Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was a show that divided fans when it premiered in 1993 but it has since grown to have a massive cult following.

I love Star Trek. It’s one of the most unique fandoms since it features multiple different properties in the same universe. Don’t get me wrong, I love Star Wars, but something about Star Trek that raises it to another level. There are so many shows that are unique in their own way. You have Star Trek T.O.S, Star Trek The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Star Trek: Picard. 

The point is that there is something for everyone. Fans are a little bit less toxic than other fandoms. My theory is that because there are so many shows there is at least one show that everyone can agree is good.   So if someone were to, let’s say, hate Prodigy, they may like Lower Decks, or maybe they think Next Generation is the only good Star Trek show. But because there are so many series, there is a better chance to link the fan love. I have met many Trekkers in my life, and I have yet to meet someone with whom I have nothing in common. 

One Star Trek show that I loved that tended to divide fans was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In it, Avery Brooks starred as Commander Benjamin Sisco. Unlike other Trek main characters, he wasn’t a captain. Rather, he was a commander struggling with grief (and rage) after his wife was killed in an attack orchestrated by none other than Captain Picard when the Borg assimilated him as Locutus. The show centred partly around him being a single parent to his son, Jake, as well as his adventures commanding Deep Space Nine. It had a tremendous cast of characters, including René Auberjonois as the shape-shifter, Odo, Nana Vistor as Bajoran resistance veteran, Kira, Terry Farrell as Jadzia Dax, Alexander Siddig as Dr. Julian Bashir, Armin Shimerman’s Quark, and many more. It even had some TNG holdovers like Colm Meaney as Chief O’Brien, and (later) Michael Dorn’s Worf.

I adored this show; maybe it was because it broke all the rules. It wasn’t about a ship; they didn’t go out looking for adventure. Instead, adventure came to them. There was more emphasis on characters than techno babble. It was Star Trek Noir, and I loved almost every episode. But does it still hold up? Or am I under some alien virus? 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was created by the late Michael Piller and Rick Berman. Both of them have had long careers in the Star Trek universe. Rick Berman helped develop Star Trek: The Next Generation with Gene Roddenberry and Maurice Hurley. He was the man behind Star Trek for many years, creating not only Deep Space Nine but also the Voyager and Enterprise series. Berman is a controversial figure in the Star Trek franchise. I would go into this more, but that’s an entire article in itself. On the other hand, Michael Piller was a legend in the Star Trek community. He was head writer on Next Generation and would eventually become a showrunner. Many have said that Piller was responsible for the success of Next Generation when he got the position. Again, if I went over Piller’s Star Trek career, it would be another episode.

Anyway, during TNG,  Berman and Piller were approached by a network executive to create another Star Trek show to air while TNG was still going. Who was that executive? It was the myth, the legend, Brandon Tartikoff 

Many viewers of Gone But Not Forgotten know who Brandon Tartikoff is because he was the man behind amazing shows like Night Court, Knight Rider, Miami Vice, and many more. Deep Space Nine is yet another feather in this man’s cap. When it came to DS9, Tartikoff had one order. This new show would not revolve around another starship exploring the universe; it would be a new kind of Star Trek show, and the adventures would be stationary. According to the season 2 DVD special feature  “New Frontiers: The Story of Deep Space Nine,” the original idea that was batted around was to have the show based on a colony or planet. But shooting on location would have been too expensive, plus fans wanted to see a show in space, not a planet. So it was decided the series would take place on a space station. In the beginning, Star Trek was pitched as a space western like Wagon Trail. So since Deep Space Nine was a space station, it would be more like an Old Western town, evoking shows like the classic 1958 Western series The Rifleman. 

In this video, which is embedded above, we dig into how DS9 wasn’t immediately adored by fans, and how it was rife with behind-the-scene turmoil, with poor ratings bringing it to a premature end. However, we also dig into how good the show became at a certain point during its run, and why it’s a huge favorite of Trek fans all these years later.

After an underwhelming run at the box office, Radio Silence’s Abigail is set for an early VOD release.

Despite largely positive reviews (including ours) and good buzz from horror fans, the vampire ballerina horror flick Abigail didn’t find much of an audience when it opened in theaters last month. As of yesterday, the film has only grossed about $22.7 million domestically, and now, only two weeks (and change) since it opened, Universal is giving it a premium VOD release. Starting tomorrow, you can buy it (for $24.99) or rent it ($19.99) from most digital retailers. It will likely also be out on Universal’s Peacock streaming service before long.

