(L to R) David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in ‘The X-Files’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television.
‘The X-Files’, originally created by Chris Carter, aired on Fox from 1993-2001 before being revived at the network for two more seasons in 2016 and 2018. It starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who investigate cases that lean towards the paranormal and otherwise unusual.
Two movies were made based on the original show, but there’s no word yet on whether either Duchovny or Anderson will appear in any capacity. As for the new potential series’ logline? “Two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.”
Deadwyler and Patel will be playing a new original characters –– we’re assuming at this point they’ll be the main agents.
Coogler is aboard to write and direct the pilot, but should the show go to series, ‘The Copenhagen Test’s Jennifer Yale will be overseeing it.
Coogler, an avowed fan of the supernatural, has spoken previously to Variety about his feelings for the show:
“Like my relationship with ‘Rocky’ with my dad, ‘The X-Files’ is one of those things with my mom. My mom means the world to me…so this is a big one for me. I want to do right by her and the fans. My mom has read some of the stuff I wrote for it. She’s fired up.”
(Left) Director Ryan Cooler at the New York Premiere of ‘Sinners’. Photo: Warner Bros. (Center) David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in ‘The X-Files’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television. (Right) Danielle Deadwyler in ‘Parallel.’ Photo: Vertical Entertainment.
Preview:
Danielle Deadwyler will star in the new ‘X-Files’ series.
Ryan Coogler is writing the pilot and will direct it.
Jennifer Yale will be showrunner.
We’ve known for a while that ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Sinners’ director Ryan Coogler has been developing a rebooted take on cult supernatural show ‘The X-Files’ for Hulu. The show has now taken a step forward with a pilot order.
(L to R) David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in 1998’s ‘The X-Files’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
‘The X-Files’, originally created by Chris Carter, aired on Fox from 1993-2001 before being revived at the network for two more seasons in 2016 and 2018. It starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who investigate cases that lean towards the paranormal and otherwise unusual.
Two movies were made based on the original show, but there’s no word yet on whether either Duchovny or Anderson will appear in any capacity. As for the new potential series’ logline? “Two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.”
We don’t yet know exactly how Deadwyler’s character will fit in, but we can assume she’s one of the agents.
“Like my relationship with ‘Rocky’ with my dad, ‘The X-Files’ is one of those things with my mom. My mom means the world to me…so this is a big one for me. I want to do right by her and the fans. My mom has read some of the stuff I wrote for it. She’s fired up.”
Coogler is aboard to write and direct the pilot, but should the show go to series, ‘The Copenhagen Test’s Jennifer Yale will be overseeing it.
Where else can we see Danielle Deadwyler?
Danielle Deadwyler in ’40 Acres’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Upcoming on the small screen, she’ll appear in the new season of ‘Euphoria’ and Steve Carell series ‘Rooster’. Movie-wise, she’s attached to drama ‘The Street’ and has worked on crime comedy ‘The Chaperones’.
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ director Ryan Coogler.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with David Duchovny about his work on ‘Reverse the Curse’, adapting his own novel, the relationship between the characters, and the challenges of acting and directing at the same time.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Duchovny, Logan Marshall-Green and Stephanie Beatriz.
(L to R) Logan Marshall-Green and David Duchovny ‘Reverse the Curse’. Photo: Vertical.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about the challenges of adapting your own novel into a screenplay and were the themes you explored as an author the same as the themes you wanted to explore as a filmmaker, or did those ideas change along the way?
David Duchovny: Well, I’ll say that I first wrote it as a screenplay, then as a novel. Then I rewrote the screenplay after I wrote the novel. So, it was a long process of figuring out that story. Movies and books do things differently. They have different strong points. So, it was trying to translate first the screenplay into a novel. Then the depth that I was able to bring to the novel, try to bring that back into the movie and still maintain the emotional power of it. The difficulties in that were none. I didn’t feel like there were difficulties. I knew the story. I knew it had power. I knew that if I could find the right tone and I had the right actors, who were both funny and deep, which my two actors are, then I knew I would be able to pull it off, even if I only had 20 days and only had so much money or whatever. Once I had Logan and Stephanie on board, there wasn’t much of a problem. Days were a problem because we all had to go fast and there were hiccups and everything, but there wasn’t a creative problem really after that.
(L to R) Logan Marshall-Green and Stephanie Beatriz ‘Reverse the Curse’. Photo: Vertical.
MF: Can you talk about the friendship that Marty and Ted form with Marianna, and do you think they relate to her because they are as brokenhearted as she is?
