The publisher describes the new series:

Mother Russia never forgets her children…

Hard-as-nails antihero Snake Plisskin is dragged to Camp Vincent (AKA Ellesmere Island Containment Facility), the northernmost prison in the world, after being caught smuggling contraband across the border. He’s now in the custody of the Canadian Shield, an organization tasked with patrolling the Arctic and wiping out any Soviet factions that remain following the aftermath of WWIII. Snake is an asset, and they intend to use him.

Mad Cave continues, “He’s given a choice: track down and rescue Soviet Geneticist Dr. Svetlana Lysenko from a Siberian Bioweapons facility where experiments have mutated into dangerous abominations, or remain on Ellesmere island… Permanently. Acclaimed writer and radio host ‘Fearless’ Fred Kennedy (Dead Romans, Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre) and fan-favorite artist Danilo Beyruth (Frank Miller Presents: Ancient Enemies, Carnage, Ghost Rider) spearhead one of the wildest installments yet in the beloved action franchise!”

With the book being released in December, it’s currently unknown whether or not Plissken with confront Santa Claus, but we can always cross our fingers. Given that previous adventures for the character in the comic world saw Plissken collide with Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China, it’s hard to rule out any crossover at this point.

The new comic is only one new adventure for Plissken on the horizon, as Zack Snyder is developing a reboot of the concept. Earlier this month, he teased of his story to the Happy Sad Confused podcast, “The movie is going to be set in ’97, from the perspective of 1981 … I set the movie [in] the war between the United States Police Force and the elements, criminal elements. [It] takes place, I think, July 9th, 1981, which is the release date of the original movie … The rest is pretty much Escape from New York.”

He added, “Talk about a movie that’s the perfect combination of kitsch and camp. It’s all the things, that’s why I love it. But also, it’s [in] a way that’s satire and can get to us. We can make comments about government and all the overreach or whatever you want to call it, the People’s Liberation Front of America, all that stuff is very … That’s in the headlines. It’s quite current, in some ways.”

Escape from New York: Escape From the North Pole will hit shelves on December 23.

Will you be checking out the new comic? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Snake Plissken Heads to the North Pole in New ‘Escape From New York’ Comic appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

When word of this remake was first announced, there was immediate speculation about how Snyder would tackle the dystopian themes of the source material, especially in our current political climate, and we also couldn’t help but wonder who would play Snake Plissken.

After the project was announced earlier this year, Snyder himself is finally opening up about his approach to the material. In a wide-ranging conversation with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the filmmaker explained his take on the story.

“The movie is going to be set in ’97, from the perspective of 1981,” Snyder confirmed. “I set the movie [in] the war between the United States Police Force and the elements, criminal elements. [It] takes place, I think, July 9th, 1981, which is the release date of the original movie … The rest is pretty much Escape from New York.”

He added, “Talk about a movie that’s the perfect combination of kitsch and camp. It’s all the things, that’s why I love it. But also, it’s [in] a way that’s satire and can get to us. We can make comments about government and all the overreach or whatever you want to call it, the People’s Liberation Front of America, all that stuff is very … That’s in the headlines. It’s quite current, in some ways.”

Given the inherent concept of Escape from New York and Escape from L.A., along with the countless other movies that take place in a dystopia that we’ve seen over the years, these comments from Zack Snyder don’t entirely surprise us. It comes as a relief, though, that it doesn’t seem like he will attempt to entirely reinvent the idea. Arguably much more important than any narrative details, though, is who will take the reins as Snake Plissken.

With a variety of filmmakers being attached to the project over the years, from Robert Rodriguez to Leigh Whannell to the folks of Radio Silence, everyone is most curious about an actor who could embody the role. Some have even pitched Kurt Russell’s son Wyatt Russell become the new Snake, but the actor himself has shot down that likelihood.

When asked if Snyder has an actor in mind for Snake, he confirmed, “I may,” and when pressed for more details on if it’s an actor he has worked with before, he rebuked, “I’m not going to say.”

Keeping in line with this being a straightforward remake, Snyder detailed, “He better look like Snake, or I’ll walk out.”

On the one hand, it’s a relief that Snyder isn’t attempting to do a reimagining of the idea that is a major departure from the source material, but on the other hand, being so faithful to the original begs the question of why he’s remaking it in the first place.

Are you looking forward to the remake? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Zack Snyder Gives First Story Details on ‘Escape From New York’ Reboot and Casting Update appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This week, Michael Roffman and McKenzie Gerber hit up Elm Street, Haddonfield, and Crystal Lake before braving the high seas to discuss the horrors within Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey. They also review this year’s Exit 8 and Forbidden Fruits before dusting off old classics for the first time in 2020’s Caveat and 1985’s The Mean Season.

Stream the episode below. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, Chucky, Alien, and the Universal Monsters.This year? Hellraiser!

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Re-Animator, Darkman), one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Manhunter, ), and even spinoffs like their recent run Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast.

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The post Freddy’s Back, So Is Jason, ‘Hellraiser’ Goes to Horror Nights, and ‘The Odyssey’ [Halloweenies Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The Hollywood Reporter informs us this afternoon that Zack Snyder will be writing and directing a new take on John Carpenter’s 1981 classic, Escape from New York.

StudioCanal is teaming with The Picture Company on the fresh remake, and The Hollywood Reporter notes that the package is being taken out to studios and streamers.

The Hollywood Reporter notes, “Zack Snyder’s take on the material is being kept in the briefcase, but it is known that Snyder aims to make a more down and dirty movie, using plenty of practical effects or locations like he did when he remade Dawn of the Dead as his feature debut, than something more overtly slick, such as his later superhero hits.”

Escape from New York was released in 1981 and set in 1997.

In the film starring Kurt Russell, “When the U.S. president crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber is sent in to rescue him.”

In 1996’s sequel Escape from LA, also directed by John Carpenter, “Snake Plissken is once again called in by the United States government to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are deported.”

John Carpenter himself had stated in 2019 that he felt Snake Plissken had another story or two left to tell, and Carpenter is attached to the Zack Snyder remake as executive producer.

But will Snyder’s film be a full-on remake? A reboot? A sequel? Expect more soon.

The post ‘Escape from New York’ – Zack Snyder Directing Remake of John Carpenter Classic appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Throughout the 10-episode second season, the protagonists have raced against the clock, both in the past and present, to thwart catastrophe caused by the mysterious new threat: Titan X. 

For all the thrilling Kaiju clashes and Apex revelations uncovered in the S2 finale, though, “Monarch” saves its biggest surprise for its closing coda, which sees Kurt Russell‘s Lee Shaw tracking a Titan in Thailand.

This short scene further exposes the division that formed between our protagonists this season, but more importantly, it culminates with the reveal of Shaw’s target.

Major spoilers ahead!

The closing image of “Monarch” season two reveals that Rodan will make a grand return to the MonsterVerse next season. The giant pterosaur was first introduced to the MonsterVerse in 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters as a significant threat, but bowed to the Kaiju king by film’s end. 

With Titan X ultimately revealed to be misunderstood, we’ll have to wait to see how Rodan factors into season three, whether as foe or friend.

Titan X is one of the many reasons to tune into this series. One that seems to keep getting better. I wrote in my review, “The new aquatic kaiju is the centerpiece of a thrilling, much more confident season that expands the MonsterVerse in exciting ways, all while deepening our emotional investment in both its human and inhuman characters alike.”

Season 2 is now streaming in its entirety on Apple TV+ and picks up with the fate of Monarch — and the world — hanging in the balance. Buried secrets are revealed, reuniting our heroes (and villains) on Kong’s Skull Island, and a new, mysterious village where a mythical Titan rises from the sea.

The ripple effects of the past make waves in the present day, blurring the bonds between family, friend, and foe — all with the threat of a titan event on the horizon.

Wyatt Russell, Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Mari Yamamoto, Joe Tippett, and Anders Holm return to star in season two, joined by newcomer Amber Midthunder (Prey).

Chris Black, who created the series with Matt Fraction, serves as showrunner.

The post ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 2 Finale Teases The Return of a Classic Titan appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The remake news comes a few years after Radio Silence parted ways with 20th Century Studios over a planned “requel.”  Saw originator Leigh Whannell had even been attached as writer for the reboot.

Escape from New York was released in 1981 and set in 1997. In the film, “When the U.S. president crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber is sent in to rescue him.”

Kurt Russell starred as prisoner Snake Plissken.

In 1996’s Escape from LA, also directed by John Carpenter, “Snake Plissken is once again called in by the United States government to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are deported.”

Carpenter himself had even stated in 2019 that he felt Snake Plissken had another story or two left to tell, but no word at this time on how involved the horror master will be in StudioCanal’s update. Or whether Russell will reprise the role.

Stay tuned for more as we learn it.

The post ‘Escape from New York’ Remake in Development from StudioCanal appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After a month in London’s Whitechapel district discussing different permutations of Jack the Ripper, including Johnny Depp’s From Hell (listen) and Michael Caine’s 1988 miniseries (listen), it’s time for Murder Made Fiction to explore a new subject: whistleblowers.

In Mike Nichols‘ 1983 drama Silkwood, Meryl Streep plays real-life activist and attempted whistleblower Karen Silkwood. The first woman to ever join the union bargaining committee at Kerr-McGee was set to expose a potentially deadly cover-up at the company’s Cimarron Plant in Crescent, Oklahoma, back in the early 70s.

Instead, after being deliberately exposed to 400 times the legal limit for plutonium contamination on Nov 5, 1974, Karen’s car was rear-ended on Nov 13. She was impaled by the steering wheel and pinned to the roof of the car in what many believe to be a (successful) attempt to keep her silent. 

Screenwriters Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen don’t focus on the end of Karen Silkwood’s life, though; instead, the film is more about her radical turn to activism, the cost of her determination, including the dissolution of friendships (with Cher!) and romances (with Kurt Russell!), and the shady corporate behavior of Kerr McGee.

Listen to find out more.

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have 143 hours of content, including episode-by-episode coverage of HBO’s Chernobyl miniseries (in honor of the 40th anniversary of the disaster this month), as well as the near meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami.

The post ‘Silkwood’ Focuses on Dramatics Until It Kills Its Protagonist [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Bloody Disgusting has learned that The Thing star and film legend Kurt Russell has joined The Thing Expanded for an exclusive sit-down interview, which will be featured in the doc!

