Indie News

Whether you’re chilling out before a costume party or working late at the lab (Halloween is a Monday this year), October 31 practically screams, “Watch something!”

Yes, there are myriad seasonal activities to be enjoyed away from the ghastly glow of your screens: be it bobbing for apples, carving jack-o-lanterns, summoning the undead, or an overpriced rideshare. But few experiences are as instantly and totally transporting as the ones provided by our go-to movies and TV shows. That’s why so many of us insist on sneaking in annual viewings of our favorites between social events and trick-or-treaters. No matter how scary busy our schedules may get, making time for the Halloween tales we cherish feels in some small way important.

Maybe you’re putting on your makeup to the familiar beats of “Beetlejuice” or working from home with “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” to keep you company.

“American Psycho” author Bret Easton Ellis is horrified by the state of modern horror movies.

The novelist detailed on his eponymous podcast “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast” (via Variety) exactly how horror lost its momentum after the gritty 1970s films. In fact, it’s the veil of mystery to the supernatural occurrences that, for Ellis, made scary films even scarier.

“Especially in the ‘70s, horror movies did not have backstories or answers to them explaining the horror,” Ellis said. “Why is Regan possessed by a devil in ‘The Exorcist?’ We don’t know. Why does the shark cruise Amity [in ‘Jaws’]? You don’t know. Where did Carrie White get her powers? I don’t know.”

The “Smiley Face Killers” screenwriter continued, “You could go on and on with the mystery of these movies, and what made them so much more frightening was that they weren’t explained. I often find now

It’s Halloween, and there is some exciting news on the horror front as Bryan Fuller (“Hannibal”) and A24 have announced they are teaming up for “Crystal Lake,” a prequel series that takes place in the world of “Friday The 13th” for Peacock’s streaming service. The beloved slasher film series would eventually see Jason Voorhees as the main threat against anyone with a pulse, as the zombified killing machine stalked the rural area where he died until he eventually explored Manhattan and space in subsequent sequels.

Continue reading ‘Crystal Lake’: A24, Bryan Fuller & Peacock Team For ‘Friday The 13th’ Prequel Series at The Playlist.

Justin Haythe, creator of Starz’s latest period drama, “The Serpent Queen,” understands the absurdity of the Medici era. For him, this is a landscape where the simplest cut could outright kill a person and an argument could easily transition into people throwing furniture at each other. “I had not set out to do a royal show or a period show. That’s a very established genre and you have to satisfy this genre, which, hopefully, we have. But I didn’t have an idea how to reinvent it,” Haythe told IndieWire via Zoom.

For Haythe, that reinvention came from opening up the world of French leader Catherine de Medici (Samantha Morton) to characters that have been commonly written out of history. “Anything is fair game if the character is right. All those people exist in history, the kings and the queens. The people who serve them, the people who brought them their horses,

Actress Emilia Clarke after leading HBO’s massively popular “Game of Thrones” series, has been dabbling in other big genre projects such as “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and will be seen next year in Marvel’s big Skrull event streaming series “Secret Invasion.” However, it looks like Clarke is seeking more dramatic work with one of her next projects, which happens to be a biopic surrounding the life of an iconic literary figure.

Continue reading Emilia Clarke To Play Oscar Wilde’s Wife In Sophie Hyde’s ‘An Ideal Wife’ at The Playlist.

Halloween has a soundtrack. It’s the shrieks, howls, and moans of a spooky sounds cassette. It’s the novelty songs from the era of late, late shows mingling with more straight-faced pop that dips a toe into the macabre and the supernatural. It’s the instrumentals that set the tone for the hauntings, possessions, and/or slashings of a favorite horror movie.

Yet, for decades, this seasonal backdrop was incomplete. The Halloween canon lacked one of its most vital recordings, its esprit de fall confined to annual television airings, home video releases, and one hard to find read-along storybook and record. You couldn’t add it to a costume party mixtape, couldn’t load it onto a playlist for a drive to the pumpkin patch. Which is a shame, because unlike so many of the pop hits retroactively adopted as Halloween standards, jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi’s score for

It’s impressive to see the sheer volume and quality of genre projects with which actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“Trial of The Chicago 7”) has been involved in such a short period. Some of them include Nia DaCosta’s “Candyman” soft-reboot, Michael Bay’s heist thriller “Ambulance,” playing a new incarnation of Morpheus in Lana Wachowski’s “The Matrix Resurrections,” a major villain in the two “Aquaman” movies from director James Wan, and earning an Emmy award for his performance on the HBO series “Watchmen.” Well, the rising star has nabbed another significant role in a comic book project.

