John Carpenter and actor Keith Gordon have given their thoughts on the upcoming remake of 1983’s Christine.

Just as the titular 1958 Plymouth Fury took on a life of its own, so too will the upcoming remake of Christine. But that’s just fine by director John Carpenter, who is casually optimistic about the project – at least compared to his own experiences making the original.

When the topic of the Christine remake was brought up during an interview with Total Film, Carpenter said, “Oh boy…Well, good luck to him. It will probably be better.” Carpenter has never exactly been enthusiastic about the 1983 movie, having always considered Christine more of a for-hire flick since he was on the rebound from The Thing. “I needed a job, frankly…The Thing was my very first studio film. I was just diving in the pool here, and all of a sudden, WHAM. And getting fired off a movie is not the most pleasant thing,” he added, referring to another Stephen King adaptation he was tied to, Firestarter. 

Keith Gordon, who played teen Arnie, who purchases Christine and tries to soup it up before it starts showing signs of possession, gave his thoughts on the remake and its director, Bryan Fuller. “I think he’s really talented, and a good person to do it…I mean, I don’t have a negative feeling about people remaking something, especially 40 years later. Christine could be told in a different way and not be an insult to the original. There’s a very short list of untouchable classics that should never be remade – films where their groundbreaking-ness or idiosyncrasy is what makes them special,” he said, specifically citing Citizen Kane, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Raging Bull, all of which are obviously in a different league than Christine, which personally I think is one of John Carpenter’s best films.

Gordon has a point overall. While die-hard devotees to Christine might snub the remake, there’s really nothing in it that demands it never be touched again. In a way, it’s almost like retooling an antique car. But please, don’t make Christine an electric car!

Are you a fan of John Carpenter’s Christine? Do you think a remake is necessary? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below!

Gael García Bernal stars as Cassandro, a gay wrestler who became an unlikely star in Mexico. This true story is a major crowdpleaser.

PLOT: A gay amateur wrestler in El Paso reinvents himself as an “exotico” wrestler named Cassandro and becomes an unlikely star.

REVIEW: Cassandro is based on an unlikely but very cool true story. Gael Garcia Bernal plays Saúl Armendáriz, a struggling amateur luchador who reinvented himself as a flamboyant wrestler named Cassandro. He was an “exotico”, which was a stereotypically gay class of wrestler that was typically demolished to the delight of homophobic audiences. But, Cassandro was different. His winning personality and physical prowess won over his audiences, and he became something that was almost unheard of in Mexico, an exotico who won matches.

It’s an excellent role for Bernal, who gets a juicy role he can sink his teeth into. The character allows him to show his flair for comedy, his psychical prowess in the well-choreographed wrestling scenes, and heartfelt poignancy at times too. Much of the movie centres around Saúl’s relationship with his supportive mother, Yocasta, played by an affecting Perla de la Rosa. His dreams of wealth mainly exist so he can buy his mother a modest house in El Paso. Yet, he’s also not ridiculously idealized either, with him shown to be headstrong and reckless, to the point that he goes on a coke and booze binge the night before the biggest match of his career. He has a self-destructive side, with him engaging in a one-sided relationship with a married wrestler (Raul Castillo), who he wants to leave his family.

Nevertheless, you remain firmly on Cassandra’s side throughout. While the homophobia of the wrestling world is acknowledged, it’s not dwelled upon either. Cassandro actually meets a bunch of people who you expect to turn out to be red herrings but wind up being decent. His crooked promoter, Lorenzo (Joaquín Cosío) is presented sympathetically, and his coke dealer, played by Bad Bunny (the future El Muerto) in a small role, is ultimately also shown to be a relatively nice, non-homophobic guy.

Best of all, Roberta Colindrez is a female wrestler who trains Cassandro and takes him under her, becoming his most stalwart friend. If you’re a wrestling fan, you’ll get a kick out of the way big matches are restaged, particularly the final big bout with legendary wrestler “The Son of Santo.” Director Roger Ross Williams makes his narrative debut with this, and it’s an assured, energetic showcase. Running a lean 100 minutes, the movie has energy to burn, and Bernal is superb in the title role. This one is set for a Prime Video debut and should be a crowd-pleaser. In a nod to authenticity, the film is shot in a mixture of English and Spanish. At the same time, Williams adopts the now trendy 1:33:1 aspect ratio, which allows him to seamlessly blend video sequences meant to evoke Cassandro’s tv broadcasts with the rest of the film.