Additionally, Bloody Disgusting has scored an exclusive trailer for The Thing Expanded documentary that features never-before-snippets of the new Kurt Russell interview.

Kurt Russell—who played the iconic role of helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady—is featured in the documentary alongside all of the film’s living cast members: Keith David (Childs), Thomas G. Waites (Windows), David Clennon (Palmer), Joel Polis (Fuchs), Richard Masur (Clark) and Peter Maloney (Bennings).

Watch the trailer for The Thing Expanded below and read on for more!

Diving deep into the haunting world of John Carpenter’s 1982 sci-fi-horror classic, director Ian Nathan is joined by producers Robin Block (CREATORVC), David Weiner (CREATORVC) and Josh Weiss (author of SYFY WIRE’s extensive oral history of The Thing) as they embark on the ultimate fan-driven companion to The Thing.

It’s important to note that we have entered the FINAL pre-order stretch for the documentary, which runs until March 24. That means you only have until March 24 to secure your copy.

Pre-order your copy on Blu-ray and Digital now!

The Thing Expanded features over two dozen interviews—not only with members of the cast, but also with legendary director John Carpenter, cinematographer Dean Cundey, editor Todd C. Ramsay, producers Stuart Cohen and Larry Franco, and several members of Rob Bottin’s special makeup effects team.

“Sitting down with Kurt Russell, the immortal Mac, for a two-hour-plus interview was truly the culmination of an extraordinary journey into an extraordinary film,” says writer-director Ian Nathan. “He was everything I knew he would be and more: funny, forthright, and full of anecdotes, as well as deep insight into both the film and, of course, John Carpenter.”

“The Thing is finally getting the recognition that is long overdue,” Ian Nathan continues. “Ignored, even derided on its release in 1982, with its recent selection for the National Film Registry, the enduring power of Carpenter’s signature movie is no longer in question. With the incredible contributions from John, Kurt, and everyone I interviewed, I like to think that with The Thing Expanded we have made the definitive statement on a masterpiece.”

“The Thing Expanded would simply not have been complete without the participation of Kurt Russell. He and the Carpenter film are a Thing-like amalgam—a package deal that goes all the way down to a molecular level,” adds producer and co-writer Josh Weiss. “And what better way to officially close out an epic, two-year production organized across three continents than by sitting down with R.J. MacReady himself?! As Outpost 31’s Chess Wizard once said: ‘Checkmate.’”

In addition, The Thing Expanded contains insights from an impressive litany of Hollywood veterans and insiders such as Frank Darabont, Guillermo del Toro, Issa López, Matt Winston, Alec Gillis, Greg Nicotero, Chuck Russell, Eli Roth, Mick Garris, and Stephen Colbert.

The post ‘The Thing Expanded’ Exclusive Trailer – Kurt Russell Joins Documentary on Carpenter Classic! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Season two hits the ground running, unencumbered by the necessary lore, character introductions, and connective tissue establishing this series within the larger MonsterVerse, which made for an uneven but solid start to the series. It picks up immediately where season one ended, with G-Day survivor Cate Randa (Anna Sawai) desperate to retrieve Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) from Hollow Earth after his valiant sacrifice to ensure Cate’s grandmother, Keiko (Mari Yamamoto), was finally able to return home. Rescue efforts on Skull Island don’t exactly go off without a hitch, of course; Kong seems particularly agitated by their attempts. That proves even more alarming with the arrival of a brand new threat: Titan X.

Any and all concerns over the MonsterVerse’s ability to generate human characters as compelling as its monstrous beasts dissolve completely in a new season that’s found its rhythm. Both are well represented in an awe-inspiring season that delivers on thrilling adventure and heart wrenching drama. Showrunner Chris Black, who co-developed the series with executive producer Matt Fraction, gives the Titans and humans equal emotional weight as he puts them all on a high-stakes collision course further exacerbated by the shady dealings of Apex and the unmoving restrictions of Monarch under the constant threat of Titan destruction.

If stopping Titan X’s reign of terror serves as the central mission this season, Keiko’s return from Hollow Earth after decades of being presumed dead unpacks a whole lot of emotional baggage for the Randa family, Shaw, and their allies. It stirs up long-buried feelings of abandonment in her son, Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira), and reignites complicated emotions regarding the love triangle that had formed in the ’50s between Keiko, Shaw (Wyatt Russell), and Bill Randa (Anders Holm). The passage of time in Hollow Earth creates ripple effects that don’t just lend to compelling conflicts and drama; it also adds a new wrinkle for our human protagonists beyond the pesky kaiju predicament.

As such, Mari Yamamoto emerges as one of the series’ most valuable players this season. Keiko’s scientific brilliance makes her indispensable when navigating the Titans’ new behaviors and revelations, with her action prowess rivaling that of both versions of Shaw; but it’s the devastating fallout of a mother realizing what her fateful choices have cost her in terms of family that most impresses. Also formidable and the lynchpin of season two is Anna Sawai’s Cate; her tremendous guilt over choices made shapes the entire trajectory of the season and yields riveting moments of absolute heartbreak and heroism alike.

Brother Kentaro (Ren Watabe) doesn’t fare as strongly; he’s sidelined until mid-season devastation introduces an untrustworthy new addition that feels more like set up for the next season.

They’re matched by Titan X, a brilliant new addition to the MonsterVerse roster. The well-designed creature hails from the ocean’s depths and comes armed with scarabs evocative of Cloverfield, and comes complete with a suitably folkloric background. But Black and his team of writers ensure that Titan X is just as fully developed as Godzilla and Kong, not just in personality but with a complete arc in parallel to Cate’s tumultuous journey.

That Monarch covers so much ground, constantly propelling the story forward amidst breathless action sequences and death-defying encounters, impresses all the more considering how intricately it’s woven into the MonsterVerse’s increasingly complicated timeline. That it’s still fully not caught up to our present makes certain events easier to anticipate, though Black and crew compensate through stunning visuals and gripping storytelling. The nonstop pacing also means that shifts in allegiances and heel turns can sometimes feel too abrupt, many of which are smoothed out by season’s end, while others set the stage for season three. Scale and spectacle can also mean that characters are prone to illogical choices during moments of crisis, but it’s also fleeting.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters‘ second season is a significant improvement, so much so that its epilogue instills extreme excitement for a third outing. If much of season two is ultimately about healing and coming to terms with past mistakes, fiery fissures formed in its denouement signal a much more wrathful, destructive season three.

With introductions now firmly in the rearview, the ensemble is far less unwieldy and their interpersonal relationships now far more engaging in a way that matches the larger-than-life nature of the creatures they’re tasked with pursuing.

The 10-epsiode second season of “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” premieres February 27 on Apple TV+, with new episodes following every Friday through May 1.

The post ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season Two Review – A Titan X-Sized Improvement Over Season One appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

As Kurt Russell‘s Lee Shaw says in the preview, “To destroy a monster, it takes another monster.” That’s where Kong and Godzilla come in.

The 10-epsiode second season premieres February 27 on Apple TV+, with new episodes following every Friday through May 1.

The latest addition to Legendary’s Monsterverse spans three generations, revealing the ways that earth-shattering events can reverberate through our lives.

Russell, Wyatt Russell, Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Mari Yamamoto, Joe Tippett, and Anders Holm return to star, joined by newcomer Amber Midthunder (Prey).

Season 2 picks up with the fate of Monarch — and the world — hanging in the balance. Buried secrets are revealed, reuniting our heroes (and villains) on Kong’s Skull Island, and a new, mysterious village where a mythical Titan rises from the sea.

The ripple effects of the past make waves in the present day, blurring the bonds between family, friend and foe — all with the threat of a titan event on the horizon.

Chris Black, who created the series with Matt Fraction, serves as showrunner.

Black also executive produces alongside Joby Harold & Tory Tunnell from Safehouse Pictures, Hiro Matsuoka & Takemasa Arita on behalf of Toho, and Jen Roskind, Matt Shakman, Andrew Colville, Lawrence Trillling, and Andrew Colville.

The Monsterverse will continue with Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, in theaters on March 26, 2027, and the as-yet-untitled “Monarch” spinoff series centered on Wyatt Russell as young Colonel Lee Shaw.

The post ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 2 Trailer – A New God Rises This Month appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The 10-epsiode second season premieres February 27 on Apple TV+, with new episodes following every Friday through May 1.

The latest addition to Legendary’s Monsterverse spans three generations, revealing the ways that earth-shattering events can reverberate through our lives.

Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Mari Yamamoto, Joe Tippett, and Anders Holm return to star, joined by newcomer Amber Midthunder (Prey).

Season 2 picks up with the fate of Monarch — and the world — hanging in the balance. Buried secrets are revealed, reuniting our heroes (and villains) on Kong’s Skull Island, and a new, mysterious village where a mythical Titan rises from the sea.

The ripple effects of the past make waves in the present day, blurring the bonds between family, friend and foe — all with the threat of a titan event on the horizon.

Chris Black, who created the series with Matt Fraction, serves as showrunner.

Black also executive produces alongside Joby Harold & Tory Tunnell from Safehouse Pictures, Hiro Matsuoka & Takemasa Arita on behalf of Toho, and Jen Roskind, Matt Shakman, Andrew Colville, Lawrence Trillling, and Andrew Colville.

The Monsterverse will continue beyond “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” with Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, in theaters on March 26, 2027, and the as-yet-untitled “Monarch” spinoff series centered on Wyatt Russell as young Colonel Lee Shaw.

The post ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 2 Trailer – Titan X Awakens Next Month appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The 10-epsiode second season will premiere February 27, 2026 on Apple TV+, with new episodes following every Friday through May 1.

The expansion of Legendary’s Monsterverse spans three generations, revealing the ways that earth-shattering events can reverberate through our lives.

Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Mari Yamamoto, Joe Tippett, and Anders Holm return to star, joined by newcomer Amber Midthunder (Prey).

Season 2 picks up with the fate of Monarch — and the world — hanging in the balance. Buried secrets are revealed, reuniting our heroes (and villains) on Kong’s Skull Island, and a new, mysterious village where a mythical Titan rises from the sea.

The ripple effects of the past make waves in the present day, blurring the bonds between family, friend and foe — all with the threat of a titan event on the horizon.

