Yet as these things always seem to do, the project has since evolved back into more of a reboot, with Stallone dropping out (hopefully not down a giant cliff) and the storyline switching to characters played by Lily James and Pierce Brosnan.
And there have also been some changes behind the camera, too.
What’s the story of this new ‘Cliffhanger’?
Lily James on the set of ‘Cliffhanger’. Photo: Rocket Science.
The first change beyond the stars for the movie is in the script, which is based on a story by Ana Lily Amirpour (who was involved with the film back in another incarnation in 2019). Variety has heard it described as a father-daughter take on ‘Die Hard.’
Brosnan will play seasoned mountaineer Ray Cooper, who operates a luxury chalet in the Dolomites with daughter Sydney.
During a weekend trip with a billionaire’s son, they are targeted by a gang of kidnappers. Ray’s other daughter Naomi (James), still haunted by a past climbing accident, witnesses the attack and escapes. To save her family, she must confront her fears and fight for survival.
While Ric Roman Waugh was aboard to direct the film when Sly was still aboard, the reins have now passed to ‘Non-Stop’s Jaume Collet-Serra, with the producing team of Rocket Science still aboard after all these different iterations.
Collet-Serra is busy rolling cameras on the movie now in Austria and offered up this statement:
“Shooting our movie on location in the Dolomites using large format cameras was imperative for us to show the scope and scale of the story we’re telling. We’re going to bring the audience a truly thrilling and visceral, premium theatrical experience. Lily in particular has gone above and beyond for the role, putting in real training and learning to climb. Her dedication has allowed us to capture some incredible shots we couldn’t have achieved otherwise, and the whole crew is blown away by her commitment.”
When will the new ‘Cliffhanger’ dangle into theaters?
Rocket Science will be offering domestic distribution rights to the movie, with CAA Media selling international.
Which is a longwinded way of saying that there is no studio aboard yet, so we’ll have to wait for any release date details. But the fact remains that the movie shooting at all is a big step forward.
(L to R) Lily James and Richard Madden in ‘Cinderella’. Photo: Walt Disney Studios.
‘The Fist Omen’ successfully connects to the mythology of the original ‘The Omen’ with a strong opening sequence and third act but suffers from pacing issues throughout. Director Arkasha Stevenson crafts some solid scares but fails to keep the momentum building through the second act. However, Nell Tiger Free’s fearless performance carries the movie with the help of strong supporting performances from Maria Caballero, Sônia Braga, Ralph Ineson and Bill Nighy.
The film is set in Rome in the mid-1970’s and begins by introducing us to Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson), who is investigating a conspiracy within the Catholic Church. We then meet Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free), an American sent to Rome to work in an orphanage before taking the veil. Margaret has suffered from strange visions since she was a child and was recruited by longtime mentor Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy).
Upon arrival at the orphanage, Margaret meets her new roommate, Luz Valez (Maria Caballero), a young woman also preparing to take the veil but who wants to experience as much of life as possible before becoming a nun. Margaret also meets Sister Silvia (Sônia Braga), who runs the orphanage, and a young girl named Carlita Skianna (Nicole Sorace), who suffers from the same strange visions as Margaret.
While Margaret secretly enjoys Rome’s nightlife with Luz, she also realizes that something strange is happening with Carlita and discovers that her own dark visions have returned. Margaret soon becomes suspicious of Sister Silvia and the other nuns, who lock Carlita away from the other children. When unexplained events begin happening at the orphanage, Margaret is contacted by Father Brennan who shares his theory on the events.
According to Brennan, there is a secret society within the Catholic church that wants to birth the Anti-Christ so that the modern world will believe in God again. Believing that Carlita is the key, Margaret works with Father Brennan to save Carlita and stop the church from enacting their evil plans, but she soon learns that she can trust no one, including herself.
Director Arkasha Stevenson has a good feel for crafting scary moments and there are quite a few good ones here, but the set-up can feel slow and unruly at times. While the pacing feels off, the mood and tone is solid and delivers what you would expect from an ‘Omen’ prequel. Stevenson and co-writers Tom Smith and Keith Thomas wisely place the prequel in the mid-1970s, right before the events of the original (erasing the possibility of a ‘First Omen’ sequel) but leading right up to the original movie.
