Movies
Meet the Wise Captain Speke in ‘World War Z’
The Pacific star James Badge Dale is going back into battle, albeit against an already-dead enemy.
Variety reports that Dale is in negotiations to join Brad Pitt in Paramount Picture’s World War Z, set 10 years after a global zombie epidemic.
Marc Forster is directing from J. Michael Straczynski and Matthew Carnahan’s script, which is adapted from Max Brooks’ popular novel, told in oral history form from various perspectives around the world.
Pitt will play a researcher for the U.N. Postwar Commission, while Mireille Enos of AMC’s “The Killing” was previously cast as his wife, a mother of two girls.
Dale will play Capt. Speke, an American soldier who trusts his instincts and is wise beyond his years. The character tries to alert authorities that the zombie threat is real, and is stuck in a military detention center when the zombie outbreak begins.
Production is slated to begin this July in London, Malta and other locales overseas.
Dale also stars in the indie thriller The Grey alongside Liam Neeson.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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