Chris Black, who created the series with Matt Fraction, serves as showrunner.

Black also executive produces alongside Joby Harold & Tory Tunnell from Safehouse Pictures, Hiro Matsuoka & Takemasa Arita on behalf of Toho, and Jen Roskind, Matt Shakman, Andrew Colville, Lawrence Trillling, and Andrew Colville.

The Monsterverse will continue beyond “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” with Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, due in theaters on March 26, 2027.

The post ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 2 Teaser – New & Old Monsters Arise in February appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Confirmation of Russell’s official return for season two can be found in the amusing video below.

Russell and his son, Wyatt Russell, play the older and younger versions, respectively, of Shaw. The older version of the character was last seen getting sucked into Hollow Earth. Production kicked off late last year on Apple TV+’s “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters“ Season 2, and one of the monsters we’ve already been promised we’ll be seeing more of is King Kong.

Wyatt Russell is also returning alongside Anna Sawai as Cate Randa, Ren Watabe, Kiersey Clemons, and Takehiro Hira. Amber Midthunder (Prey) joins the cast of the upcoming second season.

Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking revelation that monsters are real, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters“ tracks two siblings following in their father’s footsteps to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch. Clues lead them into the world of monsters and ultimately down the rabbit hole to Army officer Lee Shaw, taking place in the 1950s and half a century later, where Monarch is threatened by what Shaw knows. The dramatic saga – spanning three generations – reveals buried secrets and the ways that epic, earth-shattering events can reverberate through our lives. 

Chris Black serves as showrunner on Season 2. Hiro Matsuoka and Takemasa Arita executive produce on behalf of Toho Co., the owner of the Godzilla character.

Get ready for even more Kaiju monsters and action with season two on the way.

The post Kurt Russell Confirms His Return in ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 2 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After closing out December with a look at Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3 (listen) and Sophia Takal’s Into the Dark entry “New Year, New You” (listen), we’re kicking off 2025 with a bang by concluding the Grindhouse double feature that we started last summer with Planet Terror (listen) and finally making our way to Quentin Tarantino‘s Death Proof (2007)!

In Death Proof, two separate groups of women (Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Zoë Bell, Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms and Mary Elizabeth Winstead) are stalked by a vicious serial killer named Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), who uses his “death proof” car to execute his murderous plans.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 316: Death Proof (2007)

Grab your belts and hop on the roof of that car because we’re discussing our very first Quentin Tarantino film in 2007’s pseudo-slasher/exploitation film Death Proof. Join us as we conclude the Grindhouse double feature that we started last year with Planet Terror.

From the debates about the film’s feminist messaging to Tarantino’s own disillusionment with the film, we have a lot to say! Plus: dialogue, dialogue and more dialogue, discussing the rest of the fake trailers, why Arlene/Butterfly (Vanessa Ferlito) is Joe’s favorite character and one Hell of a final shot.

Cross out Death Proof!

Coming up on Wednesday: We’re heading to prom a few months early to discuss Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s first novel Carrie!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 358 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Bloody Axe Wound, The Creep Tapes S01, Squid Game S01 & S02, Wolf Man, and a brand new audio commentary on sci-fi bomb Supernova (2000) for its 25th anniversary!

The post Women Take Center Stage in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Death Proof’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Slashers are a staple of the horror genre. When we think about this lovably formulaic narrative trope we imagine masked killers, sharp knives, and final girls who find empowerment by picking up the killer’s weapon and refuse to play a part in someone else’s story. What we don’t often think about is cars. Typical slasher villains are more likely to be seen hiding in bushes or lurking on the edges of a placid lake than behind the wheel of a tricked out stunt car. But not in Quentin Tarantino’s world. The unique director takes his own crack at the slasher with Death Proof, a thrilling action/horror blend with intoxicating hangout vibes and a group of ferocious female friends.

Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) is excited for a night out on the town in sweaty Austin, Texas when a stranger in an Icy Hot jacket approaches her group at the local dive bar. Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) is a smooth-talking nacho-eater who selflessly offers to drive another patron home after receiving a lap dance from the semi-reluctant Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito). No sooner have they hit the road than Mike’s car appears out of nowhere and smashes them to gory pieces. It turns out he is a devious serial killer who uses his “death proof” car to run victims down. Fourteen months later, Mike is back on the road and hunting for another group of “girlfriends” to kill. But the women he targets are full of surprises. Abernathy (Rosario Dawson), Zoë (Zoë Bell), and Kim (Tracie Thoms) fight for their lives in a harrowing car chase through the back roads of Lebanon, TN. But who will come out on top of the dashboard and has Stuntman Mike finally met his match?

The Lady Killers continue Hot Girl Summer with Tarantino’s vibe-heavy twist on the slasher sub-genre. Co-hosts Jenn Adams, Sammie Kuykendall, Rocco Thompson, and Mae Shults will chat about southern locales, insufferable poetry, cheerleader collateral, and the ethics of lap dancing. Which group of ladies would they choose to join? Is Ship’s Mast too dangerous to actually play? Is it ever ok to give yourself a nickname and is there anything Kurt Russell could do to turn us off? Hop onto the hood and cruise through the country for a high-octane episode on this unexpected gem.

Stream below and subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.

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The post Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Death Proof’ Is a High-Octane Slasher Fueled By Fiery Females [The Lady Killers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Funko has announced today that Kurt Russell’s iconic character from The Thing is getting his own Funko toy, part of the company’s brand new wave of toys based on Funko Fusion.

The wave also includes a battle-damaged version of killer doll M3GAN.

Toys in the Funko Fusion wave come with a redeemable code for an in-game item.

Funko Fusion is Funko’s first ever upcoming action-adventure crossover video game developed and published by 10:10 Games. Check out the recently revealed gameplay trailer HERE!

Experience a festival of fandom like never before in Funko Fusion. Play through iconic worlds and mashup characters inspired by some of your favorite franchises in an action-adventure game with uniquely authentic, irreverent humor from the creative minds of 10:10 Games.

Express your fandom with 60+ unique playable characters from more than 20 fan-favorite franchises, all lovingly recreated in Funko Pop! form. Explore incredible worlds inspired by Jurassic World, Back to the Future, JAWS, The Thing, Chucky, Battlestar Galactica, Hot Fuzz, The Umbrella Academy, Masters of the Universe, Invincible, and many more!

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Don’t forget he also played the great Sheriff Franklin Hunt in 2006’s Bone Tomahawk, one of our favorite films of the 2010s, and yet also one of our first one-off Rentals in our Patreon, The Rewind. So, to celebrate the big guy’s birthday this past Sunday, the gang unlocked said episode on S. Craig Zahler’s 2015 slice of Western Horror, which includes special guests Randall Colburn and Dan Pfleegor of The Losers’ Club.

Stream the episode below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, and this past year’s Chucky! This year? The Alien franchise.

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Gremlins, Jaws), one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Invasion of the Body Snatchers ), and even spinoffs like their recent run Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast.

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The post ‘Bone Tomahawk’ Brings Out the Best in Kurt Russell [Halloweenies Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

But the original thriller thrived in the 1990s. Also thriving during this beautiful time in Hollywood were action movies featuring two adversaries face to face on the poster and/or movie cover. Movies like Face/Off, Point Break, Demolition Man, Universal Soldier, and Broken Arrow. 1992’s Unlawful Entry combines both of these elements with two heaping sides of the stalker and slasher horror subgenres. Which is why it’s one of my favorite films to recommend to people all these years later.

In the film, average businessman-dude Michael Carr (Kurt Russell) and his wife Karen (Madeleine Stowe) are attacked in their home in the middle of the night. Michael and the intruder fight for a bit before he escapes and puts a kitchen knife to Karen’s throat. He escapes and dumps her in the pool on his way out but the two are shaken up pretty badly. The entire situation leaves them each feeling violated and Michael wondering if he’s able to keep his wife safe despite his valiant attempt to do just that.

The next day, cops Pete (Ray Liotta) and Roy (Roger E. Mosley) show up to take the report and a fresh out of Goodfellas Liotta does a hell of a job creeping the hell out of us the moment he lays eyes on Karen. Michael doesn’t see it but we do… and you don’t ever want someone looking at your significant other that way. Michael and Karen, being the naïve suburban couple they are, assume this cop only wants to help when he personally comes over to install their new security system.

Pete really plays up the bachelor cop angle in front of the couple and Michael tries to act tough and impress him when he talks about what he’d do if he were to get his hands on their assailant. Michael tells him in one of those great Kurt Russell moments that he’d “rip his fuckin’ heart out” and Pete laughs in his face and says, “you’re a really scary guy!”

The dynamic between the two is crystal clear. Pete doesn’t take him seriously in the slightest and it sets the tone for the rest of the film.

Pete then invites Michael on a ride along. Michael goes, just to avoid being rude and gets a taste of just how twisted the streets of Los Angeles can be at night. Eventually, in a moment alone, Pete walks into a dilapidated house and back out, dragging with him the very man who broke into their house and assaulted his wife. Excitement turns to panic for Michael when Pete hands him a night stick and tells him to do what he promised: ”rip his fucking heart out.” In this moment, Pete really lets the monster out of the cage and shows Michael and all of us know just how psychotic he really is. But he’s a cop and you get a sense of the uphill battle that’s about to take place when Michael has a hard time convincing even his own wife that Pete is bad news.

What follows next is a series of escalating events where Pete begins to obsess over Karen. He finds reasons to show up unannounced, uses his nice guy lonely cop routine to take her for a cup of coffee, and delivers a speech about “what it means to be a cop” to her elementary school students. Meanwhile, systematically tearing Michael’s life apart so he can get him out of the way.

We’ve seen this plot before in other movies but what makes it so different in Unlawful Entry are both the performances of Liotta and Russell and the tightness of the script. First off, Ray Liotta is scary as hell when he wants to be. The way that he turns, at the flip of a switch, from nice guy to absolute psycho is something to behold. You can tell he truly believes his psychotic thoughts and it is frightening. Liotta actually had me thinking at several moments here what an amazing Joker he would have played at this point in his career.

