Theatrical Trailers and Clips

• CARRIERS – Studio PG-13 horror that looks Badass?  Like woah.

Studio News and Attachments

• RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE – Paul WS Anderson returns to the series he first brought to and subsequently ruined on film on September 17, 2010.
• AFTER DARK FILMS HORRORFEST 4 – ADF gives it the ole college try yet again in January 2010.

Remakes

• PREDATORS – AICN confirms that Nimrod Antal will be directing the Robert Rodriguez produced franchise reboot, complete with an encouraging Q&A with Rodriguez about.
• HELLRAISER – An official sign that, after two director’s dumping the project, HELLRAISER has hit a red light.
• LET THE RIGHT ONE IN – Director Matt Reeves passionately defends the remake decision, expressing hope that people will give the film a chance.
• AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON – John Landis confirms to BD that Dimension films is busy approaching the paperwork for getting rights tot he remake.

Indie, Foreign and Random News

• I SELL THE DEAD 2? – Director Glenn McQuaid has plans to develop a sequel titled THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF GRIMES &BLAKE, first as a comic and then, hopefully, as a film.
• BEWARE THE DEVIL – Shane Meadows makes horror his next genre stop, exorcisms and all.
• ORPHAN Controversy – Apparently parents are shouting at WB over a line from the trailer for THE ORPHAN.  Offense in question?  “It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own.”
• FEED – Orbit Books has just picked up the FEED trilogy books about a future in which bloggers are the key to surviving a global zombie outbreak.
• GRACE – You can pick up GRACE, which Scott Weinberg describes as “easily one of the best horror films of the year”, on September 15th on DVD and Blu-ray.
• FANTASIA 2009 Lineup – Very impressive roster of films, though, for my interests, not as on the money as:
• FILM4 FRIGHTFEST – Damn do I want to be in London for this.  Who wants to fly me out?

Non-Theatrical Trailers and Clips

• ROBOGEISHA – Watch.This.Trailer.NOW!
• LA HORDE – French zombies.
• 6.66 DEAD NOT DEAD – Thai horror ahoy.
• THE DISAPPEARED – Trailer for another IFC Films Fest-Direct VOD title.
• COFFIN ROCK – Thriller out of Australia.

Courtney Solomon, owner of After Dark Films and sayer/doer of stupid things, needs to open up his knowledge basket to the IFC Films release platform.

When the ADF Horrorfest started three years ago it was hard to hide the hope one had for a once a year event designed to bring the horror festival experience to the non-festival crowd.  Then the ‘fest’ actually arrived and all the noble(?) intentions were for naught. It was a financial fumble the first year out.  Turns out the only people who appreciate the highs and lows of festival horror are the people who go to horror festivals.  Whodathunk?  Plus it doesn’t help that the ADF lineup was less the highs and more the lows.  Year after year this axiom proved truer, the ‘festival’ picked up lamer and lamer titles and locked in narrower and narrower clients who were suckered in to exhibiting said pseudo-fest.  This past January I would have had to drive for over an hour to catch a glimpse of any of ADF’s 2009 titles.  I don’t even have to get off the couch to catch IFC’s Midnight Movies.

Essentially both IFC and ADF attempted the same thing, but only one of them got it right.  While ADF was busy giving niche release to justifiably unreleased titles, IFC’s talent scouts signed up genuine festival buzzers and have given them simultaneous release to both brick and mortar and home theaters alike.  With an expected roster of 30 titles in 2009, I predict that IFC is going to put the final nail in the casket of ADF’s horrorfest within a year- two tops.  That or After Dark is going to have to ape the format (I sense a FEARnet collaboration in the future?).  Even if they do, however, I wouldn’t call it a comeback.  IFC’s acquisition’s department game is just too good.

I already gave a brief overview of the lineup to come, but now that I’ve had a chance to sit down with a few more of the titles my assumptions have only been reaffirmed.  Unfortunately this post has been neglected on the site and some of these titles may no longer be available through IFC OnDemand.

Theatrical Trailers and Clips

• DISTRICT 9 – Trailer for Neil Blomkamp’s alien invasion.

Studio News and Attachments

• THE DARK TOWER – J.J. Abrams tells MTV that as soon as “LOST” finishes they’ll muscle up for the film series.  Considering STAR TREK is posed to be a huge success, I have a feeling Abrams will muster quite the budget once it hits the ground.
• DEATH NOTE – Warner Brothers picks up the rights to the popular Japanese manga/anime/live action series about a book that grants its owner the ability to kill anyone whose name is written inside.
• COLD SKIN – David Slade is attached to direct for Madrid films an adaptation of COLD SKIN, a novel about humanoid amphibians in the Antartic.
• I SELL THE DEAD – IFC has picked up the Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman, Angus Scrimm staring indie for distribution (presumably as part of their aforementioned Midnight Movies slate).  In theaters and On Demand August 14th.
• THE ROAD – The Weinstein Company has now slated John Hillcoat’s adaptation of the brilliant, brilliant Cormac McCarthy novel for October 16th, ‘09.
• THE LAST VOYAGE OF DEMETER – Marcus Nispel in talks to direct a feature based on the segment of Bram Stoker’s DRACULA in which the count arrives to England on a cargo ship.

Remakes

• PHONE – The latest Korean ghosty to get a US doppelganger.  Too bad the original sucks.
• DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE – In the largest piece of Get The Fuck Out movie news this year, Abel Ferrara is doing an update on the classic tale in which Jekyll is played by Forest Whitaker and Hyde will be 50 Cent.  Head explodes.

Indie, Foreign and Random News

• LIVID – The French duo behind INSIDE have revealed their next project to be the tale of some punks who attempt to rob the “increasingly peculiar” house of a coma patient.
• SPAWN – Todd McFarlane claims to have seven offers in the table to do a new SPAWN movie.
• THE CHRIST MUST DIE – According to Stephen Fry, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh want to make use of a vacant but enormous Jerusalem set constructed in New Zealand by producing a movie in which Nazi zombies travel back in time to kill Jesus.  Kudos to whoever dreamed up that bullshit.
• MISTER WEED-EATER – Joe R. Lansdale’s short story about a blind and creepy groundskeeper will be adapted and directed by Brian James Fitzpatrick.
• BOOK OF BLOOD – The Sci-Fi channel will be premiering the adaptation of Clive Barker’s BOOK OF BLOOD.
• HATCHET 2 – Adam Green says they will be taking the story directly to…space.

Non-Theatrical Trailers and Clips

• BEST WORST MOVIE – Trailer for the much loved TROLL 2 documentary.
• TRUE BLOOD – Season 2 promo.  Can’t wait!