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Director Ryûhei Kitamura Reflects on Lionsgate’s Burial of ‘Midnight Meat Train’

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Almost exactly ten years ago, Japanese filmmaker Ryûhei Kitamura‘s first American film, an adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story The Midnight Meat Train for Lionsgate, was getting ready to hit theaters amid a whole lot of buzz. Suddenly, the release was delayed, the film ultimately dumped onto a very small number of screens.

Clive Barker himself was outspoken about the burial at the time, offering the following: “Though I mourn the fact that The Midnight Meat Train was never given its chance in theaters, it’s a beautifully stylish, scary movie, and it isn’t going anywhere. People will find it, and whether they find it in midnight shows or they find it on DVD, they’ll find it.”

Barker was right, as horror fans did eventually discover (and embrace) Kitamura’s brutal Midnight Meat Train. In a new chat with Mick Garris on the podcast Post Mortem, Kitamura reflects on what happened ten years ago, which he describes as a dark time.

It was very heartbreaking because it was my first American movie. And I was very proud of the movie,” Kitamura told Garris. “And the last I heard was, ya know, they got so excited and they even set a release date. I still remember… 2008… May 16th. That’s a very good day. Hot summer day. They were confident with the movie. And they released the trailer… I still remember, when I went to Arclight Cinema to see Rambo 4, the trailer was there. I was like, ‘WOW.’ And then… all this craziness happens.

Kitamura, whose new movie Downrange just hit Shudder streaming, continued, “I know exactly what happened but I don’t feel like I want to speak about it. It’s just… [an] ego thing. It’s as simple as… the Lionsgate people, when I was making the movie… and the time when it came to release… was a different [group of people].”

Essentially, Kitamura explains that producer Peter Block being ousted from Lionsgate was Midnight Meat Train‘s downfall. Block had been hardcore behind the film, and the people who took over insisted on scrubbing his projects off their own slate.

There’s another big reason, but I don’t really want to [get into it]. It was the biggest terrorist attack to my life. Worst time of my career… emotionally and financially.

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

Movies

‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ Adds “Chucky” Actor Teo Briones and More to Lead Cast

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Chucky Actor Teo Briones
Pictured: Teo Briones in "Chucky" Season Two

The Final Destination franchise is returning to life with Final Destination: Bloodlines. With filming now underway, THR reports that three actors have joined the lead cast, including “Chucky” actor Teo Briones.

Brec Bassinger (“Stargirl”) and Kaitlyn Santa Juana (The Friendship Game) join Teo Briones, who played Junior Wheeler in season two of “Chucky,” as the leads in the sixth installment of the horror franchise.

Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein (Freaks) are directing the fresh installment that also includes Richard Harmon (“The 100”, Grave Encounters 2), Anna Lore, Owen Patrick Joyner, Max Lloyd-Jones (The Book Of Boba Fett), Rya Kihlstedt (Obi Wan Kenobi), and Tinpo Lee (The Manor) among the cast.

Production is now underway in Vancouver.

What can we expect from the upcoming Final Destination 6? Speaking with Collider, franchise creator Jeffrey Reddick offered up an intriguing (and mysterious) tease last year.

“This film dives into the film in such a unique way that it attacks it from a different angle so you don’t feel like, ‘Oh, there’s an amazing setup and then there’s gonna be one wrinkle that can potentially save you all that you have to kind of make a moral choice about or do to solve it.’ There’s an expansion of the universe that – I’m being so careful,” Reddick teased.

Reddick continued, “It kind of unearths a whole deep layer to the story that kind of, yes, makes it really, really interesting.”

Final Destination: Bloodlines is written by Lori Evans Taylor (“Wicked Wicked Games”) and Guy Busick (Scream), with Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) producing.

Producers on the new movie for New Line Cinema also include Dianne McGunigle (Cop Car) as well as Final Destination producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor.

This will be the sixth installment in the hit franchise, and the first in over ten years. Each film centers on “Death” hunting down young friends who survive a mass casualty event.

The latest entry is expected in 2025, coinciding with the original film’s 25th anniversary.

 

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