On the flip side, Kurt Russell once again manages to make his lack of ego one of his pure strengths as an actor. Steven Seagal could never. Russell is completely game to play an underdog way over his head who’s outmatched and out experienced in every way by a man who desperately wants to take his wife from him. Sure, Russell can play the over-the-top action hero as well as anyone and he’s proven such with roles like Tango and Cash or the Escape From New York/LA films. He’s also willing to strip all that down and play a normal everyday guy who’s scared shitless but maybe willing to do what it takes when the moment calls for it. It’s a talent he also brought to movies like Breakdown and Executive Decision but none more impressive than here. You can really put yourself in this guy’s shoes and it makes the moments where he overcomes the odds all the more heart pounding and exciting.

There’s very few things in the world I love more than a movie that comes down to a bare-knuckled fist fight between the hero and the villain. Especially when the hero is the massive underdog ala Bloodsport, Broken Arrow or Lethal Weapon. The lead up here raises the stakes significantly, and it uses horror to do so.

With Michael supposedly in jail after Pete frames him by planting drugs in his home, Pete shows up at their home to claim Karen. She comes downstairs thinking her friend is making dinner and there stands Pete cooking dinner in her home as though he belonged there. Just completely violating every space he moves through. Karen is forced to play along to keep from angering him. Even as she finds the body of her best friend stuffed in the closet shelf Michael Myers style complete with a Black Christmas bag still covering her face. When Karen finally breaks kayfabe and escapes after Pete tries to sleep with her, his switch flips and he begins to violently assault her.

If American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman were just a bit more subtle of a character who also happened to be a Police Officer, he’d be Officer Pete Davis. So, when Michael makes his heroic appearance and gets the chance to cathartically do what he could not earlier in the film by saving his wife, he’s doing so facing a fully tilted madman at the end of his rope.

It’s hard to figure out why Unlawful Entry seems so unheralded. Considering it received generally favorable reviews, was a box office success and oh yeah, stars Kurt Russell and Ray fuckin’ Liotta at their arguable peaks. Perhaps the problem was the film was sandwiched in between each actor’s most memorable roles? For Russell, Unlawful Entry released in the middle of an amazing run that included Tango & Cash, Backdraft and Tombstone. For Liotta, it just a few years removed from Goodfellas and Field of Dreams.

Or it’s possible the movie is looked at as just another run of the mill, racy thriller from the ’90s. I’d argue Unlawful Entry is much more than that. Not only does the film boast a great cast and have a fun mix of subgenres but it’s written tighter than most of its genre brethren. Part of what makes the story so frightening is that Michael makes all the right decisions throughout the film. He makes a stand early on and tells Pete to his face to his face to “fuck off” and leave them alone when being polite wasn’t getting through to him. He reports him to the department. When that doesn’t work he smartly reaches out to his partner (Roger E. Mosley), who he knows to be a good person. Michael is a smart son of a bitch who simply cannot overcome the pull this cop has over the city, no matter what he tries. When you, as an audience, spend your time trying unsuccessfully to solve this problem for him, instead of yelling at the characters to do the obvious, you can really begin to put yourself in his shoes and feel that helplessness for yourself. Sure, it’s frustrating to watch Karen be so naïve to this man’s charms but given the state of mind she’s in, you can sympathize to a point. Michael finally overcomes her doubt with a great line when he pleads to his wife, “What’s it going to take to convince you? Me in a body bag?!”

These are the moments that make the script by George Putnam, John Katchmer and Lewis Colick so impressive.

Unlawful Entry is a movie that may be a run of the mill ’90s thriller on the surface but explores so much more. It covers masculinity and relationships in the same way as a movie like Straw Dogs, with the entertainment level of a thriller like The Fugitive or The Bodyguard.  There’s also a lot of very realistic points about how we as a society can be susceptible to the power those in certain professions hold over us if they choose to use them to do evil. There’s even some nice subtle Wes Craven-esque observations about classism and like a Christmas star on the tree, it’s all topped off with an unhinged Ray Liotta in top form, stalking and slashing his way through the movie. Unlawful Entry remains forever underrated.

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“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” the second MonsterVerse series (after the animated “Skull Island”), seeks to dig further into the mysterious organization’s origins, dating back much further than the MonsterVerse’s beginnings with 2014’s Godzilla. Using Godzilla as a launchpad, “Monarch” aims to expand the mythology through a globe-trotting mystery, making for a Titan-filled adventure that’s uneven in energy and execution.

“Monarch” primarily takes place in 2015, in the wake of Godzilla’s epic battle with the MUTOs and the devastation that left San Francisco in ruins. That’s not the only event that’s destroyed G-Day survivor Cate Randa’s (Anna Sawai) sense of normality; she’s just lost her father (Takehiro Hira). Cate pushes past the PTSD from G-Day and travels to Japan to sort out her father’s affairs, only to find an unexpected sibling in Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe). Determined to find answers and closure about their father’s secret life, Cat and Kentaro follow clues that lead them down a dangerous path filled with Titans and Monarch secrets dating back three generations.

While the series spends the bulk of its time with Cate, Kentaro, and Kentaro’s hacker ex May (Kiersey Clemons) in 2015, “Monarch” also frequently jumps back to the 1950s to introduce key members from the Randa family and their relation to the secret agency tracking the Titans. Both timelines are connected through Army Officer Lee Shaw, played by Wyatt Russell in the past and Kurt Russell in 2015. Both Russells steal the early half of the series with their natural charisma and screen presence, threatening to overshadow the central trio.

There’s a lot of expositional ground to cover in service of the overarching mystery and how it all fits into the MonsterVerse at large, which makes for an uneven adventure that toggles between methodical plotting, character building, and Kaiju spectacle. The latter is most frequently sidelined. That the ’50s timeline offers most of the Godzilla-sized thrills in the earlier episodes doesn’t help as viewers get slowly acclimated to the newcomers, nor that Cate and Kentaro must overcome their initial shock and mistrust of each other.

Showrunner Chris Black, who co-developed the series with executive producer Matt Fraction, smartly structures the series in such a way that every episode ends on a noteworthy hook, revelation, or cliffhanger that keeps you invested regardless. The answers don’t come easy, further inspiring investment. Save for a lackluster opening sequence effect involving a digitally enhanced John Goodman, Black ensures the kaiju carnage more than satisfies patient viewers. Most critical to the series’ success is how that slow development of Cate, Kentaro, and May pays off once the season finds its groove and pieces to the central mystery begin coming together.

It’s here in series form that the MonsterVerse finally figures out how to organically make the humans more compelling to match the Titans. Sawai, in particular, comes into her own and quickly emerges as the season’s soulful, determined heroine. “Monarch” bides its time getting there, and the competing timelines can make for an uneven experience, but the highs often outweigh the lows. The action picks up in the back half, making for a more thrilling ride, and the new details and monster reveals ensure that it’s not just Monarch’s story getting expanded here.

Of the eight episodes screened for critics, season one finds new ways to expand the MonsterVerse lore and connections to the films to varying degrees of success. More importantly, it seems destined for a thrilling finale and potential continuation after a careful, uneven buildup; there’s no shortage of monsters and conspiratorial villains to be discovered across time. But the journey so far is also so dense with lore, mysteries, and details that it may not be as welcoming to newcomers.

“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” premieres globally with the first two episodes on Friday, November 17 on Apple TV+, followed by one episode every Friday through January 12.

The post “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” Review – An Uneven Adventure Exploring MonsterVerse Origins appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

That silence has been broken this week courtesy of a report from Giant Freakin Robot, with the website reporting that Radio Silence (V/H/S, Southbound, Scream) is in talks to potentially direct an Escape from New York feature film project. Our sources have indicated that the filmmaking team is indeed working towards that goal, with nothing set in stone at this time.

Giant Freakin Robot also reports that Kurt Russell is set to star in the Radio Silence-directed sequel, but at this time we can let you know that Russell is NOT attached to the project.

Things could change, of course, and it’s important to stress that this isn’t an official announcement of an upcoming project. It’s a “maybe,” as the conversations with 20th Century Studios are in the very early stages. At this time there’s not even a script, nor has Kurt Russell been talked to. We’ll of course keep you updated as we learn more about this developing story.

Update from Deadline: “John Carpenter will serve as executive producer of the film.”

Escape from New York was set in 1997. “When the U.S. president crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber is sent in to rescue him.”

In Escape from LA, also directed by John Carpenter, “Snake Plissken is once again called in by the United States government to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are deported.”

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella are the members of Radio Silence. They’re back with next year’s Scream 6, which brings Ghostface back to theaters on March 10, 2023.

The post ‘Escape from New York’ – Radio Silence in Early Talks to Potentially Direct a New Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The series will air on Apple TV+ and is part of Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise.

Their roles weren’t divulged, but the pair will star alongside Anna Sawai, Ren Watabe, Kiersey Clemons, Joe Tippett and Elisa Lasowski.

“Following the battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the new reality that monsters are real, the untitled series will explore one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch.”

“WandaVision’s” Matthew Shakman will direct the first two episodes.

It follows the universe that includes 2014’s Godzilla film, 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters and 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong as well as anime series Skull Island.

The post “Godzilla & The Titans” – Kurt Russell and Son Wyatt Russell Join Apple TV+ Series! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Released to unenthusiastic reviews and lackluster box office receipts, Carpenter’s reimagining of John W. Campbell Jr.’s Who Goes There? has since become one of the most lauded spectacles of the sci-fi genre. With timeless effects by Rob Bottin, a chilling score by the late Ennio Morricone, and an eclectic cast led by Kurt Russell, it’s a film that begs to be revisited, which is partly why moviegoers and horror hounds are still talking about it decades later.

Join Losers Michael Roffman, Dan Pfleegor, Lara Unnerstall, and McKenzie Gerber as they head to Outpost 31 to discuss the storied history behind the production, weigh in on those timeless practical effects, quote the movie nonstop, connect the dots to King’s Dominion, and debate whether this is Carpenter’s greatest film in his catalogue. It should be noted this episode was originally recorded in July 2020 as part of our Crate series in The Barrens (Patreon).

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers rank the 10 best Stephen King stories to read during the summer. Right after that, they’ll be back on their chronological read-through with Everything’s Eventual. For further adventures, be sure to join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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The pinnacle of this mastery is found in one of the most epic jump scares in The Thing, the iconic chest defibrillation scene.