DD: I think what’s interesting is what happened during the shooting of the movie. Remember, a lot must happen between Stephanie and Logan in a short amount of time because they’ve got this little romcom happening during this dance of death that’s going on. But I don’t have 90 minutes of rom com. I’ve got basically seven or eight minutes of romcom within this film. I was really struggling with, I don’t want it to be too easy, and yet, it can’t be too hard. I wanted to rewrite a couple of the scenes that they had. I think the first weekend we had off, I rewrote it, and I found this line for Stephanie, which was, “Just because you get shot doesn’t mean you have to die.” What’s so weird is that I would’ve written a screenplay, written a novel, and never written that line before, but really that is the heart of her character. In many ways, the heart of the movie is in that line, which is just because you’ve been hurt, you don’t have to give up.
(L to R) David Duchovny and Logan Marshall-Green ‘Reverse the Curse’. Photo: Vertical.
MF: Finally, as an actor, you have some very emotional scenes in the movie. Was it difficult focusing and emotionally preparing for those scenes while you’re also directing the movie and working with the cast and the crew?
DD: Yeah, but that’s the gig. You know that going in. That’s hard for any actor. You drive into work, you’ve got a family, your kid needs you, and you’ve got to go do a scene. The Titanic’s going down, whatever, you’ve got to do it. So that’s the job. That’s the hard part of the job, whatever’s happening, whatever job you need to do. If you’ve got to do that scene where your heart is coming out of your mouth, then that’s what you’ve got to do. When we shot that scene by the roadside, I didn’t sweat it too much. I got there and I was like, “Oh, now I’ve got to do this. This is the heart of the character. The heart of the movie in many ways is this moment.” I think that that might’ve been helpful for me. I didn’t have time to think, “Oh, if I don’t pull this off, I’ve got no movie.” Just saying that, I get nervous in retrospect, but I wasn’t nervous then because I wasn’t thinking that way.
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What is the plot of ‘Reverse the Curse’?
Reverse the Curse follows Ted (Logan Marshall-Green), a failed writer-turned-Yankees Stadium peanut slinger who moves back home after learning of the failing health of his Red Sox-obsessed father, Marty (David Duchovny). While Marty strives to make amends for his past, his health drops abruptly whenever his beloved Sox lose a game. To keep his dad’s spirits up, Ted takes matters into his own hands and manufactures a winning streak with the help of a crew of dad’s neighborhood pals. In the process, Ted strikes up a bond with Marty’s charming “Death Specialist,” Marianna (Stephanie Beatriz), and the prospect of a new love reignites his ambitions. An ode to the bond between father and son, this warm and witty film demonstrates how life truly belongs to the losers, and that the longshots are the ones worth betting on.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with writer, director and actress Meg Ryan, as well as actor David Duchovny about their work on ‘What Happens Later.’
They discussed their new movie, Ryan’s writing process, the themes they both wanted to explore, Duchovny’s experience sharing all his scenes with Ryan and working so closely with his director, how Ryan planned her shots with cinematographer Bartosz Nalazek, and shooting the final dance sequence.
(L to R) David Duchovny and Meg Ryan in Bleecker Street’s ‘What Happens Later.’ Credit: Bleecker Street.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews.
Moviefone: To begin with, Meg, can you talk about developing the screenplay for the film, and what were some of the themes as a director you were excited to explore with this movie?
Meg Ryan: The perspective of two people looking back on their future that they didn’t have together. I thought that was just this mature perspective on two people trying to understand a life lived without one another. I thought that was just an interesting perspective to tell the story from the road not taken. Then they had this opportunity to go back and figure it out. They’re significant, obviously in one another’s lives because of this heartbreak and that they end up being able to be grateful about that.
David Duchovny in Bleecker Street’s ‘What Happens Later.’ Credit: Bleecker Street.
MF: David, as an actor, what were some of the themes that you were excited to explore on screen with this role?
David Duchovny: What I liked is that after they split up back in the day, they split up for reasons about one another that turned out to be incorrect. So, in a way, they went, and they lived their entire lives on these false assumptions about one another or pushing against something. “Oh, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to do this.” Then you come back 25 years later and you’re like, “Oh my God. I structured my whole life around a misperception in many ways.”
(L to R) David Duchovny and Meg Ryan in Bleecker Street’s ‘What Happens Later.’ Credit: Bleecker Street.
