Movies
‘Oculus’ Helmer Now Has Nightmares Causing ‘Somnia’
Oculus director Mike Flanagan has re-teamed with Intrepid Pictures to helm horror film Somnia with production starting this fall, Variety reports.
Somnia, written by Flanagan and Jeff Howard, “centers on an orphaned child whose dreams and nightmare manifest physically as he sleeps.”
Flanagan and Howard also co-wrote Oculus (pictured), centered on a cursed 300-year-old mirror. It is world premiering Sunday in the Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness section.
Producers on Somnia are Intrepid’s Trevor Macy and William D. Johnson and Sam Englebardt of Demarest Films, which will produce and co-finance with MICA Entertainment. Mali Elfman exec produces.
Oculus was shot in Mobile, Ala., last October for 25 days. FilmDistrict acquired U.S. distribution rights at Cannes last year but has backed away from that pact recently due to a proviso calling for a wide release. So the project’s U.S. rights are up for sale again through Paradigm.
Movies
‘Ebenezer’ – Johnny Depp is Scrooge on First Official Poster for Ti West’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ Movie
Ti West (X, Pearl, MaXXXine) is taking his own crack at the classic Charles Dickens tale A Christmas Carol with his next movie, the ghost story Ebenezer starring Johnny Depp.
Johnny Depp will play Ebenezer Scrooge in Ti West’s Ebenezer, and Paramount is bringing the film to theaters on November 13, 2026. Check out the official poster below.
The tagline? “The name you know. The story you don’t.”
Andrea Riseborough (Possessor), Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings), Tramell Tillman (“Severance”), Rupert Grint (Harry Potter franchise), Daisy Ridley (Star Wars franchise), Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games franchise), Charlie Murphy (“Peaky Blinders”), Arthur Conti (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), and Ellie Bamber (“Willow”) also star.
Deadline had detailed in a recent report, “This version, a thrilling ghost story set in Dickens’ London, follows one man’s supernatural journey to face his past, present and future and fight for a second chance. Stephen Deuters and Jason Forman to executive produce.”
Nathaniel Halpern wrote the adaptation for Ti West to direct.
Written by Charles Dickens, the classic tale of A Christmas Carol has been adapted for the screen countless times over the years, with notable film adaptations including Scrooge (1951) starring Alastair Sim, Scrooge (1970) starring Albert Finney, A Christmas Carol (1984) starring George C. Scott, Scrooged (1988) starring Bill Murray, The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) starring Michael Caine, and A Christmas Carol (2009) starring Jim Carrey.
A Christmas Carol is classically a period piece ghost story. As Luiz H.C. wrote here on Bloody Disgusting, “Isn’t it weird how the single most influential piece of Christmas-related media is technically a horror story? One can even make the argument that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol paved the way for the rise of Victorian Spiritualism during the following decade.”
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