Exclusives
‘Vacancy’ Writer Pens ‘Martyrs’, Latest John Hillcoat Thriller!
A few weeks back it was announced that Paramount had set up an untitled horror project penned by Mark L. Smith (Vacancy, The Hole 3D) with Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form along with Room 101’s Steven Schneider. The project was kept under wraps, so we caught up with Smith to see if we could get any nuggets of info out of him. During the interview, he revealed some HUGE news on some forthcoming projects, one of which is the eventual redo of Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs. Watch for the interview soon.
With the full interview forthcoming, below are a few morsels of info we received from writer Mark L. Smith.
When asked about future projects he told us about “The Revenant, which is a period action/revenge piece that Anonymous Content is producing,” he tells BD exclusively adding some huge news. “John Hillcoat (The Road) is attached to direct, and Christian Bale is in talks to star.”
He also reveals that he wrote the current draft of “Martyrs… a remake of the French horror film that I wrote for Wyck Godfrey (Temple/Hill) who’s producing the Twilight films among others.”
He also dropped the bomb on something super secret he’s developing for FX guru-turned-director Patrick Tatopoulos.
“There’s also an fantastic project I’m working on with Patrick Tatopoulos (Underworld 3, I, Frankenstein, The Colony). He’d kill me if I told anyone what it was about… it was Patrick’s idea/vision, and I was just lucky enough that he asked me to do it with him. He’s amazing.”
Lastly there’s a film called Trouble, “a thriller that Bold Films (The Hole) is making. Sidney Lumet and I worked on the script together, which was an amazing experience.“
Exclusives
Katharine Isabelle Battles Cosmic Horror in Exclusive ‘Junction Row’ Teaser Trailer [Fantasia 2026]
Among Fantasia 2026‘s massive final wave of programming this morning is Raven Banner’s Lovecraftian creature feature Junction Row, starring Canadian horror icon Katharine Isabelle, and we’re exclusively unveiling the teaser trailer.
Junction Row will celebrate its World Premiere at Fantasia on July 28.
Watch a housing compound fall under siege from Lovecraftian creatures more dangerous than drug dealers in the trailer below.
Junction Row follows “Juno, a recovering addict who leaves a fringe housing compound for a better life, leaving her beloved Ruby behind. When she learns that Ruby has gone missing, Juno returns, only to find Junction Row has become a hotbed of criminal activity, but she encounters much more than menacing drug dealers on her mission to find Ruby.”
Isabelle stars as Juno, with Natalie Brown (FX’s The Strain) as Ruby.
The creature feature marks the feature debut by director Ashlea Wessel, who has directed festival-favorite shorts like 2018’s “Tick” and 2020’s “Weirdo”.
Wessel co-writes Junction Row with Clown in a Cornfield author Adam Cesare and Matt Serafini.
Katharine Isabelle is coming off a brief appearance in Kane Parsons’ Backrooms, and more recently appeared in holiday horror It’s a Wonderful Knife. The horror icon is arguably best known for her turn as the eponymous werewolf in Ginger Snaps and for her roles in American Mary and Freddy vs Jason.
Fantasia teases that Junction Row tells “a story where the fear of the unknown isn’t confined to what lies above, but what waits beneath.”
Stay tuned for more from Fantasia as the festival gets underway later this month.