The location, period setting, production design and costumes are all well executed, which adds to the film’s gothic tone. Stevenson also gets very good performances from her cast, despite the screenplay’s shortcomings.
‘The First Omen’ works best when it is exploring the mythology of the original film in the opening sequence and the third act, but it loses its urgency in the first and second act. Being a prequel, the film is a bit predictable as we know that it will end with the birth of Damian. How they get there doesn’t completely work, and the movie gets lost at times setting up what we all know is coming. However, once it gets there, it’s a race to the finish with a very exciting third act.
The opening sequence featuring Father Brennan questioning another priest played by Charles Dance feels like a classic ‘Omen’ scene, but then the tone changes once we are introduced to Margaret and we don’t get back to uncovering the conspiracy until later in the film.
However, the conspiracy is well thought out, and fans of the original will be happy to see a posthumous photo cameo from Gregory Peck, who starred in ‘The Omen,’ connecting this new movie to the original.
Actress Nell Tiger Free gives a very good performance and really carries much of the film. As Margaret, she is completely believable as a quiet young American concealing a dark secret of her own and is also fun in her moments when the character is exploring life outside the church. She has some excellent scenes with Father Brennan, Cardinal Lawrence, and Sister Silvia, and has great chemistry with Maria Caballero and Nicole Sorace.
Speaking of Caballero, she brings Luz alive in a very interesting way, creating a seemingly innocent character who is much more nefarious than one would expect. While Sorace fills her demanding role well, playing a possibly possessed child with very little dialogue.
Veteran actors Bill Nighy, Sônia Braga and Ralph Ineson are all welcomed additions to the film, but I did wish there was more time to explore their characters. Nighy’s Cardinal Lawrence is a fascinating character but has very little screentime and practically disappears in the middle of the movie. Ineson’s Father Brannan is probably the most developed of the three characters, but again, is not given enough time to truly explore his role.
Déjà vu?
Sydney Sweeney in ‘Immaculate.’ Photo: Neon.
Hollywood is no stranger to delivering two different movies about the same subject at the same time, and in fact has a long track record of doing so. We had two asteroid movies (‘Armageddon’ and ‘Deep Impact’), two volcano movies (‘Volcano’ and ‘Dante’s Peak‘) and even two movies about runner Steve Prefontaine (‘Prefontaine’ and ‘Without Limits’). So, it should be no surprise that we are getting two different “Nunsploitation” horror movies just a few weeks apart.
The other “Nunsploitation” movie already in theaters is Sydney Sweeney’s “so bad its good” ‘Immaculate’. ‘The First Omen’ is basically the same exact movie, just without the popular ‘Euphoria’ actress and featuring ‘Omen’ mythology. I’m sure the movie will be unable to avoid comparisons to ‘Immaculate,’ and fairly or not, they are basically carbon copies of each other. While I liked ‘Immaculate’ slightly more due to Sweeney’s performance and its tongue-in-cheek vibes, fans of the original series will probably prefer ‘First Omen’ because of its connections to the overall franchise.
While ‘The First Omen’ drags through much of the middle, its opening and closing sequences are strong, as is its ties to the original. Nonetheless, Nell Tiger Free gives a very strong performance and is helped by an excellent supporting cast of actors. In the end, while it’s not a home run, ‘The First Omen’ does have an interesting premise and connects to the franchise well-enough to entertain fans of the genre and the series alike.
‘The First Omen’ receives 6 out of 10 stars.
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What is the Plot of ‘The First Omen’?
The plot follows an American woman (Nell Tiger Free) sent to work at a church in Rome who uncovers a sinister conspiracy to bring about the birth of the Antichrist.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Nell Tiger Free in-person about her work on ‘The First Omen,’ her first reaction to the screenplay, being an ‘Omen’ fan, her character’s strange history, preparing for the role, working with Bill Nighy, and collaborating with director Arkasha Stevenson on set.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Free and director Arkasha Stevenson.