If you’re a wrestling aficionado, Cassandro is definitely worth checking out. The cast is terrific, and the film is a lot of fun. It has laughs, some action, and a big heart underneath it all which will have you running to YouTube to look up actual videos of the real Cassandro. He won’t disappoint.

Cassandro is now playing in limited release and starts streaming on Prime Video September 22nd.

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The English actress bluntly tells film and TV stories in her new memoir, including the less-than-optimal experiences with some actors.

English actress Miriam Margolyes is a veteran of many projects and has always been hilariously eccentric and inappropriate for someone who looks like a sweet grandmother. She also minces no words when it comes to working with actors who were acting rude, even to the faces of those who had close relationships with the said subjects. She’s openly criticized her encounter with the creator of the hit sitcom Friends to Matthew Perry’s face, as well as not enjoying Winona Ryder’s attitude when working with her on The Age of Innocence, although she maintains that Martin Scorsese was as sweet as can be.

The Harry Potter actress had released her memoir in which she bestows her inside experiences on the many TV and film productions she’s worked on. One of the stories she reveals was Steve Martin being a little too into his dentist role in 1986’s Little Shop of Horrors. Margolyes played his secretary who was unfortunately in his warpath without fail as the sadist makes his way through torturing people in his office. It’s one of the best scenes in the movie and an absolute classic performance by Martin. However, Margolyes’ experience behind the scenes didn’t exactly match the laughs.

Variety reveals via HuffPo UK that Margolyes wrote, “During my only musical number (‘Dentist!’) I was hit all day by doors opening in my face; repeatedly punched, slapped, and knocked down by an unlovely and unapologetic Steve Martin. Perhaps he was method acting – and [I] came home grumpy with a splitting headache.” She recognized that Martin was still amazing in the scene despite taking the brunt of his unpleasantness as she says he was “undeniably brilliant, but horrid to me….Let it not be said that I have never suffered in the name of Art.”

Steve Martin is a legacy in the comedy world, and nearly everyone he’s worked with has nothing but good things to say about him. However, there are vets of that era who are brilliant in their craft with known behind-the-scenes drama such as Chevy Chase and Bill Murray. Martin, though, hasn’t earned that kind of overwhelming reputation.

Inversely, Margolyes would glow about working with Steve Buscemi on 1993’s Ed and His Dead Mother, saying, “Steve Buscemi is a brilliant actor and we had a delightful rapport. For somebody who’s being terrorized by me in the form of a murderous living corpse, he was unerringly sweet – knocked spots off Steve Martin.”

Rhys Darby explains how the Multiverse is a misconception in an exclusive Relax, I’m From the Future clip.

I’ve watched enough Doctor Who to know time is a complicated construct with rules fluctuating from one interpretation to the next. Thankfully, Rhys Darby’s Casper has time travel all figured out in Relax, I’m From the Future, a new time-traveling comedy that finally breaks the multiversal merry-go-round we’ve been riding for the past few years. In today’s exclusive Relax, I’m From the Future clip, Casper dismisses the Butterfly Effect and misinformation about multiple realities.

The scene finds Casper and Holly (Gabrielle Graham) discussing multiversal misnomers in a dimly lit diner over piping hot mugs of jitter juice. Casper explains how there’s only one reality, and that time is more like a mushy blob than anything we’ve seen in movies. Doc Brown lied to us, folks! Oh, the humanity! While branching paths in the timeline exist, they eventually converge in the same direction, leading toward a pre-determined future. Still, pivotal events such as life, death, political dealings, and significant world events determine our future. When Holly looks unconvinced, Casper attempts to prove his point, but funnily enough, his timing is a bit off.

Here’s the official synopsis for Relax, I’m From The Future:

Relax, I’m From The Future follows CASPER, a charming but embarrassingly underprepared Time Traveler, now trapped in the past. When he befriends HOLLY, a jaded drifter, she helps him exploit his trivial knowledge of the future for a series of quick payouts, oblivious to the consequences they have set in motion. When DORIS, a more competent Time Traveler, tracks them down, Casper and Holly are forced to figure out exactly what they mean to each other and whether the future they’ve threatened is even worth saving. Will they embrace their fate, or do they have the courage to change it?

Darby (What We Do In The Shadows, Flight of the Conchords), Graham (Possessor, On the Basis of Sex), and Theriault (Murder Most Likely, Pompeii), and Julian Richings (Man of Steel, Beau Is Afraid) lead the cast, with Zachary Bennett (The Umbrella Academy, Cube Zero), and Louisa Zhu (Rising Suns, Ghostwriter).

