A new poster for It Lives Inside, a supernatural horror film starring Megan Suri, reveals a September release date

Although she had a prominent role in seasons 2 and 3 of the Netflix series Never Have I Ever, Megan Suri’s character Aneesa didn’t have much of a presence in the show’s fourth and final season. But Suri does have the lead role in the upcoming supernatural horror film It Lives Inside – and today, the unveiling of a poster for the film has revealed that it has a September 22 theatrical release date! The poster can be seen at the bottom of this article.

Directed by Bishal Dutta, who crafted the screenplay with Ashish Mehta, It Lives Inside tells the following story: Sam is desperate to fit in at school, rejecting her Indian culture and family to be like everyone else. Whena mythological demonic spirit latches onto her former best friend, she must come to terms with herheritage in order to defeat it.

Suri is joined in the cast by Neeru Bajwa (Criminal), Mohana Krishnan (I Am Frankie), Vik Sahay (Chuck), Gage Marsh (Big Sky), Beatrice Kitsos (Child’s Play remake), and Betty Gabriel (Get Out).

The film was produced by Raymond Mansfield and Sean McKittrick.

Dutta provided the following statement: “It Lives Inside initially emerged as an image: a kid on a bike, riding through Rockwellian suburbs. It’s right out of an early Amblin film. But what if this kid was escaping a puja, her school outfit wrapped in an ornated upatta? For me, that image spoke to the duality I felt growing up as a first-generation immigrant in America.’Where do I belong? Which country is my home? Which world is ultimately mine?’

After I moved to North America from India at the age of four, a lot of my social education came from watching American horror films. I always wondered, what were families like mine doing while Bruce the shark tore through Amity’s waters, while Freddy Krueger slashed teenagers in the dreamscape, and while Jack Torrance chased his son through the maze-like halls of the Overlook? As it developed, It Lives Inside formed its own dual identity much like mine. On one hand, it is a love letter to the community and culture that raised me while on the other, it is a visceral experience that is designed to instill the same raw terror in its viewers that my favorite horror films instilled in me.

I was lucky enough to collaborate with the producers at QC Entertainment from an early stage of the film. Ray and Sean’s expertise in elevating socially-charged dramas to thoughtful, incisive mass entertainment in films like Get Out and BlacKKKlansman made them perfect creative partners from development to post-production. As the story developed, the ideas and emotions at its core only crystallized further and were never diluted or dulled down. My lucky streak extended when I got the opportunity to work with some of my dearest collaborators in bringing this movie to life, from my long-time director of photography, Matthew Lynn, and composer, Wesley Hughes, to Jameson Parker, our executive producer, Jack Price, our editor, and Nolan McNaughton, our sound designer.

It Lives Inside is not autobiographical but draws on real people that I have known and loved. In casting characters so close to my heart, I was awarded miracle after miracle, beginning with Megan Suri. She brings Samidha to life in a way that entirely transforms the words on the page. Betty Gabriel, Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishna, Vik Sahay and Gage Marsh all bring so much delicate humanity to the loved ones that fill out Samidha’s world. When I see them all on screen, they don’t feel like characters that I wrote anymore, but rather richly layered human beings that I recognize and cherish in my own life. I believe in horror cinema. It’s the greatest genre our art form has to offer, affording artists opportunities to tell challenging, emotionally rich stories within a harrowing, affective experience. In offering It Lives Inside to the canon, I hope to give you a window into the lives of people I care deeply about… and to make you wonder if someone – or something – really is hiding in the dark, waiting to pop out of your dark, empty closet when the lights are out.“

Will you be watching It Lives Inside this September? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and while you’re scrolling down, check out the new poster:

Roadside Attractions is thrilled to present its Dreamin’ Wild trailer, starring Casey Affleck as the inspiring musician Donnie Emerson.

Casey Affleck is continuing his comeback, and he’s bringing his guitar. Roadside Attractions is proud to present the studio’s Dreamin’ Wild trailer, featuring Affleck as singer/songwriter Donnie Emerson, for a story about music, hope, redemption, and keeping dreams alive. Bill Pohlad directs from a script he wrote based on actual events, with a cast of greats tapping their toes, to an inspiring tale that hits struggling musicians where they live.

Here’s the official synopsis for Dreamin’ Wild, per Roadside Attractions:

Dreamin’ Wild, the true story of love and redemption, is about what happened to singer/songwriter Donnie Emerson and his family when the album he and his brother recorded as teens was rediscovered after thirty years of obscurity and was suddenly hailed by music critics as a lost masterpiece. While the album’s rediscovery brings hopes of second chances, it also brings long-buried emotions as Donnie, his wife Nancy, brother Joe, and father Don Sr. come to terms with the past and their newly found fame.

