Movies
Warners Creates The Illusion Of A Haunting In ‘The Waiting’
Warner Bros. Pictures has pre-emptively acquired The Waiting, a script by first time screenwriters Mark Bianculli and Jeff Richard, reports Deadline.
Described as Rear Window meets Paranormal Activity, “mysterious events occur when two high school filmmakers decide to create the illusion of a haunting on an unsuspecting neighbor.”
These scribes have been working their way up the ladder. Bianculli is currently a writer’s assistant on CBS’s “Unforgettable,” and previously a PA on FX’s “Justified.” Richard worked as a production assistant on “NCSI: Los Angeles.” Both writers worked as assistants at Industry Entertainment where they met Rosalie Swedlin. Bianculli became Swedlin’s assistant at Anonymous Content.
Final Destination Bloodlines filmmakers Zach Lipovsky & Adam Stein return to their mutant roots with Freaks Part II, their follow-up to 2018’s Freaks. The first look has arrived ahead of the film’s world premiere.
Freaks Part II is the official closing film of Fantasia, where it will make its world premiere.
In the sequel, “Several years after a traumatic escape, we meet Mary (Amanda Crew, Freaks) and her daughter Chloe (Lorelei Olivia Mote, Riddle of Fire) as they live on the road, hiding their powers and identities. They are hunted by the Abnormal Defense Force, paramilitary police that specialize in ruthlessly exterminating ‘freaks‘ like them. Mary is fueled by revenge, determined to find the ADF officer (Lili Taylor, The Conjuring) who killed her first child.“
It’s not just the story that’s progressing with this sequel, but also the gore. Fantasia teases, “There’s also inventive gore – the most we’ve seen in a Canadian film in years – that punctuates the outstanding performances and serious subject matter.”
Mote takes over for Lexy Kolker, who played Chloe in the 2018 film that saw the young protagonist with growing powers confined to her home by an overprotective and paranoid father (Emile Hirsch).
Rafael Motamayor wrote in his review, “Freaks feels like an even more grounded, small-scale version of the X-Men, a sci-fi film filled with surprises, a message about parenthood and wanting to keep your child safe and isolated from the world, and a future star in Lexy Kolker.”
Lipovsky & Stein’s have a packed slate ahead, co-writing Gremlins 3 with Chris Columbus, directing the sci-fi survival film The Earthling for Columbia, directing the psychological horror film Long Lost for Amblin, and directing the sci-fi drama The Traveler for Paramount.