Moviefone: To begin with, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and were you an ‘Omen’ fan before you signed on for the project?
Nell Tiger Free: Big time. I love ‘The Omen.’ I love horror. I love all things weird and wonderful, and so getting to do this movie has been a real dream for me, honestly. It’s like all my favorite things combined, so I feel very lucky to be a part of this. When I read the original script, I remember almost looking at it initially from a fan’s point of view, not something that I was reading for potential work. It was more just like, what are they going to do with the prequel to ‘The Omen’? This was before I was signed on. I read the script and I remember reading it and going, okay, that’s great. That’s a really good idea. I just thought it was a great idea and a great expansion on the universe, “The Omen-Verse.” It just felt like it worked. Then I was like, I really hope they let me do this movie. I was really excited by it. As an actress and as a fan, thumbs up, I would say. That was my first initial reaction.
MF: Can you talk about the strange visions that haunted your character as a child and how that still affects her as an adult?
MF: Yeah, absolutely. I think when we first meet Margaret, it’s all sunny, sweet and lovely, and that is true to a degree and that’s what you see on the surface. But Margaret’s deeply troubled from the opening frame. When she’s seeing Rome, she’s so mesmerized because she’s never been away from where she lives. She’s grown up there and she doesn’t know where she comes from or who she is. She grew up in an orphanage and she was very mistreated as a young child. Those things plague her and trouble her. She spent her entire childhood and adult life having people tell her that what she’s seeing isn’t real and to constantly question her reality and to constantly question herself. What’s so lovely is that at some point, she decides to stop listening and listen to herself instead. That was a very fun moment and fun arc to play.
MF: Was this an emotionally difficult or physically exhausting role to play?
NTF: Yeah, very much so it was. Physically, it was exhausting, but in such a rewarding, lovely way. I love being pushed like that. I love being challenged. Those days were my favorite days. The days where I’m doing the most intense, crazy stuff, those are the days I was most looking forward to. Emotionally, you can’t help what happens after. You can’t really help what happens before. You can only focus on what’s going on during. And during, if it feels real, then you push it and you just go for it and you let it run. You let over you. If you can’t stop crying, great, keep it going. I love that too. I’m a weirdo. The worst time it looks like I’m having on screen, the best time I’m having in my heart in real life.
MF: Can you talk about Margaret’s history with Cardinal Lawrence, why she trusts him, and working with Bill Nighy?
NTF: It wasn’t hard to act like I trusted Bill Nighy because I trust him with my life, honestly. Sometimes I think if I got arrested, he’d be my first phone call. I think he’d just know what to do. I don’t know. I mean, that relationship is so nuanced, I think, between the two of them, even right up until the last moments. There’s never a clear, wrong or right thing that happens, and I think there is genuine real love between the two of them. He’s very much a father figure for Margaret, and I think he sees her very much as a child, as a daughter figure, and the love between them is very real and its real right up until the end. Unfortunately, there are some sinister things behind it, but it’s a real relationship and that’s why it’s so heartbreaking when we see the building blocks start to come down.
MF: Finally, can you talk about collaborating with director Arkasha Stevenson on set?
NTF: The movie is Arkasha. It was everything. The whole universe was just infinitely better with Arkasha in it. I mean, having her there was everything to me. It was so important. I think with this subject matter and the content and weird stuff that I had to do, we really had to trust each other. I really had to trust her, and I did straight away within the first 10 seconds of meeting her. She just got more wonderful as the days went by and her directorial style is so hands-on and so respectful. She values every opinion and every thought that you have. It’s not like, okay, do one for you and do one for me, take-wise, which happens all the time where you’re at odds with what you think it should be. She’s always collaborative every time. She’s also just the loveliest person in the world, so it was a real dream. It was a real gift.
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What is the Plot of ‘The First Omen’?
The plot follows an American woman (Nell Tiger Free) sent to work at a church in Rome who uncovers a sinister conspiracy to bring about the birth of the Antichrist.
The series centers on Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) and Sean Turner (Toby Kebbell), a wealthy Philadelphia couple who recently lost their young son, Jericho. After Dorothy suffers a psychotic break the couple undergoes transitory object therapy and use a lifelike “reborn doll,” which Dorothy comes to believe is her “real child.”
