Movies
[News Bites] Cannes Edition: Mick Garris’ ‘Invasion,’ Causeway Shoots ‘Deadlocked’ & ‘Vampires Vs. Leprechauns’ Back-To-Back & A Slasher ‘After Party’!!
Little Studio Films signed Mick Garris (“The Shining,” “The Stand,” “Quicksilver Highway,” “Bag of Bones”) to direct Invasion, allegedly based on true events surrounding a reporter’s investigation into a possible UFO conspiracy in Washington DC. Casting is underway ahead of the start of production later this year. Screen Daily reports that the Los Angeles-based company will represent all rights to the sci-fi thriller at the Cannes market. “Its tone and style are reminiscent of “Mad Men” and Close Encounters of the Third Kind but with a strong, unique female lead,” Little Studio Films partner Alexia Melocchi said.
They also report that Causeway Pictures unveils two new horror pictures for the Cannes market. Red Mist screenwriter Spence Wright has written the script for the two Northern Irish based projects – Deadlocked and Vampires Verses Leprechauns – which will shoot consecutively in the autumn. Chris Baugh will direct Deadlocked, “a dark horror about a group of bankers trapped in a corporate tower as a zombie epidemic spreads around Belfast.” Horror comedy Vampires Verses Leprechauns, “about a small Irish village which is besieged by a group of vampires attempting to open a gateway to hell,” will be directed by first time feature film-maker Allan Gildea. Principal photography will take place on both in Northern Ireland.
Telespan 2000, Telecinco Cinema and Film Factory are teaming on Spanish slasher After Party, reports Variety. A smart genre shocker, After Party stars a young Spanish cast — Luis Hernandez (Three Steps Above the Sky) and Ursula Corbero (Paranormal Experience 3D). “It turns on a teen idol TV actor who wakes up with three girls after a wild party and, trapped in a house, receives cell phone vids of the real-time deaths of other party revelers, also locked up in the house. But things may not be quite how they seem.” First-time director Miguel Larraya directs, but Spanish genre specialists occupy key crew positions: After Party cinematographer is Pablo Rosso, d.p. on the REC franchise, composer is Lucas Vidal (Sleep Tight) and fx supervisor is Isidro Fernandez (Extraterrestrial). Screenplay is by Larraya and Fernando Sancristobal.
After multiple delays, Blumhouse Atomic Monster finally launches the newest android that is sure to light your fire while keeping you on the edge of your seat: SOULM8TE is set to release soon.
SOULM8TE arrives on Digital on August 1, 2026, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise, Monolith) stars alongside Claudia Doumit (“The Boys”). The spinoff is described as a ’90s-style erotic thriller with a “new technological twist.”
David Rysdahl also stars in the upcoming SOULM8TE.
The film follows “a man (Rysdahl) who acquires an Artificially Intelligent android (Sullivan) to help him cope with the recent loss of his wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, the man inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate.”
Kate Dolan (You Are Not My Mother) directs. The filmmaker rewrote an original draft from Rafael Jordan (Salvage Marines), based on a story by James Wan, Ingrid Bisu and Jordan.
“When Blumhouse Atomic Monster first approached me about an erotic thriller set in the M3GAN-verse, I thought, are you insane? But something drew me in. We exist in a bizarre time where companies sell us ‘connection’ through apps, algorithms, and AI. Yet those are the same forces pulling us apart. The lonelier we get, the more dependent we become on the tools doing the pulling,” states Dolan. “SOULM8TE is a movie about that vicious cycle. It is a satirical, unhinged movie that explores desire, obsession, autonomy, and control. It’s a movie that knows how ridiculous it is, and I’d argue it’s best watched the way you’d watch Basic Instinct or Showgirls now, with friends, a drink in hand, and zero shame about shouting at the screen.”
Producer and Blumhouse Atomic Monster CEO, Jason Blum says, “Kate Dolan has expertly blended tech paranoia with erotic thriller in SOULM8TE, which is just as fun as that sounds, but also has more on its mind than you might think.”
Watch the new trailer below that unleashes a new killer AI bot, this time for an older demographic. SOULM8TE is rated “R” for “Strong violence, gore, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language.”
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