews were overall outstanding, the director of the original was pleased, and all was right with the world. Nolan specifically calls it his most underrated film, saying “I’m very proud of the film. I think, of all my films, it’s probably the most underrated….That’s not really for me to say, but every now and again I meet a filmmaker and that’s actually the film that they’re interested in or want to talk about.” He also goes on to say that the film was one of the best-reviewed of his entire career at the time, which “helped a lot”. Which, it clearly did considering Warner Bros. trusted him enough to hand him the keys to the Batman universe afterwards…..and we all know how that turned out.

As far as why Insomnia feels underrated when you look at Nolan’s filmography? It’s hard to say. Nolan thinks it may be because it wasn’t genre-changing enough, saying, “Of all the films I’ve made, it sits the most squarely or comfortably within the genre that I was trying to make it in. It doesn’t really change the genre, and that’s what people have come to expect from the other films I’ve made. But I think the film holds up very well.” And I would agree. Insomnia is one of those movies that you kind of forget exists for whatever reason but then get really excited to watch it when it creeps through the fog and back into your brain again. And that, my friends, is just WTF happened to Insomnia. Thanks for watching and remember to catch Christopher Nolan’s Toasted Cheddar Chalupa, in theaters this Summer.

Steve Buscemi was randomly attacked in New York City, the latest in an odd and violent string of assaults on celebrities.

In a random and brutal moment, actor Steve Buscemi was attacked on the streets of New York City, with a man blindsiding him with a punch to the face. According to the New York Post, Buscemi was taken to the hospital and suffered bruisings. The assailant has yet to be caught.

According to his publicist (as per the New York Post), “Steve Buscemi was assaulted in Mid-Town Manhattan, another victim of a random act of violence in the city…He is ok and appreciates everyone’s well wishes, though incredibly sad for everyone that this has happened to while also walking the streets of New York.”

As you can imagine, fans of Steve Buscemi and those within the industry have come to the actor’s defense, saying it is an outrage that such an occurrence would even happen. Let’s also not forget that in addition to being a beloved presence on both the big and small screens, Steve Buscemi has been a pillar of the community, working as a firefighter for the New York City Fire Department in the ‘80s and volunteering in the aftermath of 9/11 for his former house.

The B-movie star has a new, but untitled, action film developing with the Icelandic director of 2 Guns and Everest.

Jason Statham is someone who is admirably unpretentious and genuinely grateful for his success, and within that, he has a definite preference of films that can predominantly define his career. Earlier this year, Statham was seen in The Beekeeper, a seemingly usual action B-movie fare with the star, but the movie from Suicide Squad director David Ayer would throw in some bold conceptual curve balls to the normal vengeance tale. Deadline has now reported that Statham will be working with director Baltasar Kormákur for his next action film.

Kormákur’s resume features such credits as Contraband, 2 Guns, Everest and the recent Idris Elba lion attack film, Beast. According to Deadline, “In the currently untitled pic, Statham will play Mason who lives in isolation in a remote Scottish island. When he rescues a young girl from the ocean in a terrible storm, he sets a chain of events in motion that brings a violent attack to his hideaway, forcing him back into the world to confront the ghosts of his past.” The movie will come from the company Black Bear and they will be introducing the film to buyers this week in Cannes and co-representing the U.S. rights alongside Range Select.

Ward Perry penned the script to the film. The producers on board will include Statham, who has produced Levon’s Trade, for Punch Palace Productions, Kormákur for RVK Studios, John Friedberg, who worked on the recent Guy Ritchie film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, for Black Bear and Jon Berg, whose credits include Wonder Woman, and Greg Silverman, who is the former President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production for Warner Bros. They are all producing the movie for Stampede Ventures, who developed the film. Teddy Schwarzman and Michael Heimler are also on board to serve as executive producers for Black Bear.

The production of the untitled action film is scheduled to commence in November in the UK and Kormákur’s native Iceland. Production services and filming will take place at Kormákur’s RVK Studios facility in Reykjavik.

There hasn’t been confirmation yet, but Staham has also been set up in the last Fast & Furious movie to appear in the next installment as his character, Deckard Shaw, has been shown to gear up for a mission that involves Jason Momoa’s Dante and his ties to the Shaw mother played by Helen Mirren. He also recently signed on for the action-thriller Mutiny from Plane director Jean-Francois Richet, in addition to his upcoming re-team with Beekeeper director David Ayer for Levon’s Trade, which is written by Sylvester Stallone.

About the Author

E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.

