Movies
‘Carrie’ Casting Down To Two Very Different Actresses
Wow. Casting for the lead in Sony/MGM’s remake of Stephen King’s Carrie is down to two very different choices. Chloe Grace Moretz (pictured above; Kick Ass, Let Me In) and Haley Bennett (pictured below; Lawless).
Per Vulture, “now we’re told the field has narrowed to two main contenders: the 15-year-old Chloë Moretz (Kick-Ass) and the 24-year-old Haley Bennett… we also hear that earlier this week, The Descendants’ Shailene Woodley passed on an offer from MGM to take the title role.” Apparently Jodie Foster has been offered the role of Carrie’s mother but there’s no word yet on if she’ll do it.
Kimberly Peirce is directing the redo of King’s thriller “about the telekinetic teenager who gets pushed too far at the prom and wreaks havoc on her fellow high school students,” .Carrie was previously turned into the 1976 film that starred Sissy Spacek, John Travolta and Amy Irving, with Piper Laurie as the repressive mother.
The new script has been written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. 
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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