Cuckoo interviews: Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, and Jessica Henwick discuss their new horror film, which reaches theatres this weekend

Two years have gone by since we heard that production had wrapped on Cuckoo, a new horror film from writer/director Tilman Singer that stars Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), Dan Stevens (The Guest), Jessica Henwick (Love and Monsters), Marton Csókás (Freelance), Greta Fernández (Santo), and Jan Bluthardt (Tatort). Now our chance to see the film is almost upon us, as it’s set to reach theatres on August 9th – and with that date swiftly approaching, we had the chance to sit down for interviews with Schafer, Stevens, and Henwick! You can hear what they had to say about Cuckoo in the video embedded above.

JoBlo’s own Tyler Nichols gave Cuckoo an 8/10 review you can read at THIS LINK.

Here’s the official synopsis: Reluctantly, 17-year-old Gretchen leaves her American home to live with her father, who has just moved into a resort in the German Alps with his new family. Arriving at their future residence, they are greeted by Mr. König, her father’s boss, who takes an inexplicable interest in Gretchen’s mute half-sister Alma. Something doesn’t seem right in this tranquil vacation paradise. Gretchen is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family. A while back, Variety revealed that the film sees Schafer face off against a mysterious bird-like monster with a scream-like call who seeks to impregnate women with her evil spawn. The story, written by Singer, is based off the lore of the cuckoo bird, some of which are brood parasites, meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other species. 

A press release notes that Dan Stevens turns in a “brilliant and terrifying” performance in the film, and he has described his role as a “delicious antagonist role.”

This is the second feature for Singer, following the 2018 supernatural horror film Luz, which Bluthardt had a role in. Luz told the story of “a young cab driver fleeing from the grasp of a possessed woman, whose confession could endanger the lives of everyone who crosses her path.” Several of Singer’s Luz collaborators joined him on Cuckoo. In addition to Bluthardt, also returning from Luz were cinematographer Paul Faltz, composer Simon Waskow, and production designer Dario Mendez Acosta.

Cuckoo was financed by Neon. The film is being produced by Markus Halberschmidt, Josh Rosenbaum, Maria Tsigka, Ken Kao, Thor Bradwell, Ben Rimmer, in a cooperation between Germany’s Fiction Park and the States’ Waypoint Entertainment. It’s executive produced by Tom Quinn, Jeff Deutchman, Emily Thomas, and Ryan Friscia for Neon. Additional funding came from the Film und Medien Stiftung NRW, HessenFilm, and the German Federal Film Fund.

Will you be catching Cuckoo on the big screen? Check out the interviews above, then let us know by leaving a comment below.

Jenna Ortega is partnering with Glen Powell for a mysterious time travel film helmed by J.J. Abrams for Warner Bros.

As she prepares to unleash the Ghost with Most after decades of rest for Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Deadline says Jenna Ortega is in talks to join Glen Powell for J.J. Abrams’s mysterious Warner Bros film. Plot details remain scarce, but sources say it’s a time-traveling movie with Abrams penning the script and producing.

Jenna Ortega’s star is burning bright after her sensational portrayal of Wednesday Addams in Tim Burton’s Wednesday, followed by head-turning performances in Scream VI, Finestkind, and the controversial dramedy Miller’s Girl. Ortega’s Hollywood dance card finds one studio after another courting her for their latest feature, with projects like Takia Waititi’s Klara and the Sun and Alex Scharfman’s Death of a Unicorn on the horizon. Beyond filming the sophomore season of Wednesday with Tim Burton, the duo has Beetlejuice Beetlejuice haunting theaters in September. Jenna Ortega plays Astrid in the long-gestating sequel, the daughter of Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz. In the film, Astrid unwittingly summons Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) from the Afterlife as the veil between the living and the dead falls, creating chaos in both realms.

After lighting up screens with 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, it feels like Glen Powell is everywhere. Powell’s Twisters is currently carving a wicked path through the box office with $274.3M+ worldwide. Forbes says the film will be available on VOD on August 13. Before going toe-to-toe with Mother Nature, Powell starred in Richard Linklater’s Hit Man and joined Sydney Sweeney in Will Gluck’s Anyone But You. One of Powell’s most anticipated projects is Edgar Wright’s reimagining of The Running Man. Wright’s film takes inspiration from Stephen King’s original story about a falsely convicted policeman forced to participate in a TV game show where convicts, runners, and killers battle for freedom. Wright’s version of the story could differ from the original, but we’ll need more details before we know for sure.