Woke cinema is a topic that’s become increasingly divisive among film fans. Why the controversy? In this video we take a deep dive.

In this new ongoing series, a revival of our old C’Mon Hollywood op-eds, we will examine the current political climate surrounding all things “woke” when it comes to the cinematic arts. Are Hollywood studios pushing an agenda or is this idea overblown? Is this creating a division among us peasants? Is it even possible to critique or watch a film without politics coming into play anymore? 

Our hot shot team of dedicated researchers may have found out that things might not be so black and white… Pun intended? Who knows anymore?! It is an exciting and scary time to be making and watching movies but that type of chaotic environment allows this medium to experiment and grow. Controversy can always inspire conversation and that’s what we are hoping to do with this new show. 

So what’s all the fuss about?

I believe it was the Disney+ flick Peter & Wendy that responded with a “So!?” when asked why The Lost Boys were not exactly Boys. And I believe it was South Park’s Cartman who, while poking fun at Kathleen Kennedy said, “Put a chick in it and make her lame and gay.” Sooooo…. What did she mean by “So?” and what did Cartman mean by “Put a chick in it and make her lame and gay.’? I don’t exactly understand all of that but do I understand LAME. Trust me, I identify as lame.

Like it or not, in the minds of many, the definition of “woke” has changed to mean “lame”. It used to be cool. “Stay woke” was seen as a battle cry to fight injustice and bring equality to the people. But the phrase got overused to the point of parody and social justice morphed into a business and even almost a religion. Wokeness began with the best of intentions but evolved/mutated/transitioned into something well…lame. The definition of the word lame is “uninspiring and dull”. That is what many of these new films and characters have been feeling like… uninspiring and dull. Unfortunately, many of these new dull sources of art and entertainment fall under the category of “Woke”. This unfortunately creates a connection in our collective minds that “woke” content equals “lame” content. This word “lame” also means “unable to walk without difficulty” which is what’s happening to Disney and other studios, who seem to be doubling down on the pandering of “wokeness” in their content, rather than quality entertainment. 

Good woke vs bad woke

Context is key when a film is labelled “woke” and it depends on who is doing the labelling and if the movie is good or not. “Lame Wokeness” is very forgivable when the film offers other “cool” cinematic aspects. You got Good Woke, Bad Woke and Ugly Woke and somehow the Good Woke is overshadowed by the abundance of Bad Ugly Woke… which is lame…. and confusing… but that’s why we are trying our best to tackle these issues. Cinema is still a relatively new tool for artistic expression and we are still making mistakes when it comes to how to tell the best story in the most effective way possible. This new call to arms for our content to be more woke or less woke is the next frontier to explore and who knows what we will find in this new wild west of wokeness. 

At first, “Woke Cinema” was all about telling new stories from new points of view from people who may not have had their stories told in the past due to actual hate and discrimination and racism or sexism or any-ism you wanna ism. But maybe those good intentions went too far, lost focus and began to feel forced, done out of fear and almost hateful themselves; potentially creating enemies out of lifelong allies and supporters. Was it intentional or an accident? Is this argument overblown?

Future episodes

Of course, this is a big topic and in this video, we’re only scratching the surface. This debate has been raging on for a long time now, and likely won’t cease anytime soon. If there’s something about the topic you’d like us to cover, or maybe you even have a counter-point, make sure to let us know in the comments! In the meantime, please check out the video above and let us know what you think!

Labyrinth star Jennifer Connelly fondly remembered working with Jim Henson on the film, which she says remains “special.”

You remind me of the babe? What babe? The babe with the massive cult following! Nearly 40 years since its release, Labyrinth has endured as one of the most beloved fantasy movies ever. While it was a flop at the box office, the movie would go on to embody so much of what makes the genre what it is, not to mention it being a charming – and sometimes frightening – representation of the brilliance of cinematic puppetry.

Like so many of our favorite movies, when it comes down to it, the box office numbers never mattered. That’s definitely the case with Labyrinth, which took in just under $13 million domestically on a budget reportedly around double that. Jennifer Connelly remembered “hearing rumblings” of it being poorly attended at the multiplex but that it eventually found its fandom. “People’s affection has grown over the years. People talk to me about it in a way that seems outsized to the response when it was first released.”

Connelly had already worked with iconic directors like Sergio Leone (Once Upon a Time in America) and Dario Argento (Phenomena) but collaborating with Jim Henson was a completely unique experience for her. “Jim was a genius. And we don’t really make movies like that anymore. All those practical, wonderful puppets working together on those beautifully crafted sets. It feels different than the way we make a lot of films now; it feels kind of special.”