MF: David, you share pretty much all your scenes in the movie with Meg, who is also the director. What was it like for you to be in a project where you are only acting opposite one other actor, who also happens to be the filmmaker?
DD: I don’t think I’ve worked with an actor who was directing before. That’s a good question. I don’t think I have. But that aside also, I’ve never done as much work in a movie with just one other actor. I can’t think of any other movie that is just one other actor. So, I just consider myself lucky on both counts to have Meg as a performer, just a great living, breathing, organically reacting person, actress, honest, truthful, funny, and all those things. But also, as a director, just really nurturing, confidence building, freeing, perceptive, gentle, and smart. I ran out of adjectives. I ran out of words.
(L to R) Cinematographer Bartosz Nalazek and director Meg Ryan on the set of ‘What Happens Later.’ Credit: Bleecker Street.
MF: Many of the scenes in the movie play out in long masters without much cutting in between, allowing the performances to really playout and resonate with the audience. Meg, can you talk about setting up those shots and working with cinematographer Bartosz Nalazek?
MR: I got there about five or six weeks before David got there, and the DP was there the entire time. We shot listed everything as best we could. We were very prepared so that we could throw it all away when the performers get there and different things take over, but you had that in your back pocket. So, a lot of the conversation was about how we’re going to marry these locations and then how the magical reality would progress. That had to do with reflections and all kinds of things. The airport voice, all kinds of things that ended up contributing to that. But Bartosz Nalazek is from the Polish Avant Garde Theater School, and I think he just did a beautiful job. We didn’t have a lot of money, so what we had to do is figure out how to really take things away. So, after we shot, and we were in the color part of the post-production, we took away as many monikers as we could. Many things like gate numbers, advertising and all that stuff just kept getting simplified and eliminated, changing the color of the background, keeping the palette all the same, all that stuff to contribute to the progressive stillness and enchantment of this environment.
(L to R) Meg Ryan and David Duchovny in in Bleecker Street’s ‘What Happens Later.’ Credit: Bleecker Street.
MF: David, as an actor, was it freeing to work in that way?
DD: For me as an actor in those shots where she’s letting the scope of the place, because we were shooting in an airport, which is huge and open, and we were shooting in a museum, which is huge, open and beautiful. She allowed me as an actor to exist in these long takes, which you never get to do. Sometimes it’s good that you don’t get to do it, but we were on top of it and we were really playing against one another very well and organically, I thought. You see it, and it’s not created by the editor, it’s created by Meg and I on the day in that space.
(L to R) David Duchovny and Meg Ryan in Bleecker Street’s ‘What Happens Later.’ Credit: Bleecker Street.
MF: Finally, Meg, can you talk about shooting the dance sequence?
MR: Even just the dance sequence, just the two of us were alone in this giant room. The camera was across a lake in another building and there was maybe a big helium balloon that lit that place, and they would just say, “Go.” Then the music would start and we would just dance. It was the last night we were shooting. So, the freedom of that, I loved that so much, and you can feel it. In fact, I have a friend who saw the movie, and that’s the part where she just couldn’t stop crying.
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What is the plot of ‘What Happens Later’?
The film follows two exes (Meg Ryan and David Duchovny) who, after bumping into each other when their flights get delayed due to a snowstorm, spend the night at the airport reliving their past.
Unfortunately for first-time director (and co-writer) Lindsey Anderson Beer, it cannot capture the same level of tension and terror shown by the book, the 2019 movie for which this serves as prequel or the much-maligned 1989 original.
What’s the story of ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’?
Jackson White as Jud Crandall appearing in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
Based on the never before told chapter from Pet Sematary, Stephen King’s original novel, ‘Bloodlines’ is set in 1969.
A young Jud Crandall (Jackson White) has dreams of leaving his hometown of Ludlow, Maine behind, but soon discovers sinister secrets buried within and is forced to confront a dark family history that will forever keep him connected to the town.
Banding together, Jud and his childhood friends must fight an ancient evil that has gripped Ludlow since its founding, and once unearthed has the power to destroy everything in its path. Sometimes, dead is better.
Who else is in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’?
Pam Grier as Majorie appearing in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
(L to R) David Duchovny as Bill and Jack Mulhern as Timmy appearing in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
We’ll give director Lindsey Beer this: there are certainly moments that work in this new horror movie.
Beer, who co-wrote the movie with Jeff Buhler, has had something of a roller coaster ride in the entertainment industry.