Based on the novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr, and penned by screenwriter Bill Lancaster, The Thing takes place at an American research station in Antarctica, occupied by a team of twelve men. Each one serves a specific role on the team to keep the isolated station functioning well. The group includes helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell), mechanic Childs (Keith David), assistant mechanic Palmer (David Clennon), cook Nauls (T.K. Carter), station commander Garry (Donald Moffat), radio operator Windows (Thomas Waites), dog handler Clark (Richard Masur), physician Copper (Richard Dysart), Senior Biologist Blair (Wilford Brimley), assistant biologist Fuchs (Joel Polis), geologist Norris (Charles Hallahan), and meteorologist Bennings (Peter Maloney). 

Events spiral out of control when a helicopter from the Norwegian facility pursues a sled dog to their station; the Americans are unaware that the dog is a shape-shifting alien in disguise. Soon they realize the creature has assimilated into their ranks, creating dangerous paranoia among them as the death toll rises.

Carpenter maintains a foreboding feeling of paranoia by keeping the identities of those who are assimilated shrouded in secrecy until the last minute. Mistrust quickly spreads with the realization that any one of them could be the Thing, and it’s only when threatened that the entity finally reveals itself in the most grotesque fashion. That setup, combined with Rob Bottin‘s gnarly and incredible practical effects and creature work, creates several standout moments in the film.

[Related] ‘The Thing’ at 40: 10 of the Coolest Collectibles You Need to Own

The initial dog kennel reveal announces the Thing’s presence and method of assimilation. Bennings gets discovered mid-assimilation and torched, further spreading the paranoia as the group is confronted with visual evidence that the alien has already infiltrated their team. The charred corpse of Fuchs is found, and it’s inferred that he committed suicide to avoid assimilation. The paranoia explodes into a tense standoff when Nauls finds what he believes to be evidence of MacReady’s assimilation.

At peak intensity, when MacReady wields dynamite in a standoff with the rest of the team, Carpenter sneaks in an unexpected and unassuming time bomb with Norris. As the remaining survivors try to regain control and subdue MacReady, the high-key suspense seems to be getting to Norris in the background. His heart appears unable to withstand the commotion. Norris clutches his chest in pain and crumbles to the floor as he suffers a heart attack.

The group momentarily but tenuously pauses their standoff to help Copper attend to Norris, standing by as the doc begins chest compressions while barking orders. He then attempts to restart Norris’s flatlining heart with a defibrillator. On his second pass, Norris’s chest opens wide, and a gaping mouth with teeth clamps down on Copper’s arms and severs them both.

This shocking moment effectively jolts viewers for two critical reasons. The most apparent is just how mundane the triggering event is. Until this point, all the deaths are violent and grim, whether self-inflicted or inhuman. Norris suffering a heart attack seems perfectly normal and understandable by comparison.

The second key component of this scene is how Carpenter stages it. He toggles between the immediate emergency with Norris and the unresolved conflict with MacReady. As a shivering MacReady keeps his flamethrower at the ready, the camera zooms in on Garry sneaking a weapon from Copper’s medical tray. A frame of MacReady surrounded, with Garry holding a scalpel behind his back, teases violence and sets the expectation that the danger will come from one of these men, not the incapacitated Norris.

That’s precisely when Carpenter strikes, using the abrupt shift from human to inhuman to knock everyone off their feet in terror, viewer included. MacReady torches the Norris-Thing, teaching everyone another valuable piece of information: every single part of the entity is a separate lifeform with a killer survival instinct.

In the film’s commentary track with Carpenter and Russell, they mention that it was discussed many times on set how people would know if they were assimilated. An ultimate agreement was reached that if the Thing could achieve perfect imitation, the assimilated wouldn’t necessarily know they were no longer human.

Norris’s startling reveal is the perfect example of this approach. Even Norris seems bewildered by his failing heart, and no one else would suspect a failing human body as a new host for the shape-shifting creature. The masterful way that Carpenter misdirects the viewer and stages this scene, culminating in another showstopper scare featuring Bottin and the SFX team’s work, makes the chest defibrillation scene one of the most iconic moments from The Thing.

Scene Screams is a recurring column that spotlights the scenes in horror that make us scream, whether through fear, laughter, or tears. It examines the most memorable, and often scariest, scenes in horror and what it is about them that makes them get under our skin. 

The post ‘The Thing’ at 40: Why the Chest Defibrillation Scene Remains Scarily Effective [Scene Screams] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

He saved the President of the United States in John Carpenter‘s thrilling sci-fi actioneer Escape from New York (1981) and then the POTUS’s daughter in the 1996 sequel Escape from L.A.

The dystopian anti-hero is a fan favorite that’s been celebrated in pop culture from toys to tributes/spoofs in many movies and television shows. Yet, Snake hasn’t been called to action since the 90s.

Even though it appears Snake’s retired, John Carpenter teases a possible return, albeit an unlikely one.

“He’s a character that Kurt is passionately fond of. He convinced me to do the sequel,” the director told Total Film magazine in an interview focused on Halloween Kills.

“There’s probably a third or maybe even fourth story about Snake. I don’t know if we’ll ever make it, but I think that he deserves it.”

The odds are against a second canonized Escape from New York sequel, but the long-gestured remake should eventually find its footing.  The last we heard, Leigh Whannell had been writing the remake for Fox, which would eventually be purchased by Disney. Who knows if this project is still in the cards, but if it is, it sure would be nice to see Russell reprise his role, even if to pass the torch to somebody new (a sibling?).

What say you?

The post John Carpenter Says Snake Plissken Deserves “a Third or Maybe Even Fourth Story” appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

And then there’s Escape from L.A. Carpenter’s 1996 offering belly-flopped at the box office while even Carpenter devotees greeted it with a collective “meh.” 

Audiences didn’t know what to think of another Snake Plissken adventure at the time. Some still don’t. However, its themes and satirical targets make the movie more relevant today than it was all those years ago. Escape from L.A. aged like fine wine and deserves all the props in the world. And that’s great for Carpenter and everyone involved.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, its prescience is a very, very bad thing. 

Carpenter’s not exactly what many would call shy. He’s also not always the biggest fan of subtlety. That boldness explains why Escape from L.A. is a louder movie than its predecessor in every way it possibly can be. Even when it probably shouldn’t. The satire is more overt because the threats are more pronounced. Watergate gave birth to Escape from New York’s cynicism. A decade or more of hypocrisy, bigotry, and decadence led to the sequel’s dark humor. Throw in the fact the U.S. government practically nationalized Christianity, and the result is one hell of a spiteful cocktail. 

Those trends the director noticed, along with co-writers Debra Hill and Kurt Russell, intensified with each passing trip around the sun. In the heat of multiple crises last year, we saw how easy it was to demonize someone for how they look and who they love, along with how and whom they choose to worship. These things aren’t new, but a year as dramatic as 2020 has a way of putting all of America’s faults under a microscope. 

Carpenter, Hill, and Russell saw this attempt to divide based on morality and differences way back when. Talk radio and cable news weren’t quite in their infancy. Still, the two entities were nowhere near the behemoths they are today. Slowly but surely, leaders started to read from the same sheet music their constituents heard on conservative talk radio. Then came the countless wars—one on marriage, one on Christmas, and most profoundly, the war on religion. Last I checked, those “wars” are still ongoing. But I’m also pretty sure I said “Merry Christmas” to quite a few people last year and wasn’t arrested or canceled for it, so who knows. Point being, the temperature around cultural and societal rhetoric is a lot hotter now than in ’96. And just like in Carpenter’s flick, that starts from the top. 

Escape from L.A. posits a future where those with the unmitigated gall to not fit into the “new moral America” will get deported to the City of Angels—which is now an island— on principle. It’s hard to ignore that the president, along with every member of his nationalized police force who represents this new moral world, is white. But the residents of Los Angeles, and those on the verge of calling it home, are white, Black, Hispanic, and Asian. President Adam stomps his way into the White House and a lifetime presidential appointment, using his moral authority and “corrupt theocracy” as weapons against that multiracial coalition. Fear of the unknown and the “other” is always the great divider. 

Fear is at the heart of our current struggle between America’s past and her future, a conflict present in the movie as well. In Escape from L.A., that beef results in America deeming its own citizens unworthy of protection or even the right to be an American. In real life, that same emotion drives people to storm the Capitol, commit hate crimes, and even attempt to overturn an election. It makes sense that the guy who made Halloween, The Thing, and Prince of Darkness understands how powerful fear is as a motivational tool. But he also gets how that raw emotion brings truth to light and shows us who people really are. 

People also reveal themselves in what they don’t do. The titular “L.A.” in the film is an island because of a natural disaster predicted by everyone with a pulse. A major U.S. city was susceptible to a severe climate event. And nobody in power lifted even a pinky to stop it from happening, simply because of where it would happen. That says a whole lot about our society, and none of it sounds good. When climate change strikes in the real world, there’s no shortage of people like President Adam saying it’s simply God’s way of punishing the wicked. Or worse, they ignore it entirely because it only affects certain groups. 

Yeah, it’s another way to divide us, but it’s more insidious because that attitude says one life is worth more than another. Apparently, one’s value is determined by how they live, where they live, and who they are. According to President Adam, those who worship and live the way he does, hypocrisy notwithstanding, are the only people worthy of saving. Nobody needs me to point out the real-world analogs because they’re pretty obvious, but yeah. What seemed like a faint shout in the distance in the ’90s is now an all-encompassing roar. 

Escape from L.A. may be the most political film on Carpenter’s resume next to They Live. Its silliness masks just how sharp its commentary is at times. Snake’s one-eyed viewpoint saw a reset as the only feasible option for the country’s problems in the ’90s. Erasing political and societal fault lines was Snake’s way of making everyone a part of “the human race.” Sounds dope, right? The answer isn’t as easy for what ails us in 2021.

The scariest thing about the movie isn’t that Carpenter and crew were right, but that we are no closer to a solution now than we were almost thirty years ago. 

The post How Reality Turned John Carpenter’s ‘Escape from L.A.’ into a Horror Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Years back, SOTA Toys had added John Carpenter’s The Thing to their “Now Playing” line with a box set featuring MacReady and the film’s dog-monster, but we’ve been waiting a long time for a new figure of MacReady. And who better to bring us just that than NECA, who have really gone all-out with this one to make sure it truly is the “Ultimate” figure of the character.