Yesterday, in my weekend box office report, I mentioned that one of the reasons a movie like The Fall Guy had such an underwhelming result at the box office this weekend was due to shrinking home media windows. Abigail only opened on April 19th, meaning it’s getting a VOD release in not even three weeks since its theatrical debut, which is a TINY window. Why should people be expected to shell out cash when they know they can pretty much own a copy of the film for the same price it would have cost them to see it in a premium theatre?

Of course, horror fans can usually be relied upon to see a film in theaters, even if it’s a day-and-date release. A simultaneous release on Peacock certainly didn’t hurt Five Nights at Freddy’s last year. Maybe there was just something about Abigail that didn’t speak to the horror community. Whatever the case, Radio Silence’s (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) ultra-gory vampire flick may well find a cult following now that it’s hitting home media. In it, a group of would-be criminals kidnap a 12-year-old ballerina to extort her obscenely wealthy father. Naturally, she turns out to be a vampire. 

The film stars Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Alisha Weir and many others. You can check out our interviews with the whole gang right here!

Did you miss Abigail in theaters, and will you be checking it out on VOD? Let us know in the comments!

Harka director, Lotfy Nathan, will be helming a controversial vision of the Gospel of Thomas for his new horror movie.

The Nicolas Cage resurgence as of late has interestingly mostly found him in more abstract kinds of films as opposed to his more commercially appealing blockbusters of yesteryear. While many have pined for a National Treasure 3, Cage has been partaking in indie films like Pig, Mandy and Dream Scenario. However, he would also mix in a couple mass audience projects like The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and Renfield. Deadline has now reported that Cage is set to star in The Carpenter’s Son, a horror tale that’s based on the rarely-told childhood of Jesus Christ.

The official synopsis for The Carpenter’s Son reads,
“The Carpenter’s Son tells the dark story of a family hiding out in Roman Egypt. The son, known only as ‘the Boy’, is driven to doubt by another mysterious child and rebels against his guardian, the Carpenter, revealing inherent powers and a fate beyond his comprehension. As he exercises his own power, the Boy and his family become the target of horrors, natural and divine.”

Cage is set to star alongside FKA Twigs, who will be seen in the upcoming remake of The Crow, as well as Noah Jupe and Souheila Yacoub. The movie will be helmed by Egyptian-American director Lotfy Nathan. Per Deadline, “Nathan has taken inspiration from the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas for the screenplay. Dating back to the 2nd Century AD, the text recounts the childhood of Jesus.” The film is set to film this summer with Cage playing the titular Carpenter, Twigs as the Mother, Jupe will be playing the Boy and Yacoub’s role has yet to have been announced.

Meanwhile, Cage has been rumored to return with John Travolta for a sequel to Face/Off, in which he explained, “I think Face/Off is a sequel that lends itself to a lot of twists and turns and unpredictability. It’s almost like if you factor in the idea of offspring and Castor and Sean having children and these children grow up, then it becomes like three-dimensional chess, and then it’s not just the two, John Travolta and myself, it’s four of us ping-ponging and going at different levels, and it becomes even more complex. I think there’s a lot of fertile ground there. I had maybe one meeting in an office, but I haven’t heard anything since, so I don’t know.“

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.

Australian genre director Sean Byrne is making his return to horror with the shark-serial killer flick, Dangerous Animals.

If, by chance, you’ve never heard of Australian genre director Sean Byrne, you need to remedy that fact right away. While far from a household name, Byrne directed two of the best horror movies of the last twenty years – The Loved Ones in 2009 and The Devil’s Candy in 2015. The Loved Ones, in particular, is a gem, with star Robin McLeavy’s performance as high school stalker Lola, being one of the most memorable horror baddies in recent memory.

And now, it looks like Byrne is finally directing another film, with Variety revealing that he’s set to direct the horror flick Dangerous Animals, which stars Hassie Harrison (the Yellowstone girl who caused a major bunkhouse feud a few seasons back), Jai Courtney, and Josh Heuston. 

Here’s what Variety has to say about the project:

Written by Nick Lepard, “Dangerous Animals” exhibits the same play with genre tropes of “The Devil’s Candy,” a classic horror thrill ride which unspools to the sounds of heavy metal. In “Dangerous Animals,” Zephyr (Harrison), described as a savvy and free-spirited surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer (Courtney). “Held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below. The only person who realizes she is missing is new love interest Moses (Hueston), who goes looking for Zephyr, only to be caught by the deranged murderer as well.” 

This sounds like a pretty radical film, with a standout quote in the piece coming from producer David Garrett, whose company Mister Smith, is financing the film. He says, “in a clever melding of the serial killer and shark movie genres, it makes the shark look like the nice guy.” 