Casey Affleck leads the emotional journey through hard times in and out of the music industry, with Zooey Deschanel, Noah Jupe, Jack Dylan Grazer, Beau Bridges, Walton Goggins, and Chris Messina making up the rest of the cast. Pohlad produces Dreamin’ Wild alongside Jim Burke, Kim Roth, Karl Spoerri, and Viviana Vezzani.

In the Dreamin’ Wild trailer, Affleck appears to deliver an emotional performance alongside his outstanding co-stars. Having your dreams dashed and then resurrected by fate is a brilliant material for a heartwarming story about never giving up your goals. Donnie Emerson’s journey is proof of that.

Roadside Attractions will release DREAMIN’ WILD exclusively in theaters on August 4th, 2023.

Kevin Bacon will play an undead bounty hunter in the Blumhouse / Prime Video horror action series The Bondsman

One of Kevin Bacon’s earliest roles came in the 1980 slasher classic Friday the 13th, and he has enjoyed returning to the horror genre now and then ever since. A few years ago, he teamed up with Blumhouse Television to try to get a television series follow-up to the creature feature Tremors going at Syfy. That didn’t work out, but now Bacon and Blumhouse Television are joining forces again for a horror action series called The Bondsman!

Deadline reports that The Bondsman is set up at Amazon’s Prime Video. Bacon will be taking on the role of Hub Halloran, a backwoods bounty hunter who comes back from the dead with an unexpected second chance at life, and love, and a nearly-forgotten musical career — only to find that his old job now has a demonic new twist. 

The first season of the series is expected to consist of eight half-hour episodes.

The series was created by Grainger David, whose short film The Chair screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Erik Oleson, who was the showrunner for the second season of the Prime Video series Carnival Row, will also serve as showrunner on this series, and is executive producing through his company CrimeThink.

Blumhouse’s Jason Blum, Chris McCumber, Jeremy Gold, and Chris Dickie are also executive producing The Bondsman, alongside CrimeThink’s Paul Shapiro.

Bacon’s other horror credits include They/Them, You Should Have Left, The Darkness, Hollow Man, Stir of Echoes, and Flatliners. He also has a role in the X and Pearl sequel MaXXXine. He told Looper that he enjoys working in the genre because “I’m a fan myself. I’m a consumer of it. If a new horror film piques my interest, I’m front and center opening weekend … I like the experience, because when I go to a movie as a … consumer, I want to feel things. Whatever it is, I want to feel things deeply. You can feel sad. You can get tears coming out of your eyes. You can laugh hysterically. You can jump. You can get scared. You can get creeped out. You can walk out of the theater with an uneasy feeling. These are feelings, and I like that. … I like to do horror because the stakes are very high, and that means that there’s good stuff to play. In life and death situations, those are good things to play.“

The Bondsman sounds interesting to me, and I’m totally on board to watch a horror action series that stars Kevin Bacon.

Does The Bondsman sound like a show you would want to watch? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Tag and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse star Jake Johnson is making his feature directorial debut with the film Self Reliance.

Jake Johnson (New Girl, Tag) is getting behind the camera for his feature directorial debut with Self Reliance. This film finds the main character playing a dangerous game for a lofty sum of cash, but at what price? Hulu acquired the U.S. rights to Self Reliance after a competitive bid with MRC and Paramount Global Content. In addition to directing the feature, Johnson also stars alongside Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect, A Simple Favor), Natalie Morales (No Hard Feelings, Dead to Me), Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping), GaTa (Dave), Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek, 12 Monkeys), Mary Holland (Golden Arm, Senior Year), Boban Marjanović, Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future, Nobody) and Wayne Brady (The Wayne Brady Show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?).

Self Reliance revolves around Tommy, a man who is offered a million dollars to participate in a game in which hunters try to kill him. The catch? They can only attack him when he’s alone. Thinking he’s found a loophole, the man attempts to bring his friends and family into the deal. However, problems arise when no one in his party thinks the game is real.

Lonely Island and Walcott Productions produce alongside Johnson, Ali Bell, and Joe Hardesty. Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone executive produce.

Self Reliance premiered at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival in March, with plans to debut the feature as a Hulu Original on September 8, 2023.

Famously known as Nick Miller from the comedy series New Girl, Johnson is an accomplished film and television actor with many notable credits. Johnson plays Randy ‘Chilli’ Cilliano in 2018’s hilarious action comedy Tag and voices Peter B. Parker in Sony and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Would you agree to play the victim in a game where hunters try to kill you? How long do you think you’d survive? Do you think one million dollars is enough to put your life on the line? Could you convince your friends and family to join you, knowing that being alone could get you killed? Sure, one million dollars is a lot for my broke ass, but still. If the hunters don’t kill me, my wife would if I agreed to such a thing.

