Wave 2 of McFarlane Toys’ Movie Maniacs line features Gandalf, Sloth and Alan from The Hangover, continuing a brand-degrading push.

When McFarlane Toys resurrected their Movie Maniacs line earlier this year, it included very few maniacs. There was the Wicked Witch of the West, who is undoubtedly one of the most iconic villains in cinema history, but the rest of the lineup included Harry Potter, Bugs Bunny and Ted Lasso. Come on, they could have at least gone with Snape, Wile E. Coyote and Nate! Now, wave two of Movie Maniacs has been announced…and there isn’t a single maniac to be found.

The next line of Movie Maniacs from McFarlane Toys features Gandalf the Grey (from The Lord of the Rings), Sloth (from The Goonies) and Alan (from The Hangover). So we’ve got a wise wizard, a deformed man with a heart of gold and the guy from The Goonies…None of these characters meets the qualifications of “maniac”, but it does make us want a Mama Fratelli figure. As with the first wave, each is a property of Warner Bros.

Each McFarlane Movie Maniac figure stands 6” and includes a “scenic printed back drop and environmental base display Includes art card with numbered certificate of authenticity and card holder”, in addition to a “hidden surprise.” Gandalf is limited to 14,500 pieces, while Sloth and Alan are at 11,750 and 13,000, respectively. The figures are expected to arrive in July.

Considering this lineup of Movie Maniacs is part of the partnership between McFarlane and Warner Bros., hopefully it’s only a matter of time before they go back to their horror roots, as the studio has a number to choose from. How about Pennywise from It or Esther from Orphan or Annabelle, all of which Warner Bros. distributed? Of course, the Movie Maniacs haven’t always been solely about horror, as they previously released Eric Draven from The Crow, Edward Scissorhands and various Terminator figures. But at least those have a tinge of horror/sci-fi to them.

What do you think of McFarlane’s next wave of Movie Maniacs? Should they rebrand or should we just be happy that the brand is back? Give us your take in the comments section below!

Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones are playing Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, respectively, in Sebastian Lelio’s Voyagers.

Andrew Garfield is heading for the stars. Reports indicate the Spider-Man: No Way Home and Hacksaw Ridge actor Andrew Garfield is playing astronomer Carl Sagan in Voyagers, a new film from Sebastian Lelio. In addition to Garfield, Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People, War of the Worlds) joins the cast as Cosmos filmmaker Ann Druyan. The project is going to the Cannes market this month, courtesy of FilmNation Entertainment.

The Voyagers story takes place in 1977 at NASA, where Sagan’s team is preparing to launch humanity’s first interstellar probes. The launch includes a message from the team responsible for the monumental devices, dubbed The Golden Record. The story begins as a race to complete the mission on time, then transitions into an unforeseen love story between Sagan and Druyan. FilmNation Entertainment introduced Druyan to screenwriters Lelio and Jessica Goldberg, who wrote the original Voyagers screenplay based on interviews with Druyan and other contributors to the Golden Record mission.

Carl Sagan is an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, science communicator, author, and professor. Continuously quoted by science enthusiasts, Sagan’s work is legendary and is responsible for inspiring others to pursue the sciences.

Lelio’s next feature is Bride, starring Scarlett Johansson. The story follows a woman created to be the ideal wife, but when she rejects her creator, she flees her confined existence, confronting a world that sees her as a monster. Lelio wrote the script with Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schucker Blum.

Garfield is preparing to star alongside Florence Pugh in the John Crowley-directed We Live in Time. Plot details remain a mystery, but Deadline says the film is a “funny, deeply moving, and immersive love story.”

As for Edgar-Jones, she recently completed work on Daniel Minahan’s On Swift Horses. The drama tells the story of Muriel and her husband, Lee, who find their new life upended by the arrival of Lee’s brother. Muriel enters a secret life, gambling on racehorses and discovering a love she never thought possible. Bryce Kass and Shannon Pufahl wrote the script.

What do you think about Garfield playing Carl Sagan in Voyagers? Have you ever read any of Sagan’s famous works? Let us know in the comments.