A rising star writer, she’s had highs (Netflix’s fun ‘Sierra Burgess is a Loser’), lows (the mangled final product that was the adaptation of ‘Chaos Walking’) and plenty in between, including stints in writing rooms to help figure out future ‘Transformers’ and ‘Pacific Rim’ movies. Plus, several big name projects that have sat in development including a ‘Star Trek’ movie franchise entry and a script based on cult ‘80s toy/cartoon series ‘M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand’.
So, to be handed a movie to direct is quite an achievement, but one that feels earned after all that time in the development trenches.
Envisioned as a prequel to the 2019 re-imagining of King’s tome, the new movie is full of some well-used King themes. The town of Ludlow, for example is a nexus for evil, boasting the hellish titular location, which we’re informed (more than once), demands to be fed by the living, whispering terrible things to those disturbed enough to hear it.
On the set of ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
The town’s history is briefly explored in King’s book via a story told by the older Jud, something that the two main movie adaptations tend to gloss over. Putting it on film as a fleshed out story, makes some sense, though you do run the typical prequel risk of explaining things that never needed explaining.
Beer and Buhler walk the line mostly carefully and do manage to conjure a few decent scares along the way, even if there’s the creeping realization that they are using a lot of familiar tricks in simplistic ways.
And while the cast is interesting on paper (it’s fun to see ‘X-Files’ veteran David Duchovny back on the spooky side of things, even if here he’s a haunted father dealing with a war-ravaged son rather than an FBI agent), it doesn’t always translate into entertainment on screen.
Some intriguing themes, such as the impact of Vietnam, personal responsibility and generational trauma are explored to a certain degree, but the whole is very much less than the sum of its (body) parts.
What doesn’t work about ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’?
(L to R) Isabella Star LaBlanc as Donna and Forrest Goodluck as Manny appearing in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
Where to begin? There is a lot that is wrong about this prequel, which seems to believe that the tale of how the town of Ludlow came to have its reputation was worth digging up.
The cast are mostly wasted, and the younger actors run the gamut from bringing something interesting to the story (Forrest Goodluck, Isabella LaBlanc) to feeling less alive than the bedraggled pooch that Jud and his girlfriend meet on their ill-fated way out of town.
As for the veterans, they mostly sleepwalk through a story that offers them little to engage with beyond proclamations about the town’s dangers and raging about what has happened to their children. The likes of Duchovny and Henry Thomas (who has so much more to do in anything by Mike Flanagan) are stranded in something that is less a Paramount Plus movie, more a D+ movie.
Talking of the history, we’re treated to not one but two exposition dumps, one set during Colonial times as English settlers happen upon the land and decide it might be a great place to stay, before realizing that they’re all at the mercy of the hellish influence. This chapter actually has something interesting to say, and it’s a shame that the movie doesn’t do more with it.
Henry Thomas as Dan appearing in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
And all the more frustrating that there’s further exposition as to what is going on that repeats certain points. We get: it the town was founded on malevolent land, some of the original families and their descendants try and keep people from being lured by its resurrective charms. (They do a terrible job).
A few solid scares and one memorable historical sequence really cannot save this one from itself. Beer makes a few directorial flourishes that annoy more than they help tell the story and the whole thing is just a chore to make it through. By the end, you might actually be rooting for the malicious hell site over the wearisome humans entrusted to guard it.
For all the gore on display, ‘Bloodlines’ might be better off titled ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodless’ as it becomes mired in tired tropes and boring subplots that do tie-in, but never lead anywhere revelatory. Part history lesson, part melodrama, it’s an idea that probably should have stayed buried in the minds of the people behind it. Sometimes, as the movie is at pains to tell us, dead really is better.
‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’ receives 5 out of 10 stars.
‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023.
Other Movies Similar to ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’:
In 1969, a young Jud Crandall (Jackson White) has dreams of leaving his hometown of Ludlow, Maine behind, but soon discovers sinister secrets buried within and is forced to confront a dark family history that will forever keep him connected to Ludlow. Banding together, Jud and his childhood friends must fight an ancient evil that has gripped Ludlow since its founding, and once unearthed has the power to destroy everything in its path.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with filmmaker Lindsey Anderson Beer about her work on ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ the new story, creating a ‘Pet Sematary’ prequel, balancing her dual roles as writer and director, how her previous work as a writer informed her directing, shifting the story’s timeline, Stephen King Easter eggs, and what King himself thought of the new film.
‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’ director Lindsey Anderson Beer.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch the interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, how would you describe the plot of this prequel to our audience?