Blumhouse founder Jason Blum is feeling positive about The Exorcist: Believer, but less positive about an Insidious / Sinister crossover

Blumhouse Productions founder Jason Blum is currently doing the press rounds for Insidious: The Red Door, the fifth entry in the company’s supernatural horror franchise, which is set to reach theatres on July 7th – and during an interview with CinePOP, a couple other upcoming Blumhouse projects were mentioned. Blum had positive things to say about one of those projects, The Exorcist: Believer, but wasn’t so positive about a crossover between the Insidious and Sinister franchises, which is something he has discussed in the past.

First, Blum confirmed that The Exorcist: Believer is sticking with its October 13th release date. He told CinePOP the movie is “good and its really scary.”

David Gordon Green, who previously directed a trilogy of Halloween sequels for Blumhouse, has directed The Exorcist: Believer. He also crafted the story with Peter Sattler (Broken Diamonds), then wrote the screenplay with Danny McBride (who wrote all three of the new Halloweens with him) and their Halloween Kills co-writer Scott Teems. Ellen Burstyn reprises the role of Chris MacNeil, the character she played in the 1973 classic The Exorcist (watch it HERE), and Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) plays a a character who tracks down Chris MacNeil after his child becomes possessed. Odom and Burstyn are joined in the cast by Lidya Jewett (Nightbooks), Jennifer Nettles (The Righteous Gemstones), Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale), Okwui Okpokwasili (Master), and newcomer Olivia Marcum, playing unspecified roles, and Raphael Sbarge (Carnosaur) as a pastor. Original The Exorcist star Linda Blair is in there as well, reprising the role of Chris MacNeil’s daughter Regan.

Then comes the less-than-positive news. When asked if the Insidious / Sinister crossover is going to happen, Blum said, “I think it would be fun, but we need to find the right story. We developed it for a while, but we could never think of a big movie. And I didn’t want to do one just to combine the two franchises. I wanted to make a movie that felt really good. We never had a great idea, but I’m up for it.” So maybe someday we’ll see a movie that deals with both The Further and Bughuul, but it’s not happening anytime soon.

There is already another Insidious movie in the works: Thread: An Insidious Tale, starring Mandy Moore and Kumail Nanjiani.

Are you looking forward to any of the movies mentioned in this article? Insidious: The Red Door, The Exorcist: Believer, the Insidious / Sinister crossover, Thread: An Insidious Tale? Share your thoughts on these projects by leaving a comment below.

The Boys creator Eric Kripke says that the release of season 4 of the Prime Video series will be delayed due to the writers strike.

Fans have been anxiously awaiting word about the release of The Boys season 4, but creator Eric Kripke said that the wait might be longer than expected.

Eric Kripke took to Twitter to offer an update on The Boys season 4 release date. He said that it all depends on how long the WGA strike lasts. “When #Season4 drops depends on how long the #WGA Strike goes,” Kripke wrote. “No answer yet. Tell the studios to make a fair deal!” I’d wager that most fans are perfectly fine waiting longer if it means the writers will get a fair deal at the end of this.

Production on the new season of The Boys actually wrapped up a month before the strike began, but Eric Kripke said that there’s still quite a lot of writing done in post-production which they can’t do until the strike concludes. “There’s a good amount of dialogue we write in post that the actors come back to record (called ADR), to help bridge story gaps or clarify a plot point,” Kripke wrote. “We’ll also edit dialogue together in different ways to ‘rewrite’ it. Writing at every stage of the process. #WGAStrong.“

While we still may not know when to expect the release of The Boys season 4, Eric Kripke has previously teased that we should see the Gen V spin-off series this fall. Theseries takes place “in America’s only college exclusively for young adult superheroes (or supes) that is run by Vought International.” It will explore the lives of “hormonal, competitive supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities. Part college show, part Hunger Games—with all the heart, satire, and raunch of The Boys.“

Eric Kripke has previously teased that Gen V would include a few crossovers with The Boys, both in terms of characters and events. “There’s definitely crossover, and we’re doing our best to design a universe that sees some of the issues and storylines in Season 3 hand off to the first season in Varsity,” Kripke said. “Like there’s a presidential campaign happening in the background of that season, and there’s certain things that are happening at that school that are both in reaction to Season 3 of The Boys. There’s Soldier Boy, etcetera, but also some new storylines that are happening in that season of the spinoff that we have to pick up and take into Season 4 of the show.“

One of those Gen V crossovers will involve Jensen Ackles reprising his character of Soldier Boy, but it sounds like more of a cameo. Jensen Ackles revealed that his character of Soldier Boy will show up in Gen V. “Soldier Boy pops up for a brief moment in this new spin-off of The Boys,” Ackles said last month. “In fact, there’s a few cameos from the mothership that come into this spin-off. My little bit there was heavily [improvised].“

Skeleton Crew star Jude Law and co-creator Chris Ford tease the upcoming Star Wars series coming to Disney+ later this year.