The couple eventually hires a young nanny named Leanne Grayson (Nell Tiger Free) to take care of the “baby” and it is soon revealed that she has supernatural abilities. Dorothy’s alcoholic brother Julian (Rupert Grint), also becomes aware of Leanne’s powers.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Nell Tiger Free and Toby Kebbell about their work on ‘Servant’ Season 4, ending the series, what the show has meant to them, and working with M. Night Shyamalan.
Nell Tiger Free stars on Apple TV+’s ‘Servant’ Season 4.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Nell Tiger Free and Toby Kebbell about season 4 of ‘Servant.’
Moviefone: To begin with, now that the series is ending, what has been the defining moment for both of you working on this show?
Toby Kebbell: I think I don’t get my defining moment really until this finale. I thought I’d had a bunch with the cooking and all the elaborate cookery we did with all the different bizarre creatures, and my wife’s placenta in a croquembouche. But no, I think in season four I’m chasing the truth now. This final season I’m believing in Nell’s hocus-pocus, as Sean sees it.
With Leanne’s spinning and then that terrible accident happens at the end, so I’m right back to the Sean I used to be. So now, I’m chasing this goal of telling my wife the truth and making sure she listens. It’s actually a really awesome scene. Nell kind of chats to us in a car, and then it’s just me and Lauren and Rupert. It was fantastic. I think that will be it, that will be the defining moment.
Nell Tiger Free: I think Toby is right. I think that all of us get our big defining moments as we draw this thing to a close. I’ve been lucky that in each season I’ve had kind of a pivot and a turning point, I’ve had an episode that has led me from one thought process to another. I think that the most pivotal moment for me over the four seasons is going to be right up to episode 10, and that’s where my big moment lies. I think that’s the answer.
Nell Tiger Free in ‘Servant,’ premiering January 13, 2023 on Apple TV+.
MF: Finally, what has it been like for both of you to have an opportunity to work with M. Night Shyamalan on this series?
NTF: It’s been an experience. He was there at the birth of this and he’s there right at the end. Having his voice, his ideas and his thoughts echo through every choice, everything that we make and everything that we create has been a privilege. He’s a great, respected, well accoladed director for a reason. Because he is a master of the genre and he knows what needs to be done to get the best results. It’s been quite the experience.
TK: I’ll mirror that. It’s been very intriguing just the way he directs. There was a scene between me and Lauren at dinner, it was just a couple’s dinner. It was a one shot and it was very precise the way he wanted to do it. We did it over and over. I mean, almost to the level of (David) Fincher, the number of takes.
He really got to the point where he was like, “I guess it’s just, I don’t want a single stutter. I don’t want an uh or an um, I just want this to flow through. Can we try it that way?” It was amazing how it turned out. It was so difficult to get through it without an uh. It was four and a half pages of dialogue at the end of the day. So, it was challenging, but he’s the kind of person that you’d raise to that kind of a challenge for.
Toby Kebbell stars in Apple TV+’s ‘Servant’ Season 4.
For three seasons now, ‘Servant’, the creepy, stylish Apple TV+ series created by Tony Basgallop and executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan, has been bringing us ever weirder drama between a family, the nanny they hired to look after their “son” (a doll replacing their deceased infant as a way to deal with grief) and the church that she is now seemingly fighting against.
With Season 4, it all comes to an end, and the final trailer for the show has now landed. Just don’t expect it all to be wrapped up in a tidy little bow.
‘Servant’, for those who might not have been aware until now, follows Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) and Sean (Toby Kebbell) Turner, a seemingly well-to-do couple living in Philadelphia. He’s an experimental chef, and she’s a TV reporter. But their lives are struck by tragedy when their baby son Jericho dies.
Plunged into the depths of grief, Dorothy retreats from the world, causing more concern for Sean and her brother Julian (Rupert Grint). To try and help them both recover, Sean buys a doll that could pass for Jericho and hires a nanny, Leanne Grayson (Nell Tiger Free).