Lazareth, an “edge of your seat” thriller starring Ashley Judd and written/directed by Alec Tibaldi, has wrapped filming

Vertical, TPC, and SSS Entertainment have announced that their thriller Lazareth has made it through production in Oregon and has officially wrapped filming. Vertical holds the North American distribution rights to the film, which stars Ashley Judd (Heat). The project will be presented to potential international distributors at the Cannes Film Festival later this month.

Judd is joined in the cast by Katie Douglas (Ginny & Georgia), Sarah Pidgeon (Tiny Beautiful Things), Asher Angel (Shazam!), and newcomer Edward Balaban. Written and directed by Alec Tibaldi (Spiral Farm), the film tells the story of Lee (Judd) who protects her orphaned nieces, Imogen (Douglas) and Maeve (Pidgeon) from a self-destructing world and raises them in isolation until an outsider (Angel) arrives threatening their peaceful existence.

Lazareth is being produced Robert Ogden Barnum and Eric Binns of The Barnum Picture Company. Vertical’s Peter Jarowey, Rich Goldberg, and Kristin Harris serve as executive producers alongside TPC’s David Gendron, Ali Jazayeri, Viviana Zarragoitia, and John Bails, and The Syndicate’s Michael Lurie and Jeffrey Giles. Vertical’s Sammi Farber is the associate producer.

Barnum had this to say about the project: “We are thrilled to be partnered with Vertical again on a fantastic production. With Alec’s great script, direction and experience in this genre, coupled with the incomparable Ashley Judd leading the cast to bring his words to life, we fully expect audiences to embrace the film when it is released to market.“

Jarowey added: “Rob Barnum came to us early with Alec’s impressive script and we jumped at the chance to work together again on such an edge-of-your-seat thriller. We are incredibly proud of the progress of our partnerships thus far in creating a streamlined process for fully financing projects.“

I have been a fan of Ashley Judd’s acting work since the mid-’90s, thanks to movies like Heat, Normal Life, Kiss the Girls, and a deleted scene from Natural Born Killers. So I’m totally on board to watch her in a new “edge of your seat” thriller, and Lazareth sounds interesting to me.

Does Lazareth sound like a movie you would like to watch? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

Mindhunter and Frozen star Jonathan Groff joins Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson for the Fourteenth season of Doctor Who.

Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor will cross paths with Jonathan Groff (Mindhunter, Frozen) when Doctor Who returns to BBC and Disney+. Groff joins the long-running sci-fi drama in a “mysterious guest role,” which the BBC will keep close to its chest. Groff’s identity for the show is unknown, though we know he’ll “jump aboard the TARDIS,” suggesting he’ll partner with the Doctor for a timey-wimey adventure.

Doctor Who showrunner Russel T Davies said, “This is an incredible coup, and a great honour, to get such a huge star striding on to our set. So strap on your space boots, this is going to be a blast!”

Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education) stars as the Fifteenth Doctor for Doctor Who Season 14. Millie Gibson plays Ruby Sunday, the Doctor’s companion, while Yasmin Finney (Heartstopper) plays Rose. Jinkx Monsoon of RuPaul’s Drag Race also stars in a significant role.

“Whilst still being in total disbelief, I am beyond honoured to be cast as the Doctor’s companion,” Millie Gibson said about joining the cast. “It is a gift of a role, and a dream come true, and I will do everything to try and fill the boots the fellow companions have travelled in before me. And what better way to do that than being by the fabulous Ncuti Gatwa’s side, I just can’t wait to get started.” Ncuti Gatwa, who will play the Fifteenth Doctor, added, “Millie just is the companion. She is full of talent, strength, she has a cheeky sparkle in her eye and is sharp as a razor. From the moment she walked into the room she captured all of our attention with her effervescence and then solidified that attention with the sheer torque of her talent. This adventure is going to be so wild and so fun, I cannot WAIT to sail the universe with Millie! “

Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies said: “It’s the great honour of my job to find the next generation of talent, and Millie shines like a star already. She’s brilliant, dynamic, clever and a wonderful actor. As a Coronation Street fan, I’ve seen Millie survive chases, guns and sieges, but that’s nothing compared to what lies ahead for Ruby Sunday.”

