Movies
Nia DaCosta’s ‘Candyman’ Confirmed and Set for 2020 Release!
This past September, Bloody Disgusting exclusively broke the news that Jordan Peele‘s Monkeypaw Productions would be producing a remake to the Bernard Rose-directed Candyman, a chilling urban horror film adapted from Clive Barker‘s “Books of Blood” short story “The Forbidden”. This has been confirmed this afternoon with news that it is being billed as a “spiritual sequel” that returns to the neighborhood where the legend began: the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood.
“Urban” had a dual meaning in that the original adaptation was moved from England to the now demolished Cabrini–Green public housing development in Chicago, while the antagonist is an urban legend in himself, the Candyman (played by Tony Todd), an artist and son of a slave who had his hand severed and was then murdered (with bees, of course) by his lover’s father. Released in 1992, the film spawned two sequels, the latter being direct-to-video.
While lesser known among the horror icons, Candyman is easily one of the scariest; he can be summoned by saying his name five times while facing a mirror. No word on if Todd will reprise his role.
Nia DaCosta (Little Woods) will be directing from a screenplay by Peele and Win Rosenfeld, adds Deadline.
“The original was a landmark film for black representation in the horror genre,” said Peele in the press release. “Alongside Night of the Living Dead, Candyman was a major inspiration for me as filmmaker — and to have a bold new talent like Nia at the helm of this project is truly exciting. We are honored to bring the next chapter in the Candyman canon to life and eager to provide new audiences with an entry point to Clive Barker’s legend.”
MGM will release this new film on June 12, 2020.
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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