While “Twilight” fans begin to debate the issues facing the filming of “New Moon” – the next installment in Stephenie Meyer’steen vampire series involving werewolves and a growth spurt that will require actor Taylor Lautner to appear 6′5″ and 25 years old on screen — an even more urgent problem nags:

The problem with “Breaking Dawn.”

With “Twilight” having banked $70.55 million in its first weekend of release, Summit Entertainment has already snatched up rights to the next two books in Meyer’s saga, “New Moon” and “Eclipse,”and is negotiating for the series-ending “Breaking Dawn.” Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward, has said he’s only signed up to star in the next two films, and the fourth book has had little mention in the media when it comes to reports concerning “Twilight” as a movie franchise

READ IT AT LA TIMES

Amongst the cast of DreamWorks’ horror movie The Ruins, Laura Ramsey has the most experience with the horror and supernatural having appeared in Venom and The Covenant, which may be why her character Stacy is put through some of the most grueling and gut-wrenching situations in the new movie from Carter Smith, based on Scott Smith’s novel. As one of five friends who try to survive after awakening a dangerous and deadly secret within the ruins of a Mayan temple in Mexico, the pretty blonde actress certainly seems to get the most face time in the trailer and clips as we see her put through a series of horrible things that are not for the squeamish.

ShockTillYouDrop.com talked to Ramsey during a quick series of phone interviews, which included a chat with her co-stars Jena Malone and Shawn Ashmore.

(Shock Till You Drop)

The horror movie “Shutter,” with a premise reminiscent of a “Twilight Zone” and filled with its share of “gotcha” jolts, seems at first blush like typical Hollywood fare.

What makes it more than a popcorn movie for American audiences, says the film’s star, Joshua Jackson, is that its Japanese director, Masayuki Ochiai, simultaneously made a different cut of the film for Japanese audiences.

“The old paradigm is unraveling,” Jackson said. “That idea that you could make a movie that would have regionally specific cuts. I think that’s a really interesting idea.”

(LA Times)

Name a film that has scared the hell out of you. Does it haunt you to this day? I thought so. Were you terrified by the relentless tension, or a single terrific twist? Does it feature an iconic scene - Jack Nicholson chopping through the bathroom door, for instance; or a sausage popping out of John Hurt’s chest? Is there a ghost as creepy as the caped dwarf in Nicolas Roeg’s elegant masterpiece Don’t Look Now? Or is your favourite fright movie besotted with the hillbilly freaks to be found in Deliverance and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?

In short, what are the secrets of the perfect scary film? Roeg has a theory. “We live in constant danger. When we see a good scary movie we are haunted by the sense that ‘there, but for the grace of God, go I’.

(Source: The Times UK)

Roll the credits on New Line Cinema, the 40-year-old studio behind such iconic movie franchises as “The Lord of the Rings,” “Austin Powers” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”

The company will lay off hundreds of employees between its Los Angeles and New York facilities and be merged into its corporate sibling, Warner Bros.

The consolidation marks the end of the line for the once scrappy producer that prided itself on taking creative risks that other studios wouldn’t. But in recent years New Line strayed from its street-smart roots with a slew of costly flops that ended its role as a big-time player in the volatile movie business.

In a sign of retrenchment that is increasingly prevalent in Hollywood, the company will now focus on making fewer movies limited to the kind of smaller, low-cost “genre” horror and comedy pictures upon which it built its name.

(Source: LA Times)

Instead of “Plastics,” the older guy in “The Graduate” should have whispered this career advice: “Cannibal zombies.”

George A. Romero created horror’s most popular subgenre 40 years ago with “Night of the Living Dead,” and if you think of him as just a cult director, you should have seen his rock-star appearance at last summer’s San Diego Comic Con — the world’s largest pop culture event — where thousands of shouting fans packed a huge auditorium standing-room-only to honor him and hear about “Diary of the Dead.”

I chewed the fat with the mirthful Romero on the eve of the relaunch of his saga (told through a film student’s first-person video lens). Now 68 and recently moved from his longtime home of Pittsburgh to Toronto, he phoned amid an L.A. promotional gauntlet.

(Source: Seattle Times)

There is a good reason why Guillermo del Toro is one of the most beloved directors among genre and horror fans, and it isn’t just because his body of work is so solid, many of them setting the standards for horror in whichever sub-genre he chooses to work at any given time.

For instance, del Toro’s 2001 Spanish Civil War ghost story The Devil’s Backbone is still considered one of the filmmaker’s first true masterpieces and a standard for ghost stories, so it’s not surprising to see his name attached as producer and “presenter” on Juan Antonio Bayona’s directorial debut, a Spanish ghost story called The Orphanage. Based on a screenplay by Sergio Sánchez, it stars the beautiful Belén Rueda (The Sea Inside) as Laura, a woman who moves back into the orphanage where she spent time as a girl along with her husband and young adoptive son Simon. She immediately starts to experience all sorts of bizarre happenings, culminating in the disappearance of the boy, and desperate to find him, Laura turns to a group of spiritualists to convince the ghosts that inhabit the house to help her find the boy, who she’s convinced is still alive.

ShockTillYouDrop had a chance to sit down with Guillermo in New York where he turned up to help support the first-time filmmakers of what is clearly one of the year’s best horror films.

(Source: Shoctillyoudrop.com)

 

MoviesOnline recently had a chance to sit down with the creative team behind 30 Days of Night including Sam Raimi, David Slade, Josh Hartnett, Steve Niles, Ben Foster and Ben Templesmith. It isn’t often you get this much talent to sit down with you at once, much less talk about a huge film like this! 

Producer Sam Raimi brings audiences the terrifying thriller 30 Days of Night, set in the isolated town of Barrow, Alaska, in the extreme northern hemisphere, which is plunged into complete darkness annually for an entire month. When most of the inhabitants head south for the winter, a mysterious group of strangers appear: bloodthirsty vampires, ready to take advantage of the uninterrupted darkness to feed on the town’s residents. As the night wears on, Barrow’s Sheriff Eben (Josh Hartnett), his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George), and an ever-shrinking group of survivors must do anything they can to last until daylight.

30 Days of Night promises to be one of the most exciting horror-suspense films to open this fall.  

(Source: Movies Online)

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He’s the sultan of screams, the head honcho of horror, the duke of disgust — whether you measure by the sheer metric tonnage of his output or the harder-to-quantify level of his influence, Stephen King bestrides modern American horror like a colossus. And with horror film interpretations like Carrie, The Shining, Christine and The Dead Zone, some of King’s books also found a grasping, vulgar and vital second life thanks to the stewardship of some great horror directors.

With Halloween upon us, though, I thought I’d take a look at some of the less noteworthy King adaptations — and name the 7 worst page-to-screen projects taken from King’s work.

(Source: Cinematical)

 

Graphic novelist and screenwriter Steve Niles called into Cinematical headquarters this weekend from the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors Convention in New Jersey . Speaking about 30 Days of Nights, from the marketing push that will include a series of short films based on the comics, to the ComicCon plans for the film, to the rating — it’s going to be R, for sure — to the massive sequel potential that exists, considering how much source material there is.

Niles is already thinking about a Dark Days sequel revolving around Melissa George’s character, something even she wasn’t thinking about last November) If you’re a movie person who isn’t familiar with the 30 Days graphic novels or Niles’ work in general, he’s a major name in comics, having developed many well-known titles and collaborated with scores of other artists.

(Source: Cinematical)