Doctor Who‘s newest season is shaping up to be something special and sounds like a departure from previous chapters of the time-traveling saga. I know I’ll be tuning in. Will you? 

The trailer for the supernatural horror movie It Lives Inside shows Megan Suri of Never Have I Ever taking on a demonic spirit

NEON hasn’t announced a specific release date for their supernatural horror film It Lives Inside, but they have unveiled a trailer that gives a good idea of what we can expect to see in this movie when it does make its way out into the world. You can take a look at that trailer in the embed above.

As you can see in the trailer, It Lives Inside received some very positive reviews after screening at the SXSW film festival.

The film stars Megan Suri of the Netflix series Never Have I Ever and drops her into the following unnerving 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.

Directed by Bishal Dutta, who crafted the screenplay with Ashish Mehta, It Lives Inside also stars 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.“

After reading that statement and learning how passionate Dutta is about the horror genre, there’s no way I’m going to miss out on watching It Lives Inside.

What did you think of the It Lives Inside trailer? Will you be watching this movie when it’s released? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The Chasing Chasing Amy trailer presents Sav Rodgers’s documentary about discovering identity through Kevin Smith’s controversial film.

Movies mean different things to different people. Predicting which films will strike a chord for any individual is impossible, and some movies become more personal than others. For Sav Rodgers, Kevin Smith‘s Chasing Amy helped him discover truths he could not define. In today’s Chasing Chasing Amy trailer, we find Rodgers going on a journey of self-discovery for a documentary focusing on Smith’s confrontational LGBTQ+ romance film.

The feature documentary explores the transformational impact of the ’90s rom-com on a 12-year-old queer kid from Kansas, coming of age and coming to terms with his identity. The Kevin Smith cult classic became a life raft for young Sav Rodgers. As Rodgers examines the film and its making as a cornerstone of LGBTQ+ cinema, he finds himself at a difficult crossroads. While Sav finds Chasing Amy a gateway to becoming more comfortable with his identity, sections of the LGBTQ+ community think Smith’s film is polarizing and harmful to the community.

Sav Rodgers says about the upcoming world premiere: “The journey of making Chasing Chasing Amy has been eye-opening in so many ways. When I was younger, I felt like I had to defend my connection with Chasing Amy to other LGBTQ+ people despite its deeply personal significance. This movie that saved my life also holds a controversial history in queer film canon. I hope Chasing Chasing Amy and its making shows that things can be complicated, as can people, and the relationship we have with the movies we grow up with can be that, too.”

As you can see from the Chasing Chasing Amy trailer, the documentary features in-depth interviews with cast and crew members behind the making of Chasing Amy, including Smith, Joey Lauren Adams, and more. The film also explores the film’s origin, investigates the controversy behind the movie’s rejection, and presents another side of adoration for problematic cinema.

Chasing Chasing Amy will have its premiere at Tribeca Festival 2023. Kevin Smith, Guinevere Turner, Joey Lauren Adams, Scott Mosier, Sav Rodgers, Andrew Ahn, Kevin Willmott, Trish Bendix, Princess Weekes, Regina “Riley” Rodgers star, with Alex Schmider, Carrie Radigan, Lela Meadow-Conner, Matthew C. Mills & Sav Rodgers producing.

Evil Dead Rise, the latest film in the Evil Dead franchise, has crossed the 100 million mark at the global box office

Evil Dead Rise (read our review right HERE), a movie that was once intended to go straight to the HBO Max (now simply known as Max) streaming service, reached theatres on April 21st, and it looks like it’s going to be receiving a digital release on May 9th. (That’s what Microsoft is promising.) Before we reach that date, the official Evil Dead Twitter account has sent out a tweet celebrating the fact that Evil Dead Rise has now earned over $100 million at the global box office!

That’s a great accomplishment for a movie that cost under $20 million, and it reached that number in just three weeks. The previous Evil Dead movie, released in 2013, didn’t reach $100 million during its theatrical run, falling just short at $99,010,045.

