Movies
‘The Woman In Black’ Scares Up Record-Breaking Numbers In The UK
THR writes that Daniel Radcliffe’s first post-Harry Potter role in British horror flick The Woman In Black has helped scare up record breaking figures for a British fright flick.
The Hammer-produced film, directed by James Watkins and adapted by Jane Goldman from the classic novel by Susan Hill, has spent three weeks at number one in the U.K. boxoffice ringing up a total of £14.6 million ($23.2 million) from 457 screens.
The makers claim those figures make it the U.K.’s highest grossing British horror film since records began 20 years ago.
The movie has now scared up more box office lucre than Hollywood -backed productions shot in the U.K. with British talent including The Others (£11.9 million, $18.9 million), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (£11.5 million, $18.2 million) and Interview with a Vampire (£10.7 million, $17 million), as well as home-grown horrors such as Shaun Of The Dead (£6.7 million, $10.6 million) and 28 Days Later (£6.3 million, $10 million).
Xavier Marchand, president of worldwide distribution, Alliance Films and managing director Momentum Pictures, said with The Woman in Black occupying the number one spot in the U.K. for three weeks and its performance stateside that has seen it take more than $50 million, it indicates how British films “can resonate not only here in the U.K. but also abroad.”
Movies
’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.
No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.
28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.
Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.
The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
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