Movies
Gillian Flynn Novel ‘Dark Places’ Getting a Limited Series from HBO
From “Gone Girl” author Gillian Flynn, the novel Dark Places was first adapted back in 2015 as a movie starring Charlize Theron, and an HBO limited series is now in the works.
Variety reports that Gillian Flynn will serve as co-creator, writer, and co-showrunner on the “Dark Places” series from HBO, with Brett Johnson co-creating, writing and showrunning.
Guerrin Gardner is also credited as co-creator and writer, Variety notes.
Here’s the official synopsis for Gillian Flynn’s 2009 novel…
“Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in the famous 1985 ‘Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.’ She survived—and famously testified that her teenage brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, a pair of mother/daughter true crime ‘detectives’ locate a grownup Libby and pump her for details, believing that Ben is innocent. Libby, having spent her youth working the talk show circuit, hopes to once again turn a profit off her tragic history: She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings —for a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist traps, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer.”
Theresa Kang and Caroline Garity of Blue Marble Pictures will executive produce along with Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi of Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment.
Gillian Flynn is also the writer of “Sharp Objects,” which itself became an HBO series, and she was later the showrunner, writer and producer of Amazon Prime Video’s “Utopia.”
The horror spoof franchise is back in a big way with brand new installment Scary Movie, which slashes through the Scream franchise and the recent rise of legacy sequels. It’s the first installment in the franchise since 2013 and the first to involve the Wayans brothers since Scary Movie 2 way back in 2001, making it a true legacy sequel in its own right.
But are audiences still hungry for horror spoofs? Well, Scary Movie just had the highest grossing opening weekend in franchise history with $55 million at the U.S. box office. That allowed Scary Movie to top the domestic box office, beating out mega hits Obsession and Backrooms. Paramount released Scary Movie in 3,490 theaters across the U.S. for its debut.
What’s particularly impressive here is that Scary Movie absolutely demolished the big budget Masters of the Universe movie, both films embarking on their debut weekend at the very same time. While Scary Movie debuted with a healthy $55 million, Amazon MGM’s Masters of the Universe made just $29.3 million across its opening weekend here in the United States.
Worldwide, Scary Movie opened with a whopping $105.5 million, suggesting that the appetite for the Wayans brothers’ particular brand of comedy remains strong here in 2026. It helps that horror in general is as hot as ever at the box office, with the pre-summer movie season being absolutely dominated by record-breaking box office stories from the horror genre.
Not adjusted for inflation, the previous U.S. opening weekend high for the franchise was Scary Movie 4 with $49.7 million, with that installment released over 20 years ago in 2003. When talking worldwide totals, the highest grossing installment remains the original Scary Movie with $278 million back in 2000 (unadjusted for inflation), which will be the number to beat.
The reported production budget for Paramount’s new Scary Movie was just $30 million, ensuring that the franchise’s sixth installment will be turning a healthy profit in theaters.
Scary Movie is 24% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes and film’s CinemaScore was a C+, but the film is proving itself to be review-proof at the box office. Will the negative reviews tank the film in its first full week of release? We’ll report more on this box office story as the week progresses.
Marlon Wayans (“Shorty”), Shawn Wayans (“Ray”), Anna Faris (“Cindy”), and Regina Hall (“Brenda”) reunite for the new Scary Movie, with the cast also including Dave Sheridan, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Chris Elliott, Jon Abrahams, Damon Wayans Jr., Gregg Wayans, Kim Wayans, Benny Zielke, Cameron Scott Roberts, Heidi Gardner, Olivia Rose Keegan, Ruby Snowber, Savannah Lee Nassif, Sydney Park, and Felissa Rose.
Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer (“Ghostface”), the Core Four are back in the killer’s crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe…
Scary Movie will slash through reboots, remakes, requels, prequels, sequels, spin-offs, elevated horror, origin stories, anything with the word legacy in it, and every “final chapter” that absolutely isn’t. A whole lot has changed in the horror genre since the Wayans Brothers were in charge of the franchise; their involvement ended with Scary Movie 2 back in 2001!
Michael Tiddes (A Haunted House) directed the new Scary Movie.
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