Movies
True Blood Vamp Joins ‘Straw Dogs’ Remake
Screen Gems has set Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns) and Alexander Skarsgard (“True Blood”) to star alongside James Marsden in Straw Dogs, a reimagining of the 1971 Sam Peckinpah film. Rod Lurie wrote the script and will direct. Shooting is scheduled to begin in August. Marsden plays a Hollywood screenwriter who relocates with his wife to her hometown in Mississippi. Bosworth plays the wife, who left the South for LA. to become an actress and returns home so her husband can finish his script in quiet. Skarsgard plays her high school boyfriend, an ex-football hero who sees the return of his former girlfriend as a way to reclaim glory. Dustin Hoffman starred in Sam Pekinpah’s ‘Straw Dogs’ in 1971.
Pictured: Kate Boseworth
It’s now been seven years since the release of Blumhouse’s Ma starring Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, with talks of a sequel dating back to last year. Last we heard, Emmy-winner Ashley Nicole Black (“Shrinking,” “Ted Lasso”) would be writing the screenplay for Ma 2, and Octavia Spencer provides an update in a new chat with Entertainment Tonight.
“We are working hard on getting a great script out. Blumhouse is the best at what they do. It’s going to be chock-full of surprises,” Octavia Spencer tells the outlet in a fresh update.
“Ma has proven to be a social phenomenon since its release in 2019, with fans eagerly embracing the film and Octavia’s iconic performance as Ma. Ma likes to say ‘Don’t make me drink alone,’ so we’re thrilled Octavia will join us again for a second round,” Blumhouse Founder/CEO Jason Blum had teased when the sequel was originally announced last Summer.
Spencer plays Sue Ann in Ma, a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. One day, she is asked by Maggie, a new teenager in town, to buy some booze for her and her friends, and Sue Ann sees the chance to make some unsuspecting, if younger, friends of her own.
While no director has been announced as of yet, Tate Taylor helmed the 2019 original from a script by Scotty Landes. Taylor previously detailed that Sue Ann’s fate was intentionally ambiguous, so the door was open for a return in a possible sequel. That Ma earned more than $60 million at the box office meant a sequel was practically inevitable. It also doesn’t hurt that the character popped on social media, becoming something of a viral meme sensation.
Stay tuned for more on Ma 2 as we learn it.