That’s music to my ears, because if Byrne’s known for anything, it’s his diabolical villains. Jai Courtney got a lot of flack in his early Hollywood days when he was typecast as a wooden leading man in movies like A Good Day to Die Hard and Terminator Genisys. Yet, he was pretty great as Captain Boomerang in Suicide Squad, so I could easily imagine him nailing a role like this.

Are you excited Sean Byrne’s making a new movie? Let us know in the comments!

Our first official look at David Corenswet in costume as the Man of Steel has been revealed.

Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane – no it’s David Corenswet in our first official look at the actor in full Superman regalia! DC just posted the pic to social media along with the tease, “get ready”, and its official July 11th, 2025 release date. As you can see from the above pic, Corenswet’s Man of Steel seems to be a bit battle-worn, with his costume looking like it went through a bit of a beating. Metropolis is visible behind him, as well as some chaos in the sky, prompting our hero to do something we’ve never really seen him do in a movie so far – suit up!

Indeed, the classic way for Superman to get ready is to spin around in a circle or dive into a phone booth. Here, Corenswet’s version of the character seems to be in a more pensive mood as he suits up, perhaps teasing a somewhat more cerebral take on the Man of Steel?

Well, I wouldn’t count on it. If anything, Gunn seems to be going for a slightly retro look, with Superman’s insignia highly reminiscent of the one from the classic Max Fleischer cartoons from the 40s. Corenswet’s taking the role over from Henry Cavill, who was controversially replaced when James Gunn and Peter Safran took the reins of DC Films from WB. The two have greenlit a whole slew of movies and series, although certainly their first movie, Superman, is make or break as far as the new legacy of movies go. I wouldn’t bet against Gunn, though. Let’s not forget that his Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was one of the few films last year to beat the dreaded “superhero fatigue” we’ve all been hearing about, so if anyone can make a good, modern Superman movie, it’s him.

In addition to Corenswet, the film co-stars Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Nathan Fillion as The Green Lantern, Nicolas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, and many more. 

Here’s a full-length shot of Corenswet in his super suit:

What do you think of the Superman costume? Let us know in the comments!

We talk with Wes Ball, Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and Wes Ball about The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Matt Reeves did wonders with the Apes. The filmmakers’ Planet of the Apes trilogy created a fantastical world that was surprisingly rich and beautifully crafted. With that, it was difficult to imagine another director taking on this exciting series. Enter Wes Ball. Coming off of the popular Maze Runner franchise, Ball has successfully continued the already impressive world with his latest, The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. The film offers a fresh faced cast that includes, Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy. It is a bold sequel that continues what Reeves started with a smart and satisfying new story (which is getting great buzz).

Last Wednesday, I took a drive to the idyllic and incredibly peaceful Descanso Gardens in La Canada-Flintridge. It was a perfect day to get close to nature, and yes, talk about Apes. First up, I met a new friend, a hawk named Jasper. Did I mention it was also a perfect day for Falconry? After that incredible experience, one where I couldn’t resist the beauty of this incredible bird, I continued on my day.

The first interview was the wonderful Kevin Durand and Peter Macon. It was one of the easiest interviews I’ve ever done as the the two just told me these amazing stories about becoming Apes. Having interviewed Kevin recently for his excellent work in Abigail, it was fantastic to chat with him again. Right after speaking with these two, I sat down with both Owen Teague and Freya Allan. The two were incredibly charming, and they opened up about being a part of this legendary series.

To finish the day up, we talked with director Wes Ball. It was clear that bringing life to The Maze Runner prepared Mr. Ball for yet another franchise. He discussed taking on after what Reeves brought us, and the casting of this latest installment. It was a delightful conversation, but one could not end an Apes junket without learning how to become an “ape.” The final trip of the day included a conversation with Movement Coordinator/Choreographer Alain Gauthier. And yes, I try my best to learn to walk the walk. Luckily, Mr. Owen Teague made a brief cameo to help us out.

The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is heading to theatres this weekend, and it’s a sequel that manages to live up to the beauty of what came before.

Genre master John Carpenter really took to directing remotely when he worked on his namesake Suburban Screams series.

John Carpenter has always been full of surprises, but it’s especially so as a septuagenarian. Through interviews, we know that the man loves video games and basketball, ideally enjoying both in the comfort of his own home. But this has extended into something we would expect most filmmakers to hate: directing remotely. But John Carpenter and remote directing got along just fine when he took on the season finale of Suburban Screams from the confines of his home.