What do you think about Jenna Ortega, Glen Powell, and J.J. Abrams teaming up for a time travel film? Who else should join the cast? What are your favorite time travel movies? Let us know in the comments section below.

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.

After 237 shooting days, production on the It prequel series (coming to HBO and Max) Welcome to Derry has wrapped

The upcoming TV series Welcome to Derry, which will serve as a prequel to Warner Bros’ two-part adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel It (pick up a copy HERE), was originally meant to be for the Max streaming service, but we recently learned that it will be airing on HBO as well. The show went into production in Port Hope, Ontario earlier this year, aiming for a 2025 premiere – and not only did some footage from the show make its way into the HBO promo embedded above, but it has also been revealed that production has wrapped!

Brad Caleb Kane (Tokyo Vice) and Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman), who was a co-producer on It: Chapter Two, are the showrunners on Welcome to Derry. The show is being executive produced by Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, the sibling director/producer duo that was behind the two It movies, through their production company Double Dream. Kane and Fuchs are also executive producing, as are Shelley Meals, Roy Lee, and Dan Lin. The series is produced by HBO Max and Warner Bros. Television.

Fuchs wrote the script for the first episode, working from a story he crafted with the Muschiettis. Fuchs is also the one who let the world know that production has wrapped, writing that “this season” of Welcome to Derry has finished filming after 237 shooting days.

The John Wick universe continues to expand with the announcement of John Wick: The High Table, a new TV series in development.

Lionsgate‘s John Wick franchise proves to be as formidable as the boogeyman himself as the studio announces John Wick: The High Table, a John Wick 4 sequel series from Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski. While Reeves is attached to executive produce, he has no plans of reprising his iconic role for the project. Still, he wants fans to know he’s on the project’s ground floor, and they should expect the same quality as the core franchise. Stahelski directs the pilot episode with plans to shop the series, which is sure to be very competitive.

Robert Levine, co-creator of The Old Man, is writing the series, which picks up directly after the stunning conclusion of John Wick: Chapter 4. If you’ve seen John Wick: Chapter 4, you know that Reeves’s Baba Yaga left the High Table in disarray, with members of the criminal underworld looking to take control of the shadowy assassin network. John Wick: The High Table aims to “combine new and old and thrust the Wick universe into a new age.” Fans can expect new and existing characters to join the series, with surprises waiting around every dimly lit corner of an unforgivable criminal landscape.

Chad Stahelski, executive, produced John Wick: The High Table through his deal with Lionsgate to oversee the expansion of the John Wick universe. In addition to penning the scripts, Levine is showrunning and executive producing alongside Reeves and Thunder Road’s Erica Lee and Basil Iwanyk.

In addition to John Wick: The High Table, a feature-length spinoff, Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas and Keanu Reeves, arrives in theaters next summer. Meanwhile, a film project featuring Donnie Yen’s Caine is developing. Robert Askins, a Tony nominee for his play Hand to God and a veteran of The Umbrella Academy and AMC’s The Son, will pen the screenplay. Production for Caine kicks off in Hong Kong next year.

What do you think about the John Wick universe expanding with John Wick: The High Table? Can other actors carry the franchise into new territory without Reeves’s John Wick popping in to put bullets in heads? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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.

The Prime Video series Citadel is getting international spin-offs. The Indian spin-off Citadel: Honey Bunny is promoted with a teaser trailer

Last year, the Prime Video streaming service brought us the first season of a spy action thriller series called Citadel, which was created by Josh Appelbaum, Bryan Oh, and David Weil, with Avengers: Endgame directors the Russo brothers serving as executive producers. There will be a second season of Citadel (with Joe Russo directing every episode), but before that comes along, Prime Video has been busy building this into an international franchise. On October 10th, they’ll be releasing an Italian spin-off called Citadel: Diana (you can watch a teaser trailer for that one HERE), and on November 7th they’ll be releasing an Indian spin-off called Citadel: Honey Bunny. A teaser trailer for Citadel: Honey Bunny has arrived online and can be seen in the embed above.