Continue reading Marvel’s ‘Wonder Man’ Series Taps Yahya Abdul-Mateen II As The Lead Hero at The Playlist.

If you aren’t listening to Brian Koppelman’s excellent podcast, The Moment, let this be the reminder that you need to do that. A screenwriter, director, and current writer/showrunner, co-creator, and executive producer of Showtime’s “Billions” and the anthology show “Super Pumped,” which focuses on ‘The Battle For Uber’ in season one with his partner David Levien.

Continue reading Music Supervisor Randall Poster Says Jack White Is In Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ at The Playlist.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is officially “Wonder Man.”

The “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” actor makes his Marvel debut with the upcoming Disney+ series “Wonder Man,” helmed by “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” director Destin Daniel Cretton before he directs “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.” “Hawkeye” co-producer Andrew Guest will also write the series. A Marvel Studios representative confirmed the casting news to IndieWire.

“Wonder Man” was introduced in 1964 with “The Avengers” comic book series, created by writer Stan Lee and artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. Known as Simon Williams, Wonder Man is the son of industrialist Sanford Williams and assumes control of the conglomerate following his passing, seeing its successes limited when it comes into competition with Tony Stark’s Stark Industries. Per an official synopsis, the younger Williams gains ion-based superpowers, including super strength, while working under the villainous Baron Zemo and establishing himself as an antagonist to The Avengers,

Bryan Fuller is heading to camp. The “Hannibal” and “Pushing Daisies” creator will showrun a new series in the “Friday the 13th” franchise, Peacock announced Monday.

Titled “Crystal Lake,” the plot details of the series are being kept under wraps. However, it will serve as a prequel to the original 1980 slasher film, which was directed by Sean S. Cunningham and focused on a group of teenagers stalked by a killer while working to reopen an abandoned summer camp. A24 serves as the studio behind the series, while Fuller executive produces with Marc Toberoff, Rob Barsamian, and original film screenwriter Victor Miller.

“I discovered ‘Friday the 13th’ in the pages of Famous Monsters magazine when I was 10 years old and I have been thinking about this story ever since,” Fuller said in a statement. “When it comes to horror, A24 raises the bar and pushes the envelope and I’m thrilled

Directed by Ben Stiller and from his RedHour productions, the Apple TV+ series surreal office works thriller “Severance” became a massive hit in the winter of 2022. Trying to capitalize on the buzz, Apple TV is moving fast on season two and has added a bevy of new actors as production has begun.

The new casting additions include Gwendoline Christie, Alia Shawkat, Bob Balaban, Merrit Wever, Robby Benson, Stefano Carannante (“Mirabilia”), John Noble and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (“The Tourist”).

Continue reading ‘Severance’ Season 2 Adds Gwendoline Christie, Alia Shawkat, Bob Balaban & More at The Playlist.

London-based Huge Designs relished the opportunity to raise their game when creating the 3D animated titles for season two of Syfy and USA’s “Child’s Play” spin-off, “Chucky.” Building on the studio’s work for the acclaimed first season, Huge founder Hugo Moss said that “the ideas have got more developed, and there’s more complexity as we go through the episodes.”

It began with a brief from “Chucky” creator Don Mancini, with designers Paul McDonnell and Ben Hanbury given the job of making it a reality. Each title sequence is around 15 seconds in duration and poses its own challenges and creative opportunities.

“They wanted it to have a bit of a narrative, so it came down to us to think of a unique way to get the feel of the episode across,” said McDonnell. The creative trend was kickstarted by the first episode of the first season, where protagonist

Director Thomas Napper (“Jawbone”) is behind a new feature film that will chronicle the gritty journey in the early years of the Veuve Clicquot vineyard in 19th-century France. The film brings to life the fascinating young woman behind the iconic orange label that helped transform the French champagne house into something iconic.

Deadline reports that Haley Bennett, “Sandman” actor Tom Sturridge, Sam Riley, Leo Suter, and Anson Boon have all joined the cast.

Continue reading ‘Clicquot’: Haley Bennett, Tom Sturridge & Sam Riley Star In Gritty Film About Rise Of French Champagne Empire at The Playlist.

For Halloween, the equity analysts at Wells Fargo recommend Paramount Global dress up as Fox. We’ll explain.

On Monday, Wells Fargo downgraded Paramount’s stock (Para) for the second time this month. The first time was October 4, when analysts downgraded Para from “Underweight” to “Equal Weight” and its target price per share from a healthy 40 to just 19. This morning, Wells Fargo labeled Para as “Overweight” and chopped another 6 off its target price.