The sci-fi comedy hails from Luke Higginson for his feature directorial debut. In addition to operating the camera, Higginson wrote the screenplay and edited the film inspired by his short film of the same name that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 10 years ago.

Relax, I’m From The Future premiered last month at Montreal’s Fantasia Fest to enthusiastic critical acclaim. The film debuts in the United States on September 22, 2023, and opens theatrically in Canada on October 6, 2023.

Kenneth Branagh’s A Haunting in Venice holds a magnifying glass up to $1.2M in Thursday Preview screenings.

The third film in Kenneth Branagh’s re-imagined Hercule Poirot series, A Haunting in Venice, earned $1.2M at Thursday Preview screenings. The spooktacular adaptation of Agatha Christie‘s Hallowe’en novel could perform similarly to other chapters of Branagh’s Poirot films, with a weekend gross of roughly $15M.

While the numbers barely move the needle compared to 2023’s other box office barn burners, it’s worth noting that A Haunting in Venice is Branagh’s best-reviewed Poirot film with a 77% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Poirot’s latest case might not pack the star power of 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express or 2022’s Death on the Nile. Still, it includes Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh and multi-talented funny gal Tina Fey. If A Haunting in Venice plays its tarot cards right, it could send The Nun II to the back of the pews after a 60%+ dip in attendance.

A Haunting in Venice delivers a scary mystery in 3,305 theaters, including Imax and PLF screenings, which charge more for big screens and sound luxury.

A Haunting in Venice is set in eerie, post-World War II Venice on All Hallows’ Eve. It is a terrifying mystery featuring the return of the celebrated sleuth, Hercule Poirot. Now retired and living in self-imposed exile in the world’s most glamorous city, Poirot reluctantly attends a séance at a decaying, haunted palazzo. When one of the guests is murdered, the detective is thrust into a sinister world of shadows and secrets.

Kenneth Branagh returns as Hercule Poirot, with Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Kelly Reilly, Kyle Allen, Jude Hill, Emma Laird, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ali Khan, Tina Fey, and Camille Cottin leading the cast.

Branagh also produced A Haunting in Venice with Judy Hofflund, Ridley Scott, and Simon Kinberg. Louise Killin, James Prichard, and Mark Gordon serve as executive producers. Hildur Guđnadóttir, who provided the Oscar-winning score for Joker, has also composed the score for this film.

Do you think A Haunting in Venice can defeat The Nun II at the box office this weekend? Are you digging the spooky vibes of Poirot’s latest case? Is the palazzo haunted, or is this a Scooby-Doo situation? You can find out this weekend now that the film is in theaters!

The composer of Poirot’s newest mystery used unconventional methods to get scared reactions with classical instruments.

Hercule Poirot is returning on a new case this week with A Haunting in Venice. The seasoned detective is once again portrayed by Kenneth Branaugh after his previous entries, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. This time around, things get scary as Poirot is investigating supernatural happenings in a Venetian villa. The spooky installment opened with Thursday previews that grossed $1.2 million and is on track to earn roughly $15 million over the weekend.

Variety reports that the composer on the film, Hildur Guðnadóttir, who is a big fan of Agatha Christie, wanted to achieve something darker than Branagh previously had with the other films. She explains, “I took a classical romanticism melodic approach because the way you express melody says so much about how you’re expressing yourself. Post-war composers were drawn to tonal expression or lots of experimentation where they used extended techniques and looked at different ways of playing classical instruments.”

Guðnadóttir adds that, by experimenting with the manipulation of classical instruments, such as a solo clarinet, she was able to make something that sounded incredibly paranormal, “Those sounds were happening at the time, and were forward thinking and it lent itself so gloriously to those jump scares.” The movie’s editor, Lucy Donaldson added that one of the big scenes involving the séance was spent getting cut without the music, “We temped very few spots with her previous scores, but it was very late [when we added in the music] because it helped find the natural rhythm of that scene. And if it’s working without music, you know it’s only going to level up when you do add it.”

According to Donaldson, it was an arduous sequence to edit, “This was when things get real. We come with Poirot into this situation. He’s the representation of logic, facts and deduction. The séance questions, is there anything supernatural happening here? And you’re cutting back to his skepticism.”

Her main approach was to capture all the characters’ nervousness, “We’ve met our cast of characters and everyone is jumpy so there were lots of cuts to objects and reactions and builds and builds and builds, and there’s the middle section, and the climax. We were trying to show that everybody is out of their comfort zone for one reason or another. And it makes them more vulnerable, including Poirot.”