NECA’s R.J. MacReady action figure will include THREE interchangeable heads, hat, goggles, glasses, bottle, lantern, shotgun, and more. Preview the upcoming figure below!

On the figure front, McFarlane Toys also made figures from The Thing as part of their “Movie Maniacs” line, but they only got around to making “Norris Creature” and “Blair Monster.”

Toys based on the movie have been announced by other companies more recently, but they were unfortunately cancelled. Needless to say, it’s a big deal that NECA now has the license.

The post NECA Celebrates Kurt Russell’s Birthday By Showing Off Upcoming ‘The Thing’ Action Figure! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The company details. “A limited-edition Steelbook version includes a lithograph of the Steelbook art, and our standard Blu-ray release comes with a rolled poster of our brand new illustration.”

“Plus, in a first-time collaboration with Sacred Bones Records, we’re offering a deluxe, limited-edition box set with a 7″ of music from the film on Shout Factory-exclusive green vinyl, composed by John Carpenter and recorded by John, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies. The A-side includes the 2017 version of the main theme, “Porkchop Express (Big Trouble in Little China),” and the B-side contains a never-before-released recording of “The Alley War,” recorded by the trio in 2019!”

Extras are in progress and will be announced at a later date.

The vinyl box set is limited to 2,500, so get yours while supplies last!

The post Scream Factory Announces ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ Collector’s Edition Blu-ray; Deluxe Set Available appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Tarantino is known to tie his characters together inside a loosely shared universe, so it only makes sense that Russell is playing such a similar character for a reason, right?

In any event, Leonardo DiCaprio shares the first full clip from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood today, and it puts Kurt Russell’s Randy front and center. Check it out below!

The film is a Pulp Fiction-esque tapestry of stories in and around Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, when Charles Manson and his followers massacred Sharon Tate and others.

Lead characters are Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor… Sharon Tate (Robbie).

The 9th film from Tarantino arrives on July 26.

First clip. #OnceUponATimeInHollywood pic.twitter.com/VhPR4mqiK2

— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) July 18, 2019

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Now hear me out. In Tarantino’s ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the great Kurt Russell is clearly playing some sort of cigarette-smoking stuntman type character, as revealed in today’s brand new trailer for the movie. In other words, Russell looks to be playing a character who’s pretty damn similar to his character from Death Proof, Stuntman Mike.

But is Russell actually playing Stuntman Mike in Once Upon a Time? Given the timeline – Once Upon a Time is set in 1969, while 2007’s Death Proof was set in the present – that seems highly unlikely. Kurt Russell has aged like a fine wine, to be sure, but there’s no way Stuntman Mike could possibly look pretty much exactly the same in 1969 as he does decades later.

But let’s not forget something Stuntman Mike mentions in Death Proof. When he’s asked how he got into the stunt business, he says that his brother got him into it: Stuntman Bob.

Presumably then, Stuntman Bob is Stuntman Mike’s *older* brother, so it’s entirely possible that Kurt Russell is playing Stuntman Bob in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Again, this sort of movie-to-movie connection is the kind of thing Tarantino loves to weave into his work, and if we’re on the money here, it’d likely come in the form of a passing reference.

Then again, the new character could even be Mike and Bob’s father. Thoughts?

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Tarantino’s ninth feature film is a story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor…Sharon Tate.

The full cast includes Margot Robbie stars as Sharon Tate, Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen, Al Pacino as Dalton’s agent Marvin Shwarz, Dakota Fanning as Carles Manson follower Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, Emile Hirsch as Tate’s friend Jay Sebring, and the list goes on.

Also starring: Kurt Russell, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, James Marsden, Clifton Collins Jr., Timothy Olyphant, Scoot McNairy, Burt Reynolds, Luke Perry, Zoë Bell, Keith Jefferson, Nicholas Hammond, and Julia Butters.

Sony Pictures stepped up to acquire the film and it is set for July 26, 2019 release worldwide.

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John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China doesn’t fit squarely into the horror box, but it is a genre mashup that Carpenter has described as “action/adventure/comedy/kung fu/ghost story/monster movie.” He reteams with perennial favorite Kurt Russell once again, but this time Russell is the comedic relief as truck driver Jack Burton, a guy with a lot of bravado who isn’t as competent as he thinks. It’s his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) who’s the true hero of this story. As for plot, it’s an epic journey that sees the pair working together with allies to reclaim Wang’s fiancée, Miao Yin, from the evil clutches of ancient sorcerer and his supernatural henchmen beneath Chinatown.

At this point in his career, his 11th feature, Carpenter was well versed in working with special effects-heavy films. With films like The Thing, Christine, and Starman under his belt, he had a strong grasp of how effects worked (or sometimes didn’t), which made him an appealing director to work with for visual effects master Richard Edlund (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Poltergeist) and his effects company Boss Films (Ghostbusters, Fright Night). The special effects team was stacked with Boss Films alumni like Screaming Mad George, Steve Johnson, and many more. It’s a good thing the talent was stacked, as the budget was fairly low for a such an effect driven film, and Carpenter bumped up the production timeline once he learned The Golden Child, a film with similar themes, had been scheduled to release the same time as Big Trouble in Little China. He knew Eddie Murphy was a huge box office draw and wanted to get ahead of the competition.

The mystical voyage to save Miao Yin saw Wang, Jack, ally Egg Shen (Victor Wong) encountering mighty warriors The Three Storms – Rain, Thunder, and Lightning, who all came with their own special effect requirements thanks to their unique weather manipulating abilities and a literal explosion from anger. But it was David Lo Pan (James Hong) himself and his watchful floating eyes, the Chinese Wildman, and a barely seen Sewer Monster that required a large special makeup effects and creature effects crew.

For a large part of the film, Lo Pan appears as a withered, decrepit old man. The look was designed, created, and applied by Steve Johnson, and required 10 overlapping facial appliances, a shoulder hump, and thin hand-punched hair to make Hong look so ancient. His transition into the more spry, mystical sorcerer was unique – it wasn’t the typical monster transition but one of light that burned from the inside out. It meant the team had to create a molded dummy head of Lo Pan lit with a 1000-watt bulb to emit the bright light. It also meant that they had to shoot it quickly, as the bulb was so hot it’d start to burn the dummy head, causing smoke.

The Chinese Wildman is a sort of equivalent to the sasquatch, and Carpenter envisioned the creature to look like a cross between a wolf and Nosferatu. Visual effects art director George Jenson went through at least a dozen drawings trying to achieve the look Carpenter wanted, and eventually nailed it thanks to a photo of a mummy he found in a National Geographic magazine. From there, the drawing was passed to Steve Johnson to create a sculpture. Kevin Brennan and Theresa Burkett built a suite based on that. The strange look of the creature combined with his loose-cannon persona makes him one of the more interesting movie monsters. He’s supposed to be Lo Pan’s henchmen, but true to his name he tends to behave on impulse.

The most extensive creature, in terms of time, required manpower, and budget, is surprisingly the floating watchful eye that the good guys encounter in the caverns below Lo Pan’s lair. It required animatronics, numerous puppeteers and operators working in tandem, bladders, and a ton of varying eyeballs. And still, the movie’s most intriguing creature is the one that’s barely shown at all; the Sewer Monster.

Appearing out of nowhere, from the bowels of the sewer system, the monster pops out nowhere and snatches up on of lesser heroes heading to battle Lo Pan. Inspired by anglerfish, Screaming Mad George sculpted the creature and oversaw its creation and operation. It was a massive creature on a track with steel understructure and an actor inside that meant the victim had to stand at a safe distance so the creature didn’t actually hit him; it would’ve been like getting plowed by a hefty piece of machinery. Screaming Mad George added mechanized human legs that attached to the creature actor’s head, so when the actor shook his head the legs would emulate the swallowed victim kicking around. It was a creature that was meant to be featured more in the film, but its size and difficult maneuverability likely contributed to its trimmed appearance.

Perhaps due to the major hype surrounding Aliens, which was released only 16 days after, Big Trouble in China didn’t fare as well at the box office despite massively positive test screenings. It’s a shame, considering what a wild ride it is, and how well it holds up. Naturally, it’s since developed a massive following that’s resulted in board games, comic books, and merchandise in recent years and solidified a place in pop culture iconography.

Just remember what ol’ Jack Burton does when the earthquakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big ol’ storm right square in the eye and he says, “Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it.”

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By the very nature of Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles taking place in the Winter and starring Kurt Russell with a big beautiful beard, it didn’t take long for horror fans to start pretending the film was a sequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing, which resulted in lots of fun fan art.

Now, one fan has taken it upon himself to edit clips from The Christmas Chronicles together with clips from various horror movies (including the 2011 prequel to The Thing), turning Netflix’s holiday hit into a faux horror film titled Yuletide, directed by John Carpenter!

Creator P.L. Boucher explains the plot of this (sadly nonexistent) movie…

“When a primordial evil is released by a team of scientists digging in the North Pole on Christmas Eve, the residents of a small town rapidly become infected and transformed into nightmarish creatures. Their only hope is a mysterious man (Kurt Russell) held at the local police precinct who claims to be Santa Claus.”

This is so goddamn beautiful. Check out John Carpenter’s Yuletide below!

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He added, “We’re going to continue the universe of Big Trouble in Little China. Everything that happened in the original exists and is standalone and I think there’s only one person that could ever play Jack Burton, so Dwayne would never try and play that character.”

The big question we now have? If the reboot is actually a continuation of the original film, will Kurt Russell be reprising the beloved role of Jack Burton?! Probably not, sadly.

Speaking with USA Today, Russell noted that he “probably won’t be” in the upcoming movie, which would certainly suggest that he hasn’t yet been contacted about coming back.

“[Dwayne’s] just a really good guy. I like working with him and if he’s going to do it, he and his crew will hopefully be able to come up with something that I guess makes the title work,” Russell continued. He added, “I always say the same thing, which is, well, you’ve got to make a good movie.”

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Dern, who played the most pissed-off man in the world as former Confederate general Sanford Smithers in Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, will join the cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, James Mardsen, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Timothy Olyphant, Damian Lewis, Lena Dunham, Emile Hirsch, Luke Perry, Scoot McNairy and James Remar. The film is a Pulp Fiction-esque tapestry of stories in an around Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, when Charles Manson and his followers massacred Sharon Tate and others.