Indeed, Labyrinth is special. In a time when practical effects and puppetry is few and far between, it’s films like Labyrinth – and any others that seek to honor the artistry – that stand out. Really, how fantastic are the designs of Hoggle, Ludo, the Fierys, and pretty much every other character inside of the titular maze?

Sequel discussion for Labyrinth has been around for several years now, with Brian Henson saying as recently as this winter that it was still a possibility. Although The Dark Crystal’s TV continuation didn’t stick, the fanbase for a similar approach to Labyrinth could prove successful.

What is your favorite scene from Labyrinth? Which character design and set stands out the most to you? Let us know in the comments section below!

The neo-horror film with an interesting premise has now released a poster showcasing a possibly rabid Amy Adams.

Amy Adams has been in development with Nightbitch for over a year, but details have now started to surface as the neo-horror film has recently released a new poster from Searchlight Pictures. The film has been written and directed by Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Nightbitch is based on a novel by Rachel Yoder. The film will tell the story of “a suburban mom thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler. As she embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a dog.”

Adams plays that possibly canine housewife. Scoot McNairy (Monsters) is also in the cast, playing her “oft-traveling husband,” while Mary Holland, who is best known for appearing in the Netflix release Senior Year and for co-writing and co-starring in Clea DuVall’s romantic comedy Happiest Season, takes on an unspecified role. The cast will also include Arleigh Patrick Snowden, Emmett James Snowden, Zoë Chao, Archana Rajan and Jessica Harper.

Coming to us from Searchlight Pictures and Annapurna, Nightbitch is produced by Heller, Adams, Anne Carey, Stacy O’Neil, Christina Oh, and Sue Naegle. Sammy Scher and Havilah Brewster serve as executive producers.

Yoder’s novel (pick up a copy HERE) has the following description: 
“One day, the mother was a mother, but then one night, she was quite suddenly something else… An ambitious mother puts her art career on hold to stay at home with her newborn son, but the experience does not match her imagination. Two years later, she steps into the bathroom for a break from her toddler’s demands, only to discover a dense patch of hair on the back of her neck. In the mirror, her canines suddenly look sharper than she remembers. Her husband, who travels for work five days a week, casually dismisses her fears from faraway hotel rooms. As the mother’s symptoms intensify, and her temptation to give in to her new dog impulses peak, she struggles to keep her alter-canine-identity secret. Seeking a cure at the library, she discovers the mysterious academic tome which becomes her bible, A Field Guide to Magical Women: A Mythical Ethnography, and meets a group of mommies involved in a multilevel-marketing scheme who may also be more than what they seem. An outrageously original novel of ideas about art, power, and womanhood wrapped in a satirical fairy tale, Nightbitch will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. And you should. You should howl as much as you want.”

The film was originally slated for December 6, but the poster reveals that it will move up to sometime in the fall.

After underperforming theatrically, the well-reviewed prequel to The Omen, The First Omen, will make a streaming debut on Hulu.

Despite pretty good reviews (including ours), The First Omen underperformed dramatically at the box office this winter. It was meant to reignite The Omen franchise. Still, with a domestic total of just under $20 million, it seems unlikely it succeeded in this goal (although it made an additional $30 million overseas). Initially, The First Omen was intended to be released directly to streaming via Hulu before getting a theatrical bow, and now it’s finally making its way to the service. The movie is set to come out on Hulu on May 30th, only two days after its PVOD release on May 28th.

Notably, the film will be released on physical media, with a Blu-ray and DVD release set for July 30th. That’s a departure for Disney, who produced the film, as their horror breakout hit Barbarian has yet to come out on Blu-ray or DVD.

The First Omen served as a prequel to the Omen saga and starred Nell Tiger Free (of the Apple TV series Servant) as Margaret, a noviciate sent to Rome where she’s put to work in an orphanage before taking her vows. Once there, she’s approached by a defrocked priest, Ralph Ineson’s Father Brennan (who just signed on to play Galactus in Fantastic Four) and warned about a sinister conspiracy in the church revolving around a plot to produce the anti-Christ. It was meant to be an origin story for Damien, although the film made a small (but important) change to his origin, which made it controversial among fans.

While it didn’t set the world on fire in theaters, there’s a good chance The First Omen will find a more receptive audience once it hits streaming, where it was originally supposed to debut. If you missed The First Omen in theaters, will you be giving it a chance on streaming?

