Movies
‘Night of the Living Dead’: Vivica A. Fox Fights Off the Undead In Latest Remake [AFM]
CineTel Films, who was behind new I Spit on Your Grave and Amityville Horror films, is next remaking George A. Romero‘s groundbreaking classic from 1968.
Bloody Disgusting learned ahead of the American Film Market that CineTel Films has tapped Christopher Ray to direct the latest remake of Night of the Living Dead, this one to star Kill Bill fav Vivica A. Fox, who will be taking on the lead role originally played by Duane Jones in Romero’s masterwork.
In the latest remake, “Amidst a worldwide event where the dead awake and roam the earth as zombies, a small group of human survivors struggle to stay alive and fight off the wandering zombies who are intent on eating them and turning them into the Walking Dead.”
This would be the fifth time Romero’s film has been remade. The original series saw Romero directing several sequels before he passed away in 2017.
The next Night of the Living Dead is currently in development for a 2021 shoot. Here’s some early AFM sales art.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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