Dern recently starred with Hirsch in the Toronto International Festival hit Freaks, pictured above.

The film will be released July 26 by Sony Pictures.

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The film has been referred to as a Pulp Fiction-like tapestry of stories filled with characters around LA in the summer of 1969, before the Manson murders.

The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor… Sharon Tate (Robbie).

Here’s the first ever look at Robbie in character:

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Tarantino’s ninth feature film is a story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor…Sharon Tate.

The full cast includes Margot Robbie stars as Sharon Tate, Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen, Al Pacino as Dalton’s agent Marvin Shwarz, Dakota Fanning as Carles Manson follower Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, Emile Hirsch as Tate’s friend Jay Sebring, and the list goes on.

Also starring: Kurt Russell, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, James Marsden, Clifton Collins Jr., Timothy Olyphant, Scoot McNairy, Burt Reynolds, Luke Perry, Zoë Bell, Keith Jefferson, Nicholas Hammond, and Julia Butters.

Sony Pictures stepped up to acquire the film and it is set for August 9, 2019 release worldwide.

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Reynolds will play George Spahn, an 80-year old near blind man who rented his LA ranch out to be used as the location for Westerns. Charlie Manson convinced Spahn to allow him and his followers to live on the ranch, in the months before they murdered Sharon Tate and six others. In exchange for rent, Manson coerced his female followers into hopping into bed with the ranch owner, and serving as his seeing eye guides, per reports.

Tarantino’s film has been referred to as a Pulp Fiction-like tapestry stories with characters around LA in the summer of 1969, before the Manson murders were committed, adds the site. Sony Pictures stepped up to acquire the film and it is set for August 9, 2019, release worldwide. Sony described the film as a story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor…Sharon Tate.

Deadline broke last July that Tarantino had met with Margot Robbie to play Sharon Tate, and sources said those talks are ongoing.

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The Thing opened on June 25, 1982, the same day as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and just two weeks after the release of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Because of this (Carpenter believed that audiences wanted a more positive outlook at alien life), the film was a critical and commercial flop. It was greeted with negative reviews upon its release and earned just $3.1 million on its opening weekend, placing it at the number eight spot at the box office.

The Thing went on to gross $19.6 million against its $15 million budget, which doesn’t account for marketing and advertising costs. Of course, the film was eventually reappraised by critics and is now considered one of Carpenter’s best films, if not one of the best films ever made, horror or otherwise.

In fact, the film has had a rather significant impact on pop culture over the last 35 years. It seems that any film or television show includes a reference to the 1982 classic (okay, that’s an exaggeration, but just look at this list!), so here are some of the more memorable references to the film over the past 35 years.

Tomb Raider III: The Adventures of Lara Croft

Not only does much of the climax of this video game take place in an Antarctic research base where the human researchers have been turned into mutants by an alien that crash landed on earth, but the final boss is a giant spider creature with a human head! They should have just called this Tomb Raider III: The Thing.

The Faculty

This one probably needs to explanation, but screenwriter Kevin Williamson pays homage (Or rips off? Your call.) to the infamous blood testing scene in The Thing with a slight tweak (ha ha) on the formula. The students in this alien invasion thriller learn that the aliens are susceptible to a homemade drug made by Zeke (Josh Hartnett) so they all take turns snorting it to figure out if any of them have been infected. Spoiler alert: it’s Delilah (Jordana Brewster).

Ghosts of Mars

I couldn’t find a clip of this, but John Carpenter references one of his best films in one of his worst films. Pam Grier’s character asks the question “Who goes there?”, which is the name of the novella that Carpenter’s film (and the original) is based on. She probably shouldn’t have asked, because this is what happens to her later:

Resident Evil 4

The Resident Evil franchise is known for its eclectic set of monsters for your character to fight against, but the dogs in Resident Evil 4 dog transformationfrequently have tentacles from the Las Plagas parasite emerge from their spines. This is a direct homage to the in The Thing.

Slither

Attentive viewers will see that the funeral home is in James Gunn’s 2006 film Slither is owned by none other than R.J. MacReady, the name of Kurt Russell’s character in The Thing. Maybe he did make it out of Antarctica after all?

The Mist

The opening scene of Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novella features quite a few Easter Eggs for horror fans, the most high profile of which is some Dark Tower artwork and a poster of The Thing hung up on a wall.

Monsters Vs. Aliens

In the 2009 film Monsters Vs. Aliens, the Missing Link (Will Arnett) escapes from a block of ice much like the titular baddie in Carpenter’s 1982 film.

Futurama: “Murder on the Planet Express”

The 24th episode of the seventh season of Futurama is a full-on parody of The Thing. The episode sees the core cast of characters thrust into a team-building trust exercise in which an alien slowly begins shape-shifting into them and eating the other characters.

Celebrity Deathmatch: “Deathbowl ’98”

In this episode of the hilariously inappropriate MTV series, Charles Manson bites a chunk of flesh out of Marilyn Manson’s shoulder and spits it out. After a brief moment, the chunk of flesh grows legs and walks away, much like Norris’s (Charles Hallahan) head in The Thing.

The X-Files: “Ice”

The eighth episode of the first season of The X-Files took a lot of inspiration from The Thing in that it put Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) in an Alaskan outpost where an alien parasite has begun taking over the team of geophysicists who are stationed there. Before they know it, they are turning against everyone on their team, which includes Desperate Housewives‘ Felicity Huffman, as they try to figure out who is infected and who isn’t.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: “Buried Secrets”

April O’Neil’s mother returns to her in the third episode of the third season of Nickelodeon’s hit cartoon series, but she is actually a Kraang creature posing as her to get intel from the Turtles. The tentacles that emerge from her are highly reminiscent of the creature in The Thing.

The Hateful Eight

Not only does Quentin Tarantino’s latest film feature a group of people locked in an icy setting as they try to figure out who among them is working against them, but it also features an Academy Award-winning score by Ennio Morricone, the same man who composed the score for The Thing!

Stranger Things

Any science fictions television set in the 80s has to mention The Thing, right? There is a poster for the film in Mike’s house and footage from the film can be seen on science teacher Mr. Clarke’s TV screen in the seventh episode of the series.

There are a lot more references to The Thing out there in popular culture, and I’m sure I’ve missed most of them. What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments below and help celebrate The Thing‘s 35th anniversary!

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Authorities were alerted by a civil pilot, whose identity was unknown… until today.

In a new interview with Kurt Russell, the legendary actor reveals that he was the civil pilot who called in the unusual lights spotted in the Arizona sky. Here’s his testimony that aired on BBC in April of this year. Holy. Shit.

He wasn’t aware of the magnitude of the incident until years later when his wife, Goldie Hawn, was watching a television show on UFOs and it was particularly about that event. Over 20,000 people witnessed the event that’s yet to be debunked (no, it wasn’t “flares”).

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Via Screen Rant, it was just announced that BOOM! Studios is taking a page out of the Wolverine playbook with upcoming comic series Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack, set to tell the tale of Jack Burton’s final ride in the Pork-Chop Express!

Written by John Carpenter and Anthony Burch (Borderlands 2), the four-issue series will be kicking off in September.

In Old Man Jack…

The year is 2020, and hell is literally on Earth. Ching Dai, sick of relying on screw-ups like Lo Pan to do his bidding, has broken the barriers between Earth and the infinite hells, and declared himself ruler of all.

Sixty-year-old Jack Burton is alone in a tiny corner of Florida with only his broken radio to talk to, until one day it manages to pick up a message. Someone is out there in the hellscape, and they know a way to stop Ching Dai.

Check out the main cover for #Issue 1 below, which will have multiple variants!

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Ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘s release, Kurt Russell has been doing the interview rounds and spreading his particular brand of cool all across the world in the process. But one of those interviews was way cooler than the others. During a press junket for the Marvel sequel, FOX 5 DC got something out of Russell that has, to our knowledge, never before been revealed.

As Russell explained, he once pitched a movie years ago that would’ve pre-dated the era of the cinematic universe by bringing some our favorite characters together for one epic mashup!

He told the outlet:

Years ago I did think that it would be – and nobody would listen to me – I thought it’d be great to sort of take a bunch of the characters – guys like Bruce Willis and Stallone and Schwarzenegger and whatever. They all had one best character that I thought would be interesting in the action world. I thought it’d be fun to put those guys together. That would’ve been a realistic version of what Marvel did, but it was like talking to a wall. It was a little ahead of its time, I guess. I thought it would’ve been cool. And let them be the characters that they are.

Would Russell himself have starred? He added:

My thing about that was, if I was going to be Snake [Plissken] in that, I’m going to have to produce the movie. The only thing Snake’s gonna do is walk in, look at ’em… and leave.

A badass idea way too far ahead of its time, that’s for sure. Sigh. If only.

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Scheduled for release this year, Big Trouble in Little China: The Game was developed by Chris Batarlis and Boris Polonsky, mega fans of John Carpenter’s 1986 cult classic, and it will allow you to play as Jack Burton or one of his brave friends, on the mysterious quest to rescue the green-eyed beauty, defeat Lo Pan’s ancient magic, and save Chinatown from his evil minions.

The game is being described as a “strategy adventure game that allows 1-4 players to experience the events they remember from the film as well as create new adventures of their own.”

Here’s everything you need to know:

There is a secret world where ancient evil weaves a modern mystery… they call it Little China. It’s where Big Trouble was waiting for Jack Burton and his friends as they uncover an ancient diabolical plot. The evil minions of the immortal ghost-sorcerer Lo Pan are waiting to chop down the players with axes and guns in dark alleys and all throughout the battle-torn streets of Chinatown. Now, Jack, Wang, Gracie, and the rest of the gang must muster up all of their courage, survive against hordes of baddies, and then face off in a showdown with the darkest demon of them all Lo Pan!
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Big Trouble in Little China the Game sends you and up to five other players on a wild adventure to experience the unknown and mystical underworld of Chinatown. Each brave character uses their own unique talents and abilities to take on various missions throughout Little China; working together to gain enough Audacity to take down Lo Pan, the Three Storms, and a slew of other powerful henchmen, in this cooperative, replayable, cinematic experience.
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You will venture through the iconic locations in Chinatown saving the helpless and thwarting evil plans, all the while discovering weapons and rare magics to use to your benefit. Player actions are powered by thematic dice that are rolled each round. These dice will be used to take part in combat, gamble for riches, and get players in and out of “Big Trouble.” But beware: roll bad luck and suffer the consequences!
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The clock’s ticking as Lo Pan inches closer to breaking the curse and regaining his mortal form. The heroes are thrown into a final showdown with Lo Pan and his most elite bodyguards to finally put an end to his reign of terror. You’ll need all of your guts and glory to rescue the green eyed beauty, defeat ancient magic, and save Chinatown… in Big Trouble in Little the Game!