Lindsey Anderson Beer: ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’ is a prequel to Stephen King’s book ‘Pet Sematary.’ It’s set in 1969, and it tells the origin story of Jud Crandall, who is the beloved character, played brilliantly by Fred Gwynne in the original, and then John Lithgow in the most recent movie. It’s also an origin story for (the town of) Ludlow itself. We get to learn a lot more about where that spooky evil comes from.
MF: Not only did you co-write the movie, but it also marks your directorial debut. Did you ever have the experience of writing a sequence that you were very happy with on paper, but then found difficult to actually execute on set?
LAB: “Directing me,” much like “showrunning me,” is now much more cognizant of what’s great on the page versus what’s actually practical and realistic. So yes, I would say that anything that I have started to write post-directing, I’m much more mindful of what that would actually take to pull off.
On the set of ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
MF: Can you talk about how your past experience as a writer and showrunner prepared you to direct this film?
LAB: I think on the writing side, just being open to an iterative process. I know that there are some directors who feel very much like, “Okay, what I’ve laid out and what’s on the page, that’s exactly what we have to shoot.” But for me, I’m always looking at, “Oh, what’s the more interesting and beautiful angle based off of this location?” Or, “What’s the more interesting moment based off how this actor is delivering this line?” I get really energized by the iterative, almost alchemical reaction that you get in a real life scenario, in a real location with real people. I think allowing actors and crew the breathing room to shift things around a little and look for the best thing, not just the thing that you agreed upon before, is exciting.
‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Philippe Bosse/Paramount+.
MF: The movie contains a flashback that acts as an origin story for the town of Ludlow. Can you talk about developing that sequence and were there more scenes that you shot that you were unable to include?
LAB: I shot so much stuff that we could make a 1600s prequel. I actually keep trying to get Paramount to release a featurette or something because we’ve got so much great material from that time period, and it was some of my favorite stuff to shoot because that forest was so beautiful, brutal and it’s just really interesting stuff. The scene work and the nature of the story of what happened there was very different in my drafts. But Jeff Buhler, the first writer, is the one who originally came up with the idea to show the 1600s. I got to run with it and show more of this idea of Ludlow. The settler is something that I came up with and just wanted to show the original sin from the original settler.
Pam Grier as Majorie appearing in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
MF: There are several Stephen King Easter eggs in the movie, including Jim’s Diner, which has already been revealed. Can you tease any other Easter eggs that King fans can keep an eye out for?
LAB: When Marjorie is on the phone, pause the screen.
MF: Was there anything specific from King’s original novel that was really important for you to include in this movie?
LAB: Yeah, there were a few things. First of all, the way that King describes Timmy, he says that Timmy knew everybody’s darkest secrets and would kind of taunt them with the darkest sides of them, and this notion that this is an entity that really likes playing with its food. It made me think about Church, the cat from the original, and how King describes it playing with dead animals or catching birds and toying with it before it kills it. I thought that was very interesting and reminded me a little bit of ‘The Silence of the Lambs.’ But just that psychological notion was really interesting to me and I definitely wanted to capture it. Another thing that was interesting that I thought we needed to capture from the book was even just the notion that Jud’s encounter with Timmy is why the evil is targeting him as an older man, which is not something that’s explained in any of the other movies. Also, just the notion that this entity, this evil whispers to you and gets in your head and makes you do things that you shouldn’t do. I think a lot of people complain about Jud’s actions when he’s an older man like, “Oh, if he knows what’s going to happen, why does he tell Louis about this sour ground?” The answer in the book at least, and to me that I wanted to make more clear is it whispers to you and it gets in your head, and Jud fights it off most of his life, but it gets to him when he is older.
(L to R) David Duchovny as Bill and Jackson White as Jud Crandall in Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Philippe Bosse/Paramount+.
MF: Can you talk about changing the ‘Pet Sematary’ timeline slightly and setting the movie in the late 60’s with the backdrop of the Vietnam war?
LAB: So when the project started with the producers and with the first writer, Jeff Buhler, they had shifted the timeline to match their 2019 film. Then when I came aboard, I didn’t think of the movie as a prequel to the 2019 film or any one film. I thought of it as a prequel to the book, but I really wanted to keep that shift in timeline because I just thought that the Vietnam War and the timeline served much better as kind of a metaphor for everything that was going on in the book. I also feel like it’s kind of a sister decade to what we’re going through now in terms of the disillusionment that we’re all facing. I thought there was a real relatability to that. So I thought it was kind of the perfect setting to highlight and heighten the themes of ‘Pet Sematary.’ So I really wanted to dig into that.