Created by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, who are known as Raj & DK and also serve as showrunners and directors on the show, this entry in the Citadel franchise fuses the pulse-pounding elements of a gritty spy action thriller with the heartwarming allure of a love story, all set against the vibrant tapestry of the ’90s. Raj & DK also wrote the scripts with Sita R. Menon.

Citadel: Honey Bunny stars Samantha Ruth Prabhu (The Family Man) as Honey, with Varun Dhawan (Dishoom) as Bunny. Also in the cast are Kay Kay Menon (Bambai Meri Jaan), Simran (Tiger 3), Saqib Saleem (Crackdown), Sikandar Kher (Monkey Man), Soham Majumdar (Pippa), Shivankit Parihar (Aspirants), and newcomer Kashvi Majmundar.

Citadel: Diana and Citadel: Honey Bunny were both in the works before the first season of Citadel even made its premiere, but Prime Video was right to get these projects rolling early, because when Citadel did premiere it quickly became Prime Video’s second most-watched new original series outside the U.S., and its fourth most-watched worldwide.

Citadel: Honey Bunny is produced by Raj & DK’s D2R Films, Amazon MGM Studios, and the Russo brothers’ AGBO. Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Angela Russo-Otstot, and Scott Nemes from AGBO, as well as David Weil, all serve as executive producers on Citadel: Honey Bunny “and all series within the global Citadel universe.”

What did you think of the teaser trailer for Citadel: Honey Bunny? Did you watch Citadel, and will you be watching this show and/or Citadel: Diana? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Roblox launches the “Escape the Afterlife” experience, giving gamers the ability to purchase Beetlejuice Beetlejuice tickets in the game.

Can you feel that? It’s the sensation of games like Fortnite and Roblox tightening their iron grip on your wallet as the “forever game” arena expands to sell movie tickets! Check this out. Warner Bros., Roblox, and Fandango are joining forces to launch an in-game virtual box office in Roblox, with Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as the game’s first theatrical title to light the fuse. The final trailer for the film has also been unveiled and can be seen in the embed above.

Today, Roblox users ages 13 and up in the United States can purchase authentic movie tickets to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, thanks to the game’s “Escape the Afterlife” experience.

“As visitors enter [Beetlejuice] Escape the Afterlife on Roblox, they are immediately transported to The Afterlife Lobby—a spooky world that brings together familiar places from the original Beetlejuice movie with new scenes and experiences from the highly-anticipated sequel,” according to Roblox. “From the lobby, fans can enter one of three immersive worlds, where they need to escape ghouls and rescue beloved characters like Delia and Lydia, and new characters like Astrid. They will visit The Waiting Room, see the Shrinkers (aka Shrunken Head Guy) and his friends, and even explore Adam’s model of Winter River, Connecticut during their rescue journeys.”

While exploring Roblox‘s “Escape the Afterlife” experience, players “can walk up and make a ticket purchase right within the experience to see the movie.” In addition to purchasing tickets to a local theater, players can grab an exclusive avatar of the Ghost With the Most to use in the game.

“We are always looking to engage audiences and amplify our reach in new and exciting ways; this first-of-its-kind collaboration with Roblox and Fandango for ‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice’ allows for just that,” Warner Bros. executive vice president of global digital marketing Cameron Curtis said. “By leveraging the vast Roblox creator community, we are not only able to connect with existing Beetlejuice fans, but also have the opportunity to reach new audiences who are being introduced to him for the first time. And we are thrilled to be the first studio to test ticketing on the platform.”

What’s that old saying? You’ve got to meet the people where they are. In the case of kids able to fill seats for a PG-13 movie, they’re playing games like Roblox and Fortnite. I’m interested to see if Roblox’s “Escape the Afterlife” experience moves the needle for ticket sales and if this is the beginning of a more significant trend within the gaming arena. If film studios are willing to go the extra mile, gamers could look forward to more environments, skins, emotes, and characters making their way into the games they play.

What do you think about Roblox entering the movie ticket market? Do you think the game’s Beetlejuice promotion is a stroke of genius? Does Gen Alpha even know who Beetlejuice is? We’ll find out.