Final Destination: Bloodlines, the sixth film in the series, has officially wrapped filming. What else do we know about it?

Earlier this month, an image cinematographer Christian Sebaldt shared on Instagram indicated that Final Destination 6 (which is going by the title Final Destination: Bloodlines) was finally, after years of development and a thirteen-year gap between sequels, heading into production. The next day, producer Craig Perry took to social media to confirm that Final Destination: Bloodlines is indeed filming, the aim being to get this one into theatres in 2025 – in time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the original film. Now, it’s been revealed that the long anticipated sequel has officially wrapped principal photography. Once again, the announcement came courtesy of Perry. The film stars Brec Bassinger (Stargirl), Teo Briones, Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Richard Harmon, Anna Lore, Owen Patrick Joyner, Max Lloyd-Jones, Rya Kihlstedt, and Tinpo Lee. It also features the return of Tony Todd in his iconic role as William Budworth, who was in the first, second and fifth films.

What is Final Destination: Bloodlines about?

According to entertainment industry scooper Daniel Richtman, Final Destination: Bloodlines has the following synopsis: Just as she’s about to leave home for college, 18-year-old STEFANI, who’s been having horrific nightmares about dying in a tower accident in the 1960s, discovers that her dream is actually a premonition that happened to her grandmother, Esther, who thwarted death fifty years ago but is now running out of time. Stefani learns that though her grandmother thwarted Death (until she died in her 80s), and Death has been going after the would-have-been victims of that long-ago catastrophe, killing them off and then going after their children. Stefani and her family realize that their bloodline isn’t safe from Death, who will take them violently and gruesomely, in order, unless someone like Stefani figures out a way to stop it.

Jon Watts, director of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far from Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, is producing the film with Perry, Dianne McGunigle, and Sheila Hanahan Taylor. Watts also wrote the initial treatment, which was fleshed out into a screenplay by Lori Evans Taylor and Guy Busick. The directing duo of Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, who previously directed the 2018 film Freaks (starring Emile Hirsch and Bruce Dern) and the 2019 live-action Kim Possible movie, are at the helm. I

Are you looking forward to Final Destination 6 / Final Destination: Bloodlines? What do you think of the cast that has been assembled for the film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The Shrouds teaser trailer paints a warped picture of David Cronenberg’s latest thriller about keeping tabs on the dead in real-time.

Vincent Cassel and David Cronenberg are getting the band back together for The Shrouds, a disturbing meditation about grief, making peace with death, and watching your loved ones decompose in real time. Yeah, you heard me. The Shrouds teaser trailer offers a brief glimpse at Cronenberg’s next mind-bending thriller and the filmmaker’s first project with Cassel since teaming up for Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method. According to Cronenberg, The Shrouds is a personal project for him, with parts of the story being autobiographical.

In The Shrouds, Vincent Cassell takes on the role of Karsh, “an innovative businessman and grieving widower, who builds a novel device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud. This burial tool installed at his own state-of-the-art though controversial cemetery allows him and his clients to watch their specific departed loved one decompose in real time. Karsh’s revolutionary business is on the verge of breaking into the international mainstream when several graves within his cemetery are vandalized and nearly destroyed, including that of his wife. While he struggles to uncover a clear motive for the attack, the mystery of who wrought this havoc, and why, drive him to reevaluate his business, marriage and fidelity to his late wife’s memory, as well as push him to new beginnings.”

Diane Kruger (National Treasure, Inglorious Basterds, In the Fade), Guy Pearce (Memento, The Hurt Locker), Sandrine Holt (Homeland, House of Cards), Al Sapienza (The Sopranos, Reacher), Elizabeth Saunders (From, Mary Kills People), and Jennifer Dale (Coroner, Into Invisible Light) join the cast as primary players.

In The Shrouds teaser trailer, Cassel’s Karsh contemplates the art of seduction alongside Diane Kruger’s Becca. After Karsh discovers his cemetery is vandalized and the party responsible could be tracking him, he takes a mysterious black suit out of storage. A montage of quick cuts from the film follows, with Cassel and Karsh sharing knowing glances as Karsh contemplates his next move.

My mom told me David Cronenberg is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get. That’s precisely how I feel about The Shrouds teaser trailer. How about you? In the comments section below, let us know what you think about David Cronenberg’s latest film.

About the Author

Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He started with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, before launching the companion YouTube series Animation Movies Revisited. He’s also the host of the Talking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio show focusing on comic books, film, music, and more. You’ll rarely catch him without headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.