MF: Finally, Stephen King has seen the movie and seems to be happy with it, and of course this is the man who famously didn’t like Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining.’ How gratifying is it to know that he really likes your movie?
LAB: I do. I feel so relieved and gratified. It’s his baby, and so I feel like I’m just glad that he feels like we did right by it and that he loves it as much as we do. So of course, that’s everything to me as a Stephen King fan.
‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023.
Other Movies Similar to ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’:
(L to R) David Duchovny as Bill and Jack Mulhern as Timmy appearing in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
Though it originally seemed to be targeting a theatrical release via the Paramount Players label, it appears the studio’s plans for ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’ have evolved. The prequel movie will now be debuting as part of Paramount+’s Peak Screaming strand later this year.
Directed by Lindsey Beer (making her directorial debut after working as a writer on the likes of ‘Chaos Walking’ and Netflix’s ‘Sierra Burgess Is a Loser’), this will serve as the prequel to the 2019 remake of Stephen King’s classic.
The new movie is being billed as “an untold chapter” from King’s tome.
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What’s the story of ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’?
Jackson White as Jud Crandall appearing in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
In 1969, a young Jud Crandall (Jackson White) has dreams of leaving his hometown of Ludlow, Maine behind, but soon discovers sinister secrets buried within and is forced to confront a dark family history that will forever keep him connected to Ludlow. Banding together, Jud and his childhood friends must fight an ancient evil that has gripped Ludlow since its founding, and once unearthed has the power to destroy everything in its path…
Who else appears in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’?
Henry Thomas as Dan appearing in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
On the set of ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
King’s original novel –– which he considers his scariest –– was originally published in 1983. It follows a doctor named Louis Creed and his family, who move from Chicago to Ludlow. When the family’s cat is killed by a speeding truck on the highway near their home, Louis’ older neighbor Judd Crandall suggests burying the animal in a local, strange pet cemetery (the famous “Sematary” mis-spelling is by the locals).
Church then seems to come back… But he’s not quite the same. And when Louis’ son Gage is also killed on the road, he makes the somewhat questionable decision to bury him in the same mystical plot of land. And terror ensues…
The book has been adapted a few times –– most famously in 1989 by director Mary Lambert (that movie itself spawned a sequel, ‘Pet Sematary II’, also directed by Lambert and released in 1992). In 2019, Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer were behind the remake of the original story, working from a script by Jeff Buhler.
On the set of ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
Kölsch and Widmyer ruled themselves out of working on future films around the time ‘Bloodlines’ was first touted, with Widmyer telling Polygon:
“If you were going to do more, you’d probably do backstory stuff. I’d be really interested to see how somebody would do a sequel to this movie. It probably won’t be us.”
Buhler would go on to write the early drafts of ‘Bloodlines’, with Beer taking over when she came on to direct.
‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’ will be on Paramount+ on October 7th, setting it up ready for Halloween.
‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023.(L to R) Isabella Star LaBlanc as Donna and Forrest Goodluck as Manny appearing in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.Pam Grier as Majorie appearing in ‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,’ streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Philippe Bosse/Paramount Players.
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Exploring race and culture, love, and family divides is perhaps not what you’d expect from a film that is also trying to be a romantic comedy. Yet ‘You People’, co-written by/starring Jonah Hill and co-written/directed by ‘Black-ish’ creator Kenya Barris, pulls off the trick with just a couple of spinning plates dropped.
At its core, this is the story of Ezra (Hill), working in finance but dreaming of putting more of his energy into the podcast he hosts with Mo (Sam Joy). Unlucky in love despite his pushy Jewish mother Shelley’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) attempts to set him up with likely women from synagogue, he’s looking for more out of life.
One day, Ezra gets into Amira’s (Lauren London) car, thinking she’s his rideshare driver (in his defense, the woman looks awfully like Amira and drives a similar car). Despite the shock on both sides, the pair spark some chemistry and, six months later, end up engaged.
Which is where the culture clash comes in. Amira’s proudly Nation Of Islam parents, Akbar (Eddie Murphy) and Fatima (Nia Long) are far from thrilled that their daughter is marrying a white man, and despite his best efforts to win them over, Ezra keeps putting his foot (and practically the rest of his leg) in his mouth. “Do you just come here for our food and our women?” grumps Akbar at his first meeting with Ezra at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, which the latter claims is one of his regular haunts.