Speaking on the Last Donut of the Night podcast, John Carpenter said that directing“Phone Stalker” was a breeze and one of the most convenient jobs he could imagine, calling the experience “fabulous. Just fabulous. I didn’t have to get up and leave the house. I could get coffee any time I wanted. I had a chair to sit in. It went great.” As far as having that necessary interaction with his cast and crew, he noted, “It was easy, because the computer was right next to me.”

John Carpenter hasn’t directed a movie in well over a decade and he hasn’t taken to television directing since the Masters of Horror anthology nearly 20 years ago. But he has remained a vital – if sometimes curt – voice in the industry. While he has discussed stepping behind the camera once more, that does leave us to wonder, will he be on set or has remote directing taken him over like The Thing?

No doubt this style of directing gave John Carpenter a fresh way to work on a project, something some filmmakers adapted to during the Covid era. As he previously told The Los Angeles Times, “I remote-directed it, which was fun. That’s the way I’m going to do it now. I’m too old to run around, stomping around…I [directed from] a chair in the front room where I play video games, where I watch basketball and watch the news. It was all set up so the big screen TV has the [live camera feed] through the lens. That’s all in Prague, coming to you right here in L.A.”

How do you feel about John Carpenter praising remote directing? Is this something you could see him finishing up his career with or should he be on set?

I Saw the TV Glow is ambitious, surreal and experimental – perhaps too much so as it occasionally, becomes tedious to watch.

PLOT: An awkward teen (Justice Smith) and his friend (Brigette Lundy-Paine) become obsessed with a teen drama called The Pink Opaque. But, years after it gets cancelled, the lines between reality and fiction start to blur as they begin to wonder if perhaps they are part of the show they love.

REVIEW: I Saw the TV Glow seems bound to be a conversation starter for horror fans once A24 puts it out later this year. By design, it’s a movie that’s meant to be dissected, with it defying genre expectations to the point that, for some folks, this will be a genuinely tedious experience. At the same time, others will love director Jane Schoenbrun’s stab at what the Sundance programmers have called “emo-horror.”

I’m sorry to say that I found this a difficult sit, as within ten minutes, I was looking at my watch and realizing that I was in for a bit of a long haul. I like elevated horror as much as the next person, but this is so experimental that it feels like a half-baked attempt at a genre version of Inland Empire-era David Lynch. 

Essentially an allegorical tale examining, among other things, trans identity, the film revolves around a misfit teen who is drawn to an older girl at his school who turns him on to a cheap and cheesy Nickelodeon-style Buffy rip-off called The Pink Opaque. Both become obsessed with the show, but as time and reality start to blur, with years going by like minutes, they begin to wonder whether or not they might actually be a part of the show. Schoenbrun never spells out whether this is real or just something in their heads, but it’s a surreal headtrip of a movie, anchored by two earnest performances.

While the nearly thirty-year-old leads, Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Bill & Ted Face the Music), initially seem ludicrously cast as ninth graders, Schoenbrun’s choice makes more sense as the film progresses. One cannot fault the acting, with both leads throwing themselves into complex parts, but Schoenbrun also seems hellbent on defying any expectations relating to the genre. As such, it’s a horror movie without any horror. Highly experimental and much more an art film than the early buzz suggests (it’s a little too obtuse to work in the Sundance Midnight section and would have been better served in the experimental NEXT section), I can see this splitting audiences significantly. It seems bound to be the type of movie that tops both “best of” and “worst of” lists at the end of the year, and one has to give Schoenbrun credit for being true to their own voice – even if – again, I’ll freely admit that I didn’t “get it.”

But, while I was shifting in my seat and looking at my watch more than I expected here, I’ll admit there are elements of the film that work. Visually, it’s pretty stunning, with it set in the nineties-2000s and embracing a retro aesthetic that bathes the film in rich neons. The score by lo-fi artist Alex G is also highly effective, with the film even stopping for a few rather well-shot musical numbers that give the movie a sometimes pleasant dreamlike aesthetic. One also can’t fault Smith or Lundy-Paine, although the great Danielle Deadwyler was wasted in a throwaway role as Smith’s mother. The recreations of nineties-era tween shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark are also amusingly done. 

If anything, I’ll admit that I Saw the TV Glow might be ripe for revisiting. As much as I disliked the experience of watching this, I couldn’t help but wonder what I might have thought if I had my trusty weed vape nearby and was maybe nibbling on a magic mushroom or two. As such, this (pretty negative) review comes with the caveat that if I end up watching the film again, with perhaps the help of some modest psychedelics, I might change my mind about it. 