Nell Tiger Free in ‘Servant,’ premiering January 13, 2023 on Apple TV+.
But that’s just the tip of the oddness iceberg, as there are signs that Jericho might be back alive and the demure, nervous Leanne belongs to a church––or is it a cult?––that has designs on the child and the family.
And, as the series has gone on, the plot turns have become ever stranger (which, let’s be honest, is something we’d expect with Shyamalan’s name among the credits).
Season 3 ended as the enigmatic and malevolent Leanne had grabbed the resurrected baby Jericho from Dorothy as the latter fell through their brownstone’s rotted staircase.
Dorothy is back and seemingly recovered in the new season, as much as the severely paranoid woman can recover. “She scares me,” Ambrose’s character admits as Leanne puts on dark lipstick and glides around the house, more powerful than ever. But who really has the power?
(L to R) Tony Revolori and Nell Tiger Free in ‘Servant,’ premiering January 13, 2023 on Apple TV+.
Season 4 promises to tip into the apocalyptic as Leanne displays more abilities, manipulating people and animals around her––and even power lines. ‘Servant’ is certainly not looking to go out quietly.
Here’s the official synopsis: “Leanne’s war with the Church of Lesser Saints heightens, threatening Spruce Street, the city of Philadelphia and beyond. Meanwhile, the shattered Turner family must not only confront the increasing threat of Leanne, but the certain reality that Dorothy is waking up. As the Turner family brownstone continues to crumble, questions are finally answered: Who is Leanne Grayson and who is the child in their home?”
We’ll find out when ‘Servant’ Season 4 kicks off with its first episode on Friday January 13th, with further episodes of the 10-episode final run launching weekly.
(L to R) Toby Kebbell, Rupert Grint and Nell Tiger Free in ‘Servant,’ premiering January 13, 2023 on Apple TV+.
Nell Tiger Free in “Servant,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Though it sometimes feels like legacy sequels – often taking the same name as the original film such as ‘Halloween’ or ‘Scream’ seem to be all the rage on the horror front right now, there is apparently still room for prequels.
In actual fact, a prequel to 1970s horror classic ‘The Omen’ has been in the works for several years now, dating back to at least 2016, that dim and distant time when 20th Century Studios was still called 20th Century Fox and wasn’t owned by Disney.
Yet while the big merger probably put a crimp in development, the movie is still making its way through the usual pathways to screens, called ‘First Omen’. And in the latest progress report has Nell Tiger Free cast in the lead.
Instead, Arkasha Stevenson, whose resume is mostly full of short films and work on TV series such as FX’s ‘Legion’ and mystery thriller ‘Briarpatch’, will make her feature-length directorial debut on the movie.
And though Ben Jacoby wrote the original script, Stevenson has been at work on a new draft with co-writer Tim Smith.
Harvey Spencer Stephens as Damien Thorn in 1976’s ‘The Omen.’
Plot details are a mystery so far – there’s no word, for example as to whether the word ‘First’ in the title refers to an antichrist story set years before the original movie or if it might chart the buildup to the story explored there, and the dark forces gathering to carry out the Devil’s wishes.
Richard Donner’s 1976 film starred Gregory Peck as an ambassador who comes to suspect that his five-year-old son Damien might just be the antichrist. The movie was a huge success upon release and has long since entered the horror hall of fame, preying upon fears of swapped children and evil nannies .
It spawned two sequels, a series of novels and was remade in 2006 by Fox, with John Moore directing. There was even a short-lived TV spin-off, featuring a grown Damien (played by Bradley James) discovering his origin and wrangling with life as the antichrist. Despite the presence of ‘Walking Dead’ veteran Glen Mazzara running the show, it only lasted for one 10-episode season.
As for Free, she knows a thing or two about creepy danger and strange children, having spent the last few years as one of the stars of ‘Servant’, the Apple TV+ series about a grieving couple trying to move on from the death of their child by using a plastic substitute and who hire a seemingly sweet nanny (Free) who turns out to have dark connections.
Given that it’s still at a relatively early stage, ‘First Omen’ doesn’t have a release date yet.
Nell Tiger Free in “Servant,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
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