While we’re still several years out from Star Wars returning to the big screen, we’ve got enough Star Wars TV shows to keep us busy. One of those shows is Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, described as “a story about a group of kids, about 10 years old, from a tiny little planet who accidentally get lost in the Star Wars galaxy. And it’s the story of their journey trying to find their way home.” While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Skeleton Crew co-creator Chris Ford and star Jude Law dropped a few teases about the upcoming Star Wars series

Skeleton Crew creators Chris Ford and Jon Watts wanted to make a Star Wars series that felt like an Amblin movie similar to E.T. or The Goonies. “Skeleton Crew‘s tone is an adventure,” Ford said. “We wanted it to be a lot of fun. But of course, along with adventure comes the downside of it, which is danger. And when the kids are in danger, it’s extra fraught. So we played with that, but overall we wanted it to be just a fun adventure.” Early reports stated that the series was targeting a younger audience, but Ford said the aim is for the series to be for all ages. “When we told Kathy Kennedy about that we wanted to go for that Amblin tone, which she perfected over the years, what she would say is that they never thought of those as movies for kids,” Ford explained. “They just happen to be about kids, a story of a kid going on an adventure. So it could be for anyone.“

Jude Law stars in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, but the nature of his character remains a mystery. Some have claimed that the actor will play a Jedi, but Law remained tight-lipped. “I can’t tell you very much about my character,” he said. “He is someone the children meet on their attempt to get home. He is like a lot of the world that they experience: contradictory, and at times a place of nurture and other times a place of threat.” Although Law is clearly the big name, the story at the heart of Skeleton Crew will be seen through the eyes of its young characters, played by Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong.

Jude Law added: “Star Wars, for me, held a very particular place because it was as much a part of my childhood as going to school. Literally as far back as I remember, I remember having Star Wars in my life. It was the toys I played with, it was the toys I envied my friends had. I remember one of them having an AT-AT walker and I was never going to get given an AT-AT, so I’d go over and play at his house so I could use the AT-AT walker.“

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew doesn’t have an official release date but is expected to hit Disney+ later this year.

Gattaca reboot TV series that was in development at Showtime from Homeland’s Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa has been scrapped.

Update: Three months after the Gattaca reboot TV series was first announced comes the news that the project has been scrapped by Showtime. In addition to the Gattaca series, Showtime also axed Seasoned, a comedy inspired by the lives of real-life married couple Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, as well as Sweetness and Split, two projects that had been in development. Gattaca will have the opportunity to be shopped elsewhere, so it’s possible we may still see the reboot series.

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Gattaca remains one of my favourite movies, but that doesn’t make it immune from receiving the reboot treatment. It’s been reported that Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, best known for Homeland, are developing a TV series adaptation of the 1997 sci-fi movie for Showtime with Craig Borton (Dallas Buyers Club).

Deals haven’t closed yet, but it’s said that Alex Gansa will serve as showrunner of the Gattaca reboot and will also executive produce alongside Howard Gordon and Craig Borton. The original movie was written and directed by Andrew Niccol and took place in a not-too-distant future where eugenics is common and parents use genetic selection to determine the best hereditary traits to pass along to their children. Ethan Hawke stars as Vincent, who was conceived without any genetic tampering and thus struggles to overcome genetic discrimination to realize his dream of going to space. The film also starred Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Alan Arkin, Loren Dean, Ernest Borgnine, Gore Vidal, and Xander Berkeley. While Gattaca wasn’t a commercial success upon release, the movie has since gone on to become a cult classic and a favourite of many.

This isn’t the first time that a reboot of Gattaca has been in the works. Sony Pictures Television attempted to develop Gattaca as a one-hour police procedural set in the future back in 2009, but the project didn’t end up moving forward.

Showtime will soon be rebranding as Paramount+ with Showtime as part of a revamp that will double down on franchises. This means sequels, prequels, and spin-offs of their previous hits, such as Dexter, Billions, and Ray Donovan. This new focus has come at the expense of many of their shows which had either just aired or were still in development, including American Gigolo, Let the Right One In, Ripley, Three Women, and more. Some of those shows have been rescued by other networks and streaming services, but it’s clear what Showtime’s focus is going to be for the near future.

How do you feel about Gattaca getting the reboot treatment? Does it have the makings of a great TV series?