Evil Dead franchise creator Sam Raimi handpicked Lee Cronin to write and direct a new Evil Dead movie after seeing his feature directorial debut The Hole in the Ground. The story Cronin crafted for Evil Dead Rise has the following synopsis: A road-weary Beth pays an overdue visit to her older sister Ellie, who is raising three kids on her own in a cramped L.A apartment. The sisters’ reunion is cut short by the discovery of a mysterious book deep in the bowels of Ellie’s building, giving rise to flesh-possessing demons, and thrusting Beth into a primal battle for survival as she is faced with the most nightmarish version of motherhood imaginable.

Although the film is set in Los Angeles, filming actually took place in New Zealand. Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland star as the estranged sisters at the heart of the story. Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies, and Nell Fisher play Ellie’s three kids. Anna-Maree Thomas plays Jessica, “an 18 year old girl, who is obsessed with fashion and Instagram. Jessica loves to be the center of attention, although she is smarter than she lets on”.

Bruce Campbell doesn’t have an on-screen acting role in Evil Dead Rise, as he has formally retired from playing franchise hero Ash, but he did produce the movie alongside Raimi and Rob Tapert, as those three hold the rights to the series. Evil Dead Rise is a collaboration between Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, and Ghost House Pictures.

Raimi, Campbell, and Tapert are hoping to produce a new Evil Dead sequel every two or three years now, and the success of Evil Dead Rise gives them great incentive to do so. They’re also developing an animated series follow-up to the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV show.

Are you glad to hear that Evil Dead Rise has crossed the $100 million mark? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

If you’d like to pre-order the digital release on Amazon, you can do so at THIS LINK. The Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K releases can be pre-ordered HERE.

A new teaser trailer has been released for the Walking Dead spin-off The Walking Dead: Dead City, coming to AMC in June

The Walking Dead wrapped up its run after 11 seasons, but there are multiple spin-offs coming our way. There’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne, and The Walking Dead: Dead City – which will lead the pack with a June 18th premiere. Since The Walking Dead: Dead City will be airing on AMC in just over a month, a new teaser trailer for the show has arrived online today. You can watch it in the embed at the bottom of this article.

Eli Jorné, who has been a writer and co-executive producer on The Walking Dead for multiple seasons, serves as showrunner on The Walking Dead: Dead City, which centers on Maggie and Negan, the characters that have been played by Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan since season 2 and 6 (respectively) of The Walking Dead. This show will see Maggie and Negan traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan long ago cut off from the mainland. The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror. The new promo seems to explain why Maggie has Negan join her on this journey, and why they need to go to Manhattan in the first place.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Cohan revealed that The Walking Dead: Dead City will pick up “a few years” after the conclusion of The Walking Dead.

Joining Cohan and Morgan in the cast are Mahina Napoleon (NCIS: Hawai’i), Zeljko Ivanek (Madam Secretary), and Jonathan Higginbotham (Shining Vale). Details on their characters are being kept under wraps, but we do know that Gaius Charles (Fright Night Lights) is playing Izaak, who is “confident, ruthless, and unyielding in the pursuit of what he believes is justice, with the force of his will and his menace. Izaak enjoys his work and intersperses humor with the terror he incites. This is a family man, devoted to building a safe world for his wife and daughters. His journey unearths a loss he is haunted by. He has patience and resilience and walks rather than runs from his mistakes.”

Undead Walking suggests that Karina Ortiz (Orange Is the New Black) and Caleb Reese Paul (The Other Two) may be in the cast as well, but their involvement hasn’t been officially announced at this point.

Cohan, Morgan, and Jorné are executive producing The Walking Dead: Dead City with Scott M. Gimple, the Chief Content Officer of the Walking Dead Universe.

I watched The Walking Dead in its entirety, and will be following the stories of its characters in these spin-offs as well. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen on The Walking Dead: Dead City.

Are you going to watch The Walking Dead: Dead City? What do you think of the new teaser trailer? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Here’s the new teaser trailer: