Movies
Park Chan-wook Loses His Cool, Grabs An ‘Axe’
Let the violence continue as Park Chan-wook – director of Oldboy, Thirst, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and JSA – has officially chosen his next project. The news is a shocker as the Korean director has chosen to remake a violent thriller by the name of The Axe. You can read all about it beyond the break.
Twitch translates the news and reports:
“According to a Star News exclusive (so we’ll treat this as an informed rumor until more sources pop up), Park will in fact return to Chungmuro with the first remake of his career, adapting Costa-Gavras’ 2005 film Le Couperet (The Ax), itself adapted from Donald E. Westlake’s eponymous novel.
The premise couldn’t be more topical: a middle aged, middle class salaryman loses his job after a downsizing, and after spending the following two years downsizing his lifestyle, he decides to overcome competition in his own personal way: chopping down anyone who gets in the way of his path back into fiscal solvency.
Park was approached by Studio Canal at the last Cannes Film Festival, right as offers from Hollywood were raining down on him, so it’s likely they will join Moho Films in a co-production. Last year’s debutant Lee Gyeong-Mi of 미쓰 홍당무 (Crush & Blush) is writing the script as we speak, and the film plans to shoot in New York. Feels exactly like the kind of film Park might turn into brilliance (particularly following the global crisis), so we’ll just have to hope this turns out to be true. In any case, we’ll keep you updated.”
Movies
‘Werewolf By Night 2’? Michael Giacchino Says It’s Being Talked About But “Everything Takes Forever”
It was Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino who sat in the director’s chair for Marvel’s Disney+ Halloween special Werewolf by Night back in 2022, which was released in both throwback black & white as well as full color. But are we ever getting a sequel?
Giacchino tells Screen Rant in a new chat this week that he remains hopeful.
“We’re talking about it,” Giacchino explains. “Everything takes forever to do. There’s a lot of planning that has to happen. Everything has to fit in a particular place at a particular time.”
He adds, “So, nothing moves as fast as we’d like it to. But I hope one day that you will be sitting there watching another Werewolf by Night. That’s my hope.”
Inspired by horror films of the ’30s and ’40s, Marvel Studios’ Werewolf by Night takes place on a dark and somber night as a secret cabal of monster hunters emerge from the shadows and gather at the foreboding Bloodstone Temple following the death of their leader.
In a strange memorial to the leader’s life, the attendees are thrust into a mysterious and deadly competition for a powerful relic—a hunt that will ultimately bring them face to face with a dangerous monster.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her review for BD, “The MCU kicked the horror into overdrive with Werewolf by Night. The nearly hour-long feature presents as a classic horror movie, dropping viewers into the middle of a secret world of monster hunters. Film composer Michael Giacchino directs the special, penned by Heather Quinn and Peter Cameron. Giacchino focuses on evoking the classic horror vibe to assist in the initial worldbuilding. The events play out in monochrome, save for the vibrant red glow of the Bloodstone. Cigarette burns and film grain get added for that retro look. The rules of the hunt get relayed to the cutthroat candidates by way of reanimated dead, albeit in a much campier and family-friendly way via animatronics.”
“Aside from the aesthetics, Werewolf leans heavily into the mysterious,” Meagan continued. “The black and white cinematography more than sets the retro vibe; it allows the feature to remain accessible to a wider audience even as it lets its monsters and monster hunters spill plenty of blood. Toss in a Jack Pierce-inspired beast with practical application, and you’ve got a modern superhero story with a classic Universal Monsters makeover.”