Vin Diesel returns to another franchise. His space convict character will suit up for production in August.

Whenever Vin Diesel wants to get away from family and live more than a quarter mile at a time, he revisits his other franchises. Diesel, an unapologetic sci-fi nerd, has always had a soft spot for his space anti-hero character, Riddick. Diesel will be following up on the previous entries with the upcoming Riddick: Furya. Deadline has now reported that this entry has just set its production start date on August 26th. This comes just as director Louis Leterrer confirmed that the eleventh Fast & Furious movie will not begin production until next year, which leaves Diesel open.

The plot of Riddick: Furya reads,
“Riddick finally returns to his home world, a place he barely remembers and one he fears might be left in ruins. But there he finds other Furyans fighting for their existence against a new monster. And some of these Furyans are more like Riddick than he could have ever imagined.” Riddick: Furya will also reunite Diesel with the series’ writer and director, David Twohy.

Diesel will star and produce under his One Race Films banner alongside Samantha Vincent. Thorsten Schumacher for Rocket Science and Lars Sylvest for Thank You Studios will also produce alongside Joe Neurauter.

Rocket Science represented the international sales rights and has completed worldwide cornerstone pre-sales to the UK (yet to be announced), France (Metropolitan), Germany (Leonine), Spain and Latin America (Sun), Benelux (The Searchers), Poland (Kinoswiat), Canada (Elevation), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Portugal (Lusomundo), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), South Africa (Empire), Greece (Femeway), Middle East (Front Row), CIS and Baltic States (Volga), Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech/Slovak, Republic Former Yugoslavia (ProRom), and Thailand (Sahamongkhol). CAA Media Finance is representing the North American rights.

Diesel teased art on his Instagram to build hype for the fans of his franchise. Pitch Black was a 2000 film that featured the character as part of an ensemble as they battled alien creatures that live in the dark. That was followed by the epic The Chronicles of Riddick, which underperformed at the box office in 2004, so they reduced the scope for the third film, Riddick, which was released in 2013. The franchise also includes an animated short called The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury and three video games, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, and Riddick: The Merc Files.

Diesel and Twohy have also talked about wanting to make TV shows set in the world of Riddick. One would center on the character Kyra, who was featured in Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, and the other would be called Merc City, as it would center on the mercenaries and bounty hunters of the franchise. These projects have never seemed to gain much traction, but maybe that will change if Riddick: Furya turns out to be a hit.

Starting on May 8th, Beatles fans will be able to view a huge missing part of their catalogue, the Let It Be documentary, on Disney Plus.

Hell truly has frozen over, with a movie many of us Beatlemaniacs never thought we’d see (through legal channels) getting an official release on Disney Plus. The movie, of course, is Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be. The film original came out theatrically in 1970 and coincided with the release of The Beatles’ final album of the same name. It followed the group as they recorded the titular album, and while it received a home video release in the 80s, it’s been buried ever since.

Rumours have always been that the surviving Beatles didn’t like how they were portrayed, with the documentary famously revealing the frayed tensions within the group that led to their split. As a fan, I thought it would stay buried, especially after the release of Peter Jackson’s epic-length Get Back, which used all the footage filmed for the Let It Be documentary and serves as kind of the last word on the band’s split in a way this documentary never could. That said, many of us fans hoped one day it would come out, and in the end, Peter Jackson championed the revival, stating that he felt it was the climax of his own Get Back project. He noted that his film provided the context that was missing in the original release, and it seems Paul McCartney agreed with him, with the film getting an exclusive Disney Plus bow, where it’s sure to be viewed by a massive audience.

Everyone always assumed that McCartney was the one blocking the release, but he once told Rolling Stone that not only wasn’t that the case, but that HE was the one advocating for it to come out again. “I keep bringing it up, and everyone goes, ‘Yeah, we should do that.’ The objection should be me. I don’t come off well.”

Certainly, Let It Be will look incredible on Disney Plus, with the notoriously ragged-looking doc getting the same AI-assisted remaster as Get Back. That movie made us feel like we were sitting in the studio right there alongside The Beatles, and while I’m not usually an advocate for things like this (note my coverage of James Cameron’s recent 4K releases), I’m down for this one in a big way.

Let It Be starts streaming on May 8th. Let us know in the comments if any other Beatlemaniacs out there will be giving it a watch.  Now, if only Jackson could get on a remaster of The Beatles Anthology and The Compleat Beatles. Then, all the missing pieces would truly be filled in.