Sébastien Vaniček keeps teasing his Evil Dead spinoff. Get a new look at Dakota Fanning’s creepy new horror, The Watchers. James Gunn has a Creature Commandos update. Plus, what’s to come on Chucky. Spoilers, away!
El Paso, Elsewhere
THR reports Lakeith Stanfield is in talks to star in a film adaptation of El Paso, Elsewhere, last year’s monster-hunting video game from Strange Scaffold. The game centers on “a vampire hunter named James Savage who is on the hunt for his ex-girlfriend, Janet (AKA Draculae), who seeks to bring about the end of the world.” Lorenzo di Bonaventura is attached to produced.
The Exorcism
Deadline also reports Russell Crowe is attached to star in The Exorcism, a new horror film at Vertical and Miramax that somehow has nothing to do with The Pope’s Exorcist franchise. Directed by Joshua John Miller, The Exorcism concerns Anthony Miller (Crowe), “a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter (Ryan Simpkins) wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play.”
Sleepy Hollow
THR reports Lindsey Anderson Beer (Pet Semetary: Bloodline) is attached to write and direct a new movie based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for Paramount Pictures.
Death Stranding
Death Stranding producer Alex Lebovici confirmed Jordan Peele is not directing the movie as previously rumored in a recent interview with Movie Web.
Jordan Peele was never directing. I think that’s like an internet rumor. There’s a relationship that Hideo has with Jordan. There are developments coming soon that I can’t share yet. Right now, it’s in the crafting of the story. That’s kind of where we’re at in the development process.
Untitled Evil Dead Spinoff
During a recent interview with Comic Book, director Sébastien Vaniček suggested his upcoming Evil Dead spinoff will include “a big statement” that may cause audiences to ask themselves, “what the hell?”
The first thing [Sam Raimi and his team] asked me was, ‘What would be your Evil Dead?’ And there was the word ‘your,’ so that was like, ‘Yeah, that gives me some artistic freedom,’ and I think I understood what’s Evil Dead and I was like, ‘Okay, if this is Evil Dead, I will do this and that because I want to explore this and that. And they liked my answer and that’s why they gave me this job.
But I love what Sam Raimi did. He was a 20-something-year-old guy with a camera and he wanted to do something crazy, so he did a lot of crazy shots and he wanted to shock the audience, and that’s something I really identify with because I was this guy … I did a lot of short movies with my team without any money or anything … I also like the vision of Fede Álvarez, for example, in 2013 when he thought, ‘Okay, let’s do an Evil Dead movie, but let’s do it a more realistic way because now the audience grew up and now we need to have something less a bit … I would say silly, less funny.’ And I’m thinking about doing something that would give justice to both of these visions. The vision, the real vision, something realistic that hurts you, a mean movie that moves you, and when you go up to the theater, you are like, ‘What the hell?’”
Something that’s also kind of crazy, this 20-year-old guy with some crazy camera shots, and also the statement that Sam Raimi had about friendship, about love, about family, it’s really important to me to stick with something that’s is in the script, in the writing process. I need to have strong characters. I need to have a big statement. I need to have an intelligent movie or smart movie. And after, as soon as I have this, I will be able to do something crazy and with a lot of Deadites and things like that, and to have a strong movie, but I need to have a really strong basis and I think that the strong basis is in Sam Raimi’s work, so I’m trying to take the best of every part of even that.
Alien: Romulus
Elsewhere, Alien: Romulus star Isabela Merced once again praised the film’s practical effects in a recent interview with Collider.
Definitely seeing the Xeno for the first time. They used a robot for that. And also, they used a human being, like a really tall person, in the costume and special effects. We had two Xenos on set, at all times, and they were just terrifying.
The detail is incredible. I like the Xeno nails. That’s my favorite part, the chrome nails. I’m gonna get chrome nails for the premiere. You’ll see me with them all around. They were incredible.
The Watchers
Dakota Fanning is stalked by monsters in the Irish wilderness in the trailer for The Watchers, coming to theaters this June.
Creature Commandos
In response to a fan on Threads (via Comic Book), James Gunn confirmed DC has wrapped “animatics” and “recording” on the upcoming Creature Commandos animated movie.
Animatics and all recording done. Waiting on the first animated cuts.
Chucky
Finally, the drooling ghost of Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) continues to haunt the Whitehouse in the latest trailer for this week’s episode of Chucky.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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