So now Paramount is worth just 13 per share in the eyes of Steven Cahall’s team of researchers and number crunchers. Para closed Friday at 19.02 per share; on the heels of Cahall’s downgrade it declined another dollar (-5 percent) and set a new 52-week low. But there is potentially good news here: Wells Fargo has a way Paramount Global can double its target price per share. And all it would take is one shift in strategy.

In the wake of the formation of DC Studios by Warner Bros. Discovery, Matt Reeves continues to forge on, expanding his own cinematic universe spun off from the hit feature film, “The Batman.” Multiple HBO Max shows and a second movie is on the horizon. One of those about to head into production early next year is “The Penguin,” starring Colin Farrell as his scene-stealing crook Oswald Copplepot, aka, Penguin.

Continue reading ‘The Penguin’ Series: Cristin Milioti To Play Sofia Falcone In ‘The Batman’ Spinoff at The Playlist.

“People don’t change, Allie. They just reveal themselves over time.” The final line of the season premiere of Apple TV+’s “The Mosquito Coast” could be about the show itself, a program that maybe never had the gravity or potential that its first season implied it could. The first season felt like it was setting up an interesting study of conflicted morals, white privilege, and family tension. It was a tight 7-episode season with a pair of episodes directed by the great Rupert Wyatt (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) and taut screenwriting that filtered through a coiled performance from the underrated Justin Theroux.

Continue reading ‘The Mosquito Coast’ Review: Season 2 Of Apple TV’s Engaging Family Drama Gets Lost In The Jungle at The Playlist.

The severed wing at Lumon headquarters is about to get a bit more crowded.

Eight new actors are joining the cast of “Severance” for Season 2, including notable stars like Gwendoline Christie (“Game of Thrones”), Alia Shawkat (“Arrested Development”), and Bob Balaban (“The French Dispatch”). Merritt Wever, Robby Benson, Stefano Carannante, John Noble, and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson have also been cast. They’ll join a stacked ensemble that already includes the likes of Adam Scott, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette, Tramell Tillman, and Zach Cherry.

“We are thrilled and delighted to be back on set for the exciting the second chapter of ‘Severance,’” said Ben Stiller, who serves as an executive producer on “Severance” and directed seven episodes of Season 1. “Though we don’t know how long we’ve been gone or who we are outside, we are told people enjoy the show and we couldn’t be happier. Praise Kier!

Cristin Milioti is heading to Gotham City. The “How I Met Your Mother” and “Palm Springs” star has joined the cast of HBO Max’s “The Penguin” series.

Milioti is the first new cast member to join Colin Farrell, who plays the DC Comics villain, in the upcoming series, which is currently under a working title. Farrell first appeared as the character in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” film, which saw the star don heavy prosthetics to portray the right-hand man of mob boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro). Milioti will play Sofia Falcone, the daughter of Carmine, who was first created by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale for their 1997 comic book miniseries “The Long Halloween.” Previously, the character was played by Crystal Reed on the Fox series “Gotham.”

“The Penguin” is one of two spinoffs of this year’s “The Batman” set so far at HBO Max — “The Staircase” showrunner Antonio Campos

It’s not even November, but Peacock is getting ready for the holidays. The streamer has inked a deal with Hallmark Media to become the main home for the company’s original programming — including its many popular holiday films.

Starting November 2, Peacock will host a dedicated hub for Hallmark Media movies and TV shows. The hub will give subscribers the ability to watch live simulcasts of Hallmark Media’s three major channels: Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama. New premiere shows and movies — including the long-running “When Calls the Heart” and 2023 primetime premieres “Ride” and “The Way Home” — will be available to stream on demand the day after their linear premiere.

“We’re proud to enter this partnership with Peacock and bring our widely beloved Hallmark content to their subscribers,” Wonya Lucas, Hallmark Media CEO, said in a statement. “The opportunity to provide our devoted fanbase access to

In today’s episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo puts on his accordion and talks about The Roku Channel’s latest release, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” with the director Eric Appel (“Son of Zorn,” “Funny or Die Presents…”) and star Daniel Radcliffe (the “Harry Potter” films, “Swiss Army Man,” “Miracle Workers”).

Continue reading ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’: Daniel Radcliffe & Director Eric Appel On Making a Parody of Music Biopics, Working with Al & More [The Discourse Podcast] at The Playlist.