Movies
Hideaki Anno’s ‘Shin Kamen Rider’ To Make Its North American Premiere Ahead of Fathom Events Release
From director Hideaki Anno (Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman), live action reboot Shin Kamen Rider recently opened in Japanese theaters, and is finally poised to make its North American premiere thanks to Japan Society.
Japan Society’s North American premiere event for Shin Kamen Rider will take place on May 23, in partnership with Fathom Events and Toei Co. Ltd., who will bring the film to over 700 theaters around the U.S. for one night only on May 31.
Judging by the action-filled trailer, this sounds like an event you won’t want to miss.
In the film, “Hongo Takeshi awakens to discover he has been transformed into a grasshopper-hybrid cyborg. Becoming the Masked Rider, he must fight the mysterious evil organization SHOCKER to protect all of mankind. Shin Kamen Rider is Anno Hideaki’s ode to the legendary tokusatsu franchise, Japan’s biggest hero, and his dearest childhood icon. Go! Go! Let’s go!”
From the press release: “Since 1971, the Kamen Rider franchise has thrilled audiences in Japan. One of the most popular tokusatsu television series, it is in the same special effects-driven genre as sagas including Power Rangers and Ultraman. Core to Kamen Rider is a superpowered, motorcycle-riding masked hero, and the franchise has given rise to over 30 different television incarnations, all focused on different masked heroes whose powers have been influenced by insects, dragons, ghosts, magic, music, and even fruit. Written and directed by Hideaki Anno, Shin Kamen Rider reimagines the original iteration of the masked rider for a whole new generation.”
“We’re honored and humbled to bring Shin Kamen Rider to audiences in North America for the first time,” said Peter Tatara, Japan Society’s Director of Film. “We believe Hideaki Anno’s tribute to one of his childhood heroes will ignite both old and new fans here at Japan Society and all across the country.”
Japan Society will present the first screening of Shin Kamen Rider in North America at 7 PM on Tuesday, May 23. Tickets are available now at japansociety.org/film. Japan Society is a 116-year-old nonprofit organization focused on growing the connections between the U.S. and Japan.
Following the Japan Society premiere, Shin Kamen Rider will be presented in theaters across the country for one night only on May 31 through Fathom Events. For more information about Fathom’s nationwide screenings and the full list of participating movie theaters, please visit fathomevents.com.
Universal has been having a hell of a time getting their Universal Monsters brand back on a better path in the wake of the Dark Universe collapsing, with four movies thus far released in the years since The Mummy attempted to get that interconnected universe off the ground.
First was Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, to date the only post-Mummy hit for the Universal Monsters, followed by The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, and now Abigail. The latter three films have attempted to bring Dracula back to the screen in fresh ways, but both Demeter and Renfield severely underperformed at the box office. And while Abigail is a far better vampire movie than those two, it’s unfortunately also struggling to turn a profit.
Where does the Universal Monsters brand go from here? The good news is that Universal and Blumhouse have once again enlisted the help of Leigh Whannell for their upcoming Wolf Man reboot, which is howling its way into theaters in January 2025. This is good news, of course, because Whannell’s Invisible Man was the best – and certainly most profitable – of the post-Dark Universe movies that Universal has been able to conjure up. The film ended its worldwide run with $144 million back in 2020, a massive win considering the $7 million budget.
Given the film was such a success, you may wondering why The Invisible Man 2 hasn’t come along in these past four years. But the wait for that sequel may be coming to an end.
Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast this week, The Invisible Man star Elisabeth Moss notes that she feels “very good” about the sequel’s development at this point in time.
“Blumhouse and my production company [Love & Squalor Pictures]… we are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” Moss updates this week. “And I feel very good about it.”
She adds, “We are very much intent on continuing that story.”
At the end of the 2020 movie, Elisabeth Moss’s heroine Cecilia Kass uses her stalker’s high-tech invisibility suit to kill him, now in possession of the technology that ruined her life.
Stay tuned for more on The Invisible Man 2 as we learn it.
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