If you don’t plan to play Roblox to secure Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie tickets, you can pre-order them the old-fashioned way through Fandango! Pre-orders go live today for the highly-anticipated sequel opening in theaters on September 6, 2024.

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.

Road House actress Daniela Melchior and Hollywood prankster Eric André join the cast of Peter Farrelly’s upcoming action comedy Balls Up.

After herding rats in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and standing her ground against corruption and intimidation in Doug Liman’s Road House, Daniela Melchior returns to the action genre for Peter Farrelly’s Balls Up. Melchior will be the female lead in the film, and Eric André will also star. The duo joins Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter Hauser in Farrelly’s latest feature, which presents a curious plot.

The story revolves around two American executives who get the boot for sabotaging a client sponsorship and decide to use their free tickets to a professional soccer match. After a few drinks too many, the duo finds themselves on the run while being hunted by every person across the country. Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese of Deadpool & Wolverine fame wrote the script, with David Ellison of Skydance producing alongside Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, and Andrew Muscato. Wernick and Reese also produce. Molly Shannon, Eva De Dominici, and Benjamin Bratt also star as primary cast members.

After producing four films together, Peter Farrelly (Green Book, Ricky Stanicky, Dumb and Dumber) and Amazon MGM Studios are old friends. The filmmaker’s latest comedy, Ricky Stanicky, streams on Prime Video, and it’s worth your time to check it out. Ricky Stanicky stars John Cena, Zac Efron, and Andrew Santino. The film revolves around three childhood friends who invent an imaginary friend, Ricky Stanicky, to get them out of trouble. Twenty years later, they still use the nonexistent Ricky as a handy alibi for their immature behavior. When it’s time for Ricky to make a flesh-and-blood appearance, the trio must hire an actor to play their imaginary friend.

Before Daniela Melchior stars in Balls Up, she’s voicing Princess Ana for the animated musical Viana the Legend of the Golden Hearts. In Rodrigo Carvalho’s upcoming feature, the beautiful Ana falls in love with Thomas, a poor artisan. Her father immediately forbids their union, demanding that his daughter’s suitors produce a jewel to prove their nobility. But the young couple refuses to give up. With the help of their faithful companions, the generosity of the townswomen, and the talent of a mysterious jewelry maker, Ana, and Thomas will face many challenges out of love, including the powerful and evil Duke of Aragon.

Balls Up presents a significant opportunity for Eric André, mainly known as a prankster in the entertainment industry. His Adult Swim series, The Eric Andre Show, is the entertainer’s claim to fame. Still, André is capable of much more, with comedic chops that could play nicely in Farrelly’s arena.

What do you think about the cast of Peter Farrelly’s Balls Up? In the comments section below, let us know if you’re excited about this movie.

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.

Harvey Guillen, Ginger Gonzaga, Paulo Costanzo, and more have joined Kate Siegel in the cast of the dark comedy Damned If You Do

Last month, it was announced that Kate Siegel – who is best known for her collaborations with husband Mike Flanagan, like Hush and The Haunting of Hill House – is set to star in and executive produce the dark comedy Damned If You Do. Now Deadline has broken the news that Siegel is being joined in the cast by Harvey Guillen (What We Do in the Shadows), Ginger Gonzaga (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), Paulo Costanzo (Royal Pains), Beth Dover (Orange Is the New Black), Ed Weeks (The Mindy Project), Molly Bernard (Hit Man), Jillian Gottlieb (Soon By You), Matthew Stephen Smith (Too Hot to Handle), Liza Treyger (Survival of the Thickest), and Ashley Austin Morris (Inventing Anna). Details on the characters they’ll be playing have not been revealed.

The feature directorial debut of the filmmaking duo of Jake Rubin and Evan Metzold, who are working from a screenplay written by Ellen Adair and Eric Gilde, Damned If You Do will follow a group of teenage friends who sold their souls to the devil. Naturally, life grants them different paths: a rock star, a tech mogul, and a high-profile activist. Years later, they must rely on an old classmate to try and escape Hell’s grasp before the contract’s deadline of their 25th high school reunion.

An Objectively Good Media production, the film is being produced by OGM’s Matthew R. Cooper and Uwakokunre (Kokie) Imasogie, alongside Lior Haas. As mentioned, Siegel serves as an executive producer, along with Rubin and Metzold.

