Movies
Billy Bob Thornton Details Grizzly Bear Horror ‘Red Machine’
Star Billy Bob Thornton hit his official blog to share his own personal description of Red Machine, a grizzly bear movie directed by Saw V‘s David Hackl, and co-starring James Marsden, Thomas Jane, Piper Perabo, Scott Glenn, Adam Beach, Michaela McManus and Kelly Curran.
“James Marsden (X-Men, Enchanted) and Thomas Jane (“Hung”, yes, and so good in The Mist) are a pair of estranged brothers who enter the wilderness. Marsden, fresh out of jail, is the ne’er-do-well who has come home to settle somed unfinished business. Jane is the town sheriff who helps his fiancée track the local fauna. Their outing in the great white north takes off, but goes horribly south when they are attacked, then relentlessly pursued by a monstrous and seriously territorial grizzly bear. This is clearly not Yogi Bear or Gentle Ben territory because this particular specimen of Ursus arctos horribilis goes by the nickname Red Machine.
Billy Bob plays Douglass, an Alaskan bear tracker whom James Marsden describes as much like Robert Shaw’s Quint character in Jaws. Douglass ain’t quite right in the head, but he knows that bears do more than you-know-what in the woods. The cast includes Adam Beach (Cowboys and Aliens), Scott Glenn (“You spook easily, Starling?”), Kelly Curran (“How I Met Your Mother”), and Michaela McManus (“The Vampire Diaries”). Piper Perabo (The Prestige) plays Thomas Jane’s fiancée, a wilderness-savvy photographer whose ability to survive the escalating danger may be hampered by the fact that she is deaf.”
The funniest portion is when he explains his role:”Ride a horse, hunt a bear, mysterious appear and disappear in the woods.” Red Machine is now in post.
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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