Amira doesn’t fare much better, Ezra’s parents Shelley and Arnold (David Duchovny) practically falling over themselves to prove how down with Black culture they truly are, despite being possibly the whitest people in Los Angeles.
Ezra and Amira plough on, trying to navigate the tricky waters of mixed-race relationships while their parents singularly fail to follow suite. A dinner party turns chaotic when Louis Farrakhan is brought up. And Akbar’s cherished headwear is accidentally set alight.
Eventually, after some disastrous rehearsal dinner speeches, emotions boil over and the couple decide that neither of them is quite equipped to handle the pressure that their families are putting on them. Which is, of course, not quite the end of the story.
Like Barris’ ‘Black-ish’ before it, ‘You People’ comments and satirizes race relations with a knowing wit. And, blended with the sort of awkward comedy Hill has honed working with the likes of Judd Apatow, it’s a marriage that works without ever forcing the issues. “For Black people in this country, white people are the cheater,” says Mo at one point, “and Black people are the girl who can’t move on.” All sorts of topics are covered and skewered with a knowing eye and neither side is painted as perfect.
Hill makes for an appealing lead, Ezra being more put together than some of the actor’s previous characters, and you can certainly sense the chemistry between the actor and London. She doesn’t quite get as much to do as she might, but the film works to give her a sense of personality outside of being a daughter and a partner.
Murphy, though some might be frustrated that he’s buttoning down his usually wilder persona, plays the hell out of Akbar, and just because he’s more of a quiet, intense presence, that doesn’t stop him being funny. This is a man who will do anything to make his daughter happy, but he’s also a rounded human being who, later in the film, is reminded that perhaps he shouldn’t judge his potential future son-in-law so harshly.
Louis-Dreyfus, meanwhile, is perfectly cast as Shelley, working whether she’s tying herself in knots to seem cool and accepting in front of Amira or fussing over Ezra. Duchovny gets shorter shrift, reduced to a couple of scenes and a running gag about how much he’s obsessed with Xzibit. But it’s worth remembering how funny he can be when he’s allowed to be.
Long, meanwhile, is also not used as fully as she might, though she does get a few moments to shine away from Murphy and the rest.
Around this core cast is built an impressively stacked supporting group, some drawn from the ‘Black-ish’ ensemble (Anthony Anderson cameos in a funny barbershop scene, while Deon Cole and Nelson Franklin are among those popping up). And then there are the one or two-line wonders, such as Elliot Gould and Rhea Perlman––the latter playing Ezra’s opinionated grandmother––who always add value.
Yet ‘You People’ can’t quite escape the TV background of its co-creator, feeling static and basic in its visual style. Though it makes use of some beautiful Los Angeles settings, mostly the scenes are flat and focused more on the funny people delivering dialogue than anything else. Which is fine given the quality of the written material and the performances but doesn’t help the feeling that you’re watching a sitcom or a collection of sketches. The fizzy transitions between certain scenes likewise make this feel more like ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ and less like a big screen experience (which it was for a week in Netflix’s current release model).
That doesn’t, however, affect the entertainment value much. Largely the pleasure here is seeing the talented likes of Murphy, Hill and Louis-Dreyfus making Barris and Hill’s script sing.
As a comic mix of ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ and ‘Meet The Parents’, ‘You People’ proves to be a fresh, funny and one of the better comedies to happen along in recent years. As a rom com, it has just enough of the romance, but the comedy side is certainly better served.
Given that it spread quickly around social media and beyond, you’ll probably have seen the trailer for Netflix’s ‘Cliff Beasts 6’, which landed on Wednesday much to general amusement and some small confusion.
It was, as most people quickly twigged, a meta first look at Judd Apatow’s new movie, ‘The Bubble’, which takes as its basic concept the idea of a group of actors and filmmakers trying to make the best of it in a quarantine hotel while shooting the aforementioned dino-laden blockbuster.
Loosely based on what they’d heard from the cast of ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ and other movie crews who had had to quarantine while making a movie, Apatow and ‘South Park’ veteran Pam Brady whipped up the story of the cast of ‘Cliff Beasts 6’, who must contend not just with greenscreen work, clashing egos, crazy film executives and long hours, but also being cooped up – albeit in luxurious style – while the production continues.
Naturally, tempers begin to fray, illness (though apparently it’s the “good virus” influenza) spreads and people are either plotting an escape or hooking up like rabbits.