Check out the first look below and sign up for updates through Everything Epic!

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That’s the basis of the video “New Lands” from French electronic duo Justice and director Michael Mann (Collateral, Manhunter). It shows Snake as a member of a team that is playing a sport that mixes baseball, football, roller derby, and whatever else they could fit onto the weird field. Oh, and the opposing team has robots for players who are controlled by greedy CEO types. Snake has to deal with cheaters and violence in order to take his team to victory. Then again, what else is new when it comes to him?

Yes, the video is four years old but I only found out about it while doing some researching on Snake. Plus, it’s only got 1.3 million views, which some videos can accrue in 24 hours, so it’s a very safe bet that many of you haven’t seen it. Check it out below and then tell me in the comments if you defend Escape From L.A. or if you also can’t find many redeeming qualities about it.

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Set to the backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” continues the team’s adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel cinematic universe continues to expand.

Starring this time around are Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Kurt Russell, and Sylvester Stallone.

The first film is easily one of the best comic adaptation of all time. It’s exciting to see the writer of Dawn of the Dead and director of SLiTHER directing huge blockbusters. Shit, Gunn got his start in Troma! How friggin’ cool. Let’s celebrate his success…

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According to EW, Jack Burton will be, “…transported to the dystopian future of 1997, where he meets his taciturn, eyepatch-sporting doppelgänger Snake Plissken.” The comic will have six issues written by Greg Pak and illustrated by Daniel Bayliss and it’s not yet stated if the two are going to work together or face off in some way. Perhaps it’ll start with the latter and move to the former? The cover variants of the first issue, which you can see below, certainly suggest that.

Both Burton and Plissken were played by Kurt Russell, who gave each a very unique personality. While Burton is a cocky, loud-mouthed braggart, Plissken is far more quiet but certainly far more deadly.

Hey, Boom! Studios? My subscription check is in the mail.

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Today marks the 30th anniversary since the movie hit theaters where it was considered a major flop, earning only $11.1 million (in N. America) against its $20 million budget. While audiences at that time did not recognize the magnificence that graced their very presence, we today understand the appeal of the film, which has since attained a cult status. Hell, even The Rock loves it.

As you can probably guess, the following is simply me gushing about Big Trouble in Little China. Here we go.

Many of you know my undying love of this film. Hell, I’d honestly put it in my Top 10 movie list, and that’s not limiting it to horror. I can’t tell you how much joy I get watching Big Trouble in Little China. Firstly, it’s got the ever awesome Kurt Russell, the incredibly attractive and brilliantly cast Kim Cattrall, and it introduced Carpenter to Dennis Dun, who would appear in 1987’s Prince of Darkness. When it comes to villains, they cast James Hong as Lo Pan. Sheer. Genius.

The story is also delightfully absurd and yet absolutely magnificent. I’d be willing to put down serious money that says games like Streets of Rage and Double Dragon took inspiration from here. Just think about it! Gang members kidnap the hero’s girlfriend and it’s up to him and his pal/brother/whatever to rescue her by beating the absolute crap out of everyone in various scenarios. That’s the plot to nearly every arcade beat ’em up from the late 80’s and early 90’s. At the very least, they owe Big Trouble in Little China a little bit of gratitude.

As for the script, I will never stop gushing over it. It fully embraces its cheesiness and pokes fun at it left and right. The level of absurdity is through the roof and yet everyone plays their characters with just joy and gusto that every line comes off as charming instead of groan-inducing.

Look at these examples:

“Okay. You people sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burning. And if we’re not back by dawn… call the president.”

“This is gonna take crackerjack timing, Wang.”

“Play your cards right… you live to talk about it!”

“[After Jack starts up his truck, “Porkchop Express”] 6.9 on the Richter scale!”

“That’s why the bottle didn’t slice. My mind and my spirit are goin’ north and south.”

Dammit, I love it so much!

And for those of you still kvetching that it’s not a horror movie, let’s look at the monsters because some of them are great!

Remember the hairy red-eyed Yeti-esque thing? I won’t lie, that thing scared me when I was a young’un. The final scene where it bursts out of the back of Burton’s truck? I covered my eyes nearly every time. Or how about the “Guardian”, the multi-eyed cacodemon looking bastard that licked itself with a tongue that had an eyeball on its tip!!! If that’s not enough, the whole movie is about demons, ghosts, and supernatural entities. Just because the horror aspect isn’t front and center doesn’t mean it’s not a horror film. It’s just a ton of other stuff as well!

As always, Carpenter and co-composing partner Alan Howarth crafted an engaging and addictive score. Carpenter’s own band Coupe De Villes’ provided a theme song which never fails to make me tap my feet and sing along.

Look, I could go on and on about Big Trouble in Little China for hours and hours. Seriously, hang out with me, get a beer or two inside my stomach, and watch me gush. Why? Because it’s a brilliant movie that is honestly one of John Carpenter’s best.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go pop it in. This is Jonathan Barkan of the Bloody-Disgusting Express, signing off!

The post “The Check is in the Mail”: Celebrating 30 Years of ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Tara Bennett and Paul Terry, who are currently putting together “The Official Making of Big Trouble in Little China” for BOOM! Studios (releasing this August), have also announced that they are putting together a second book that will focus specifically on the art of the genre-bending film. Aptly titled “The Official Art of Big Trouble in Little China“, the book will include never-before-seen photos, interviews with the crew, and will even feature developmental photos from Funko’s Big Trouble in Little China figurine series, according to EW. The cover and an excerpt have been released, which you can see below.

The compendium will be coming out in November and is available or pre-order on Amazon.

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The post ‘The Official Art of Big Trouble in Little China’ Coming this November appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Coming out on September 20, 2016, the new edition will feature 2k restorations that were supervised by DP Dean Cundy, new commentaries, a new 4.1 soundtrack mix, and a ton of interviews, images, outtakes, and other incredible extras that give fans the ability to delve fully into the making of the landmark film.

Just look at this massive list of extra features:

NEW 2K scan of the Inter-positive supervised and approved by director of photography Dean Cundey
NEW 4.1 created from the original 70MM Six Track Dolby Stereo soundtrack
NEW Audio Commentary with director of photography Dean Cundey
NEW The Men of Outpost 31 – interviews with Keith David, Thomas Waites, Peter Maloney and more…
NEW Assembling and Assimilation – an interview with editor Todd Ramsay
NEW Behind the Chameleon – interviews with visual effects artists Peter Kuran and Susan Turner, special make-up effects artist Rob Burman and Brian Wade and more….
NEW Sounds from the Cold – interviews with supervising sound editor David Lewis Yewdall and special sound effects designer Alan Howarth
NEW Between the Lines – an interview with novelization author Alan Dean Foster
Audio Commentary by director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell
John Carpenter’s The Thing: Terror Takes Shape – a documentary on the making of THE THING featuring interviews with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, special effects make-up designer Rob Bottin, legendary matte artist Albert Whitlock plus members of the cast and crew (80 minutes – SD)
Outtakes (5 minutes – SD)
Vintage featurettes from the electronic press kit featuring interviews with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell and Rob Bottin (12 minutes – SD)
Vintage featurettes – The Making of a Chilling Tale and The Making of THE THING (1982 – 14 minutes – SD)
Vintage Product Reel – contains a promotional condensed version of the film with additional footage not in the film (19 minutes – SD)
Vintage Behind-the-Scenes footage (2 minutes – SD)
Annotated Production Archive – Production Art and Storyboards, Location Scouting, Special Make-up Effects, Post Production (48 minutes – SD)
Network TV Broadcast version of THE THING (92 minutes – SD)
Teaser Trailer
Theatrical Trailers (U.S. and German Trailer)
TV spots
Radio Spots
Still Gallery (behind-the-scenes photos, posters and lobby cards)

“In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Soon unfrozen, the form-changing alien wreaks havoc, creates terror and takes on the appearance of those it kills.”

Directed by John Carpenter (Halloween, They Live), The Thing stars Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, Donald Moffat, T.K. Carter, Richard A. Dysart, Richard Masur, David Clennon, Charles Hallahan, Thomas G. Waites, Joel Polis, and Peter Maloney.

STANDARD OFFER
-Receive the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray with slipcover
-Receive a limited-edition 18” x 24” poster of the newly-designed art from artist Paul Shipper
-Product will be shipped two weeks earlier than National Street date of September 20th
Pre-order

DELUXE OFFER (Limited to 1,500 orders only – pictured below)
-Receive the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray with slipcover
-Receive a limited-edition 18” x 24” poster of the newly-designed art from Paul Shipper
-Product will be shipped three weeks earlier than National Street date of September 20
-Receive a second slipcover—made exclusively for this promotion and newly-designed from artist Nat Marsh
-Receive a second 18” x 24” poster of the newly designed art from Nat Marsh
Pre-order

The post Scream! Factory’s ‘The Thing’ Blu-Ray Details Revealed appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Del Toro is one of the most respected and exciting directors in the genre, so to see him act like such a, pardon the phrase, fanboy just warms my heart. It shows that no matter how successful we get or how much influence we have, we should still never forget what gave us the passion and drive in the first place.

I’ve collected all of del Toro’s tweets regarding Carpenter below. However, I highly recommend following him on Twitter as he retweets and discusses horror form all sorts of wonderful angles.

The post Guillermo del Toro Gushed About John Carpenter and Reminded Us What Horror is All About appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

That’s why I was thrilled when Arrow Videos dug up some behind-the-scenes photos from the set of the film and posted them on their Facebook. I gathered them here because it’s awesome to see Carpenter on the set of the movie, creating something really special (even if it wasn’t appreciated at the time). You can also see stars Kurt Russell, Kit Cattrall, Dennis Dun, James Hong, and more!

Alright, I have to ask: What’s your favorite line from this movie?

The post Go Behind-the-Scenes On John Carpenter’s ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.