Movies
[Sundance ’14] Lionsgate Gets Zombie ‘Cooties’!
In the first potential deal out of the ongoing fest, Heat Vision reports that Lionsgate is nearing a deal to acquire North American distribution rights to Cooties, the horror-comedy starring Elijah Wood (Maniac) that premiered Saturday at Sundance’s Park City at Midnight sidebar.
Cooties marks the debut feature of Wood and his SpectreVision production banner, which he runs with Daniel Noah and Josh Waller. It is also the debut movie of directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion.
“Cooties follows a struggling writer/substitute teacher whose first day at an elementary school sees him dealing with a virus that turns the kids into mindless killing cannibals. The teacher bands with the survivors — played by Rainn Wilson, Alison Pill, Jack McBrayer and Leigh Whannell, among others — to figure out an escape from the school.”
Whannell, who is the writer behind the Saw and Insidious horror franchises, partnered with Ian Brennan, the co-creator of TV’s “Glee,” to write the script for the movie that had the midnight crowd in stitches when it premiered Saturday night.
In a nice bit of kismet, Cooties premiered exactly 10 years after the Sundance premiere of Whannell’s Saw, which Lionsgate bought and went on to become one of the biggest horror franchises in history.
After pulling in $28 million at the worldwide box office this month, director (and star) Dev Patel’s critically acclaimed action-thriller Monkey Man is now available to watch at home.
You can rent Monkey Man for $19.99 or digitally purchase the film for $24.99!
Monkey Man is currently 88% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with Bloody Disgusting’s head critic Meagan Navarro awarding the film 4.5/5 stars in her review out of SXSW back in March.
Meagan raves, “While the violence onscreen is palpable and painful, it’s not just the exquisite fight choreography and thrilling action set pieces that set Monkey Man apart but also its political consciousness, unique narrative structure, and myth-making scale.”
“While Monkey Man pays tribute to all of the action genre’s greats, from the Indonesian action classics to Korean revenge cinema and even a John Wick joke or two, Dev Patel’s cultural spin and unique narrative structure leave behind all influences in the dust for new terrain,” Meagan’s review continues.
She adds, “Monkey Man presents Dev Patel as a new action hero, a tenacious underdog with a penetrating stare who bites, bludgeons, and stabs his way through bodies to gloriously bloody excess. More excitingly, the film introduces Patel as a strong visionary right out of the gate.”
Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.
Monkey Man is produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions.
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