From the look and tone of the trailer, the feel here is a little like TV’s ‘The White Lotus’ crossed with classic Hollywood takedown ‘The Player’ – a bunch of privileged (or desperate) people come into contact with the staff at the hotel, and the latter soon comes to hate the former.
There’s the fact that the studio behind the fake movie is struggling and really needs this latest ‘Cliff Beasts’ to be a hit, while many of the cast seem to be over it and ready to check out – literally trying to escape from a world that has become all about masks, nasal swab tests, zones for cast and crew and, in the words of Harry Trevaldwyn’s crew member Gunther, replacing physical touch with “making sweet eyes at each other” (he’s also part of a gag where he starts to resemble Benedict Cumberbatch through some deepfake technology – or in the movie’s case, some drugged up actors).
It’s a different milieu for Apatow, who has usually made movies about people trying cope with life changes or aging through more down-to-earth life experiences, but he’s spent enough time on film sets to know of what he speaks, and he’s certainly got the comedy touch.
Satires like this exist already, though (we already discussed ‘The Player’ as a classic example, and you have the likes of ‘America’s Sweethearts’, so ‘The Bubble’ will need to go some to find new things to say beyond “movie-making is madness” and “actors are demanding”. Still, the pandemic angle has promise for comedy fodder, and there’s a solid cast involved who clearly threw themselves into the roles.
Oh, and in addition to the trailer, there’s also a featurette about ‘Cliff Beasts’ to clue you into the “history” of this “franchise” and the “making” of the current “movie”.
‘The Bubble’ will arrive on Netflix on April 1. As for ‘Cliff Beasts 6?’ That all depends on how much fake footage they shot…
(L to R) Vir Das, Keegan-Michael Key, Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillan, Leslie Mann, David Duchovny, and Iris Apatow in Netflix’s ‘The Bubble.’
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(L to R) Guz Khan, Keegan-Michael Key, Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillan, Leslie Mann, David Duchovny, and Iris Apatow in Netflix’s ‘Cliff Beasts 6.’
Exciting times for monster movie fans today as the trailer for ‘Cliff Beasts 6: The Battle for Everest’ is online. And it promises all the giant creature action you could hope for.
The ‘Cliff Beasts’ movie franchise has a storied (if relatively recent) history in Hollywood. Launched a few years ago with the first outing, simply known as ‘Cliff Beasts’, it followed a heroic group of humans who discover a giant new threat in the shape of a dinosaur species dubbed the Cliff Beasts.
Somehow surviving the extinction of their fellow creatures, these mysterious monsters show up at some of the world’s most treacherous territory: high peaks.
That original movie was lambasted by critics for its slipshod plot and ludicrous dialogue, but audiences embraced it, and it quickly spawned sequels. A franchise was born, and while it sometimes faced challenges at the box office (the fourth film was a particular disappointment), it has surged in popularity.
Through the years, the cast has changed slightly, but the core remains strong, and in ‘Cliff Beasts 6: The Battle for Everest’, the team reunites after five long years to tackle the latest problem, this time, as the subtitle suggests, on Mount Everest.
Of course, there are the usual interpersonal dynamics at play, but the real issue here is the hulking creatures that they must survive. Flying beasties! Roaring beasties! And, naturally, a load of teeth just waiting to chomp down on unwitting humans.
We do wonder how some of these characters are climbing to such altitudes without oxygen supplies, but then logic has never really been the strongest element of these movies.
‘Cliff Beasts 6: The Battle for Everest’ will make it to Netflix on April 1. Hang on, on which date?
All right, so ‘Cliff Beasts’ as a franchise doesn’t exist outside of Judd Apatow’s new movie, ‘The Bubble’, and this is a meta-tastic teaser for that.
Written by Apatow and ‘South Park’ veteran Pam Brady, the movie is loosely inspired by the experiences of the ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ cast and crew, who had to spend their filming time in a quarantine hotel.
As the official (and officially brief) synopsis suggests: “Sneaking out. Hooking up. Melting down. The cast and crew of a blockbuster action franchise attempt to shoot a sequel while quarantining at a posh hotel.”
But does anyone else hope that they shot enough of “Cliff Beasts” for that to eventually show up in full? Come on Netflix, you’ve got the cash.
We can expect a proper trailer for the movie on Friday, while ‘The Bubble’ itself will be on Netflix on April 1. Yes, for real this time.
(L to R) Guz Khan, Keegan-Michael Key, Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillan, Leslie Mann, David Duchovny, and Iris Apatow in Netflix’s ‘Cliff Beasts 6.’
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