Rubin and Metzold provided the following statement: “We feel very lucky to be working with such a talented and hilarious cast. They make our job easy and bring a wealth of experience to the table that has helped to elevate an already spectacular script. Between our incredible cast and crew, we have formed a remarkable team that truly feels like family, and we are excited to collaborate with this group on our debut feature. We feel very blessed to be working on such a damn great production with such a damn good cast and crew. It’s almost as if we sold our own souls.“

Are you looking forward to seeing Kate Siegel, Harvey Guillen, Ginger Gonzaga, and the rest of this cast face off with the devil in Damned If You Do? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

Bring on the Good Will Hunting reunion! Gus Van Sant in talks to direct Hulk Hogan movie which could star Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

According to Jeff Sneider, a Good Will Hunting reunion is in the works, and it’s probably not the project you would expect. The word is that Gus Van Sant is in talks to direct a Hulk Hogan movie focusing on the wrestler’s legal battle against Gawker, with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon being eyed to star.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon acquired Charles Randolph’s screenplay for the Hulk Hogan project through their Artists Equity production banner. The project, titled Killing Gawker, is based on Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue by Ryan Holiday. It is said to be in active development.

In 2012, Gawker published a short clip of a sex tape featuring Hogan, who quickly sued the company. By March 2016, Hogan was awarded $115 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages, leaving Gawker to file for bankruptcy three months later.

It’s important to note that Affleck and Damon are just set to produce at this time and are not attached to star. Still, rumours have been swirling that Affleck could play Hulk Hogan while Damon could play Peter Thiel, the billionaire entrepreneur who funded Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker, allegedly in retaliation for Gawker outing him as gay years earlier. The potential casting feels… odd, but hell, I’d be down for it.

After writing and starring in Good Will Hunting over twenty-five years ago, Affleck and Damon appeared in a handful of movies together, but it was while writing the script for Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel (alongside Nicole Holofcener) that Damon realized they needed to prioritize working together again. “I remember my wife said to me one day: ‘I haven’t heard you laugh like that in 15 years,’” Damon said. “We came out of that experience going: Why aren’t we doing this more often? And getting into your 50s you just go: If we don’t make it a priority, it’s just not going to happen.”

Their next project is said to be RIP, a crime thriller written and directed by Joe Carnahan. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but in addition to starring in the project, they will also produce through Artists Equity. It was previously reported that shooting will get underway this fall.

After recently revealing his emphysema diagnosis, director David Lynch says he will “never retire” and is “filled with happiness.”

Movie fans were shocked by the news that David Lynch has become “homebound” after a diagnosis of emphysema due to his many years of smoking, but fear not, this doesn’t mean that the great director has any plans to retire.

In a post on X/Twitter, Lynch clarified his comments and let fans know that he won’t be retiring anytime soon.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking. I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco – the smell of it, lighting cigarettes on fire, smoking them – but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is emphysema,” Lynch wrote. “I have now quit smoking for over two years. Recently I had many tests and the good news is that I am in excellent shape except for emphysema. I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire. I want you all to know that I really appreciate your concern. Love, David.“

Lynch revealed his emphysema diagnosis during an interview with Sight and Sound magazine, confessing that he now lives in “relative isolation” and rarely leaves his house. “I’ll tell you, I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long, and so I’m homebound whether I like it or not. I can’t go out. And I can only walk a short distance before I’m out of oxygen,” Lynch explained. “Smoking was something that I absolutely loved but, in the end, it bit me. It was part of the art life for me: the tobacco and the smell of it and lighting things and smoking and going back and sitting back and having a smoke and looking at your work, or thinking about things; nothing like it in this world is so beautiful. Meanwhile, it’s killing me. So I had to quit it. And now, because of Covid, it would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold. So I probably would be directing from my house. And because of Covid, they’ve now invented ways where you can direct from home. I wouldn’t like that so much. I like to be there amongst the thing and get ideas there. But I would try to do it remotely, if it comes to it.” Lynch added that while he doesn’t know what the future will bring, he remains hopeful.

The director’s last major project was Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017. He directed all 18 episodes of the series and co-wrote the scripts with Mark Frost. He does have several projects in the works, including an animated movie called Snootworld.