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This year has seen a handful of horror movies set within the wild and wacky world of Hollywood, from Ti West’s MaXXXine to Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance.

Up next, Akela Cooper has been attached to write and produce an adaptation of horror comic The Lot. The news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

From publisher Bad Idea, the comic book “centers on a woman named Aviva Copeland, who has just landed the biggest job of her career, becoming one of the few Black women to run a Hollywood studio. But as she sets out to revitalize the aging studio, her plan to refurbish and reopen a shuttered soundstage uncovers a buried secret: a legendary filmmaker, obsessed with authenticity, hired actual cult members to perform a real-life occult ritual for his latest horror masterpiece.

“Now the executive must deal with a reawakened evil in the most vicious pit...

Akela Cooper, who has collaborated with James Wan on movies such as M3GAN and The Nun II, has been set to adapt the Tinseltown terror tale The Lot for upstart comic publisher Bad Idea.

Cooper will also produce the adaptation along with Bad Idea founder and CEO Dinesh Shamdasani and the company’s head of film and TV Benjamin Simpson (Thelma).

Lot centers on a woman named Aviva Copeland, who has just landed the biggest job of her career, becoming one of the few Black women to run a Hollywood studio. But as she sets out to revitalize the aging studio, her plan to refurbish and reopen a shuttered soundstage uncovers a buried secret: a legendary filmmaker, obsessed with authenticity, hired actual cult members to perform a real-life occult ritual for his latest horror masterpiece. Now the executive must deal with a reawakened evil in the most vicious pit of vipers — a Hollywood studio lot.

Released in 2024, Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot presents a new cinematic telling of Stephen King’s legendary 1975 vampire novel. As a story exploring the sinister forces threatening a small Maine town, the source material has spawned multiple screen adaptations over the decades, most notably Tobe Hooper’s acclaimed 1979 TV miniseries.

In this latest film version, Dauberman—known for his work on horror films like Annabelle and It—aims to balance faithfulness to King’s chilling tale with enjoyable scares for modern audiences.

The plot follows novelist Ben Mears as he returns to his childhood home in Jerusalem’s Lot. There, strange events coincide with the arrival of antique store owners Richard Straker and Kurt Barlow. As residents begin to disappear, Ben and others come to suspect the village is suffering from an infestation of the undead.

Over the runtime, this review will consider how successfully Dauberman weaves iconic elements of...

After a number of lengthy delays, it was recently announced that Warner Bros. and New Line's re-adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot will debut on the Max streaming service on October 3rd, and the first trailer has finally been released online.

The teaser introduces writer Ben Mears (Thunderbolts* actor Lewis Pullman), as he returns to his childhood town of Jerusalem's Lot to do research for his new book. Ben soon realizes that the "haunted" house that traumatized him as a child has some new occupants, and they have sinister plans for The Lot.

Ben joins Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh), Doctor Cody (Alfre Woodard), Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter) and Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey) in an attempt to stop the evil Kurt Barlow before he consumes the entire town.

Though we do see other vampires - the nightmare fuel undead child scratching at the window scene from Tobe Hooper...

“Overnight!” That’s what Holland Taylor infamously shouted 25 years ago when she won her first career Emmy Award in Best Drama Supporting Actress for her guest-starring role as judge Roberta Kittleson on “The Practice.” (Watch the Emmy flashback video below.)

Can the esteemed actress now claim an Emmy bookend for playing Uba board chair Cybil Reynolds on Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show”? She’s competing yet again in the Best Drama Supporting Actress race and, just like in 1999, she’s billed as a guest star as opposed to a series regular, so Emmy history could repeat itself.

Taylor has submitted the episode “White Noise” to Emmy judges for this 2024 contest, in which Cybil’s career hangs in the balance when one of her old racist emails resurfaces. Cybil agrees to a damage control interview on the A.M. news program with Black journalist Chris Hunter (Nicole Beharie), but it...

Diego Boneta is set to lead the newly greenlit bilingual series El Gato (w/t), based on the comic book series El Gato Negro by Richard Dominguez. Production is anticipated to begin this spring in Mexico.

Boneta was previously attached to a project based on the same comic book titled El Gato Negro: Nocturnal Warrior from MGM Television and Mark Burnett in 2019 that stalled.

In El Gato, Boneta will play Frank Guerrero, the black sheep of his family, who finds himself at the center of a vast conspiracy when he discovers his father was the titular ‘70s vigilante. Frank, who returns home to Mexico after the death of his father and finds himself neck-deep in a nest of vipers – his estranged family – who are vying for control of his father’s business empire.

But Frank’s grief is interrupted when he learns his only inheritance,...

A couple months ago, it was announced that eight of the classic Universal Monsters movies – Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, and Creature from the Black Lagoon – would be receiving a limited edition 4K box set release. That box set was supposed to reach store shelves today, October 3rd… but you may have noticed that it’s not available, and Amazon stopped taking orders. That’s because the release of the box set has been delayed until February of 2024.

Our friends at Bloody Disgusting shared the following message from Universal: “Due to an unexpected packaging issue, the originally planned October 3, 2023 release of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment’s upcoming 4K collectible box set of the “Universal Classic Monsters Limited Edition Collection” is moving to February 13, 2024. We appreciate your patience and are very sorry for the inconvenience.”

An image of...

You never know what will be waiting for you in the woods... In today's Horror Highlights, we have two clips from the upcoming thriller Without Name, as well as details on the Nitehawk Shorts Festival Selects program, Frontières returning to the Fantasia International Film Festival, and the official trailer for The Passing.

Without Name Clips: Press Release: "Los Angeles, California (June 16, 2017) - Global Digital Releasing has set a distribution date for the award winning dramatic thriller Without Name. The North American release will be across multiple digital and VOD platforms, beginning Tuesday, June 20.

The story follows land surveyor Eric (Alan McKenna). He travels to a remote, unnamed Irish woodland to assess its suitability for a new development project. However, the assignment it is not as simple as it could be. Intrigued by the woods’ foreboding mysticism, Eric finds himself drawn into a dangerous game that could lead to him becoming...

The genre production market adds 10 projects to the Fantasia official line-up.

Frontières returns to the Fantasia International Film Festival for the ninth edition of its co-production market, which will take place July 20–23 in Montreal.

Frontières connects North America with Europe in an environment specifically focused on genre film production and financing.

Following the announcement of a first wave of projects, Frontières has announced an additional 10 projects in the official line-up.

The selections include Craig Goodwill’s Bitter, L Gustavo Cooper’s The Home, Henry Scriven’s Love, Sex & Killing, and Daniel M Caneiro’s Pochinok.

In addition, Frontières marks its return to Fantasia with a new initiative focused on female-driven early development projects, the Directed by Women Pitch & Networking Session.

This new event will feature seven Canadian projects pitched by up-and-coming female writer-directors, and is presented in collaboration with Telefilm Canada and Women in Film + Television Vancouver. Titles include Mariel Scammell’s The Lot, Melanie Jones’ Switchback...

By Sam Negin

Theater Editor & Columnist

***

This year’s Best Actress in a Play race got a jolt from yesterday’s announcement that Emmy winner Holland Taylor will be coming to Broadway this spring. She will perform in a one-woman play that she wrote about late Texas Governor Ann Richards.

There are a couple of factors that bring this show into that race. First is the intended timing of its opening, which is scheduled for March 7, 2013. The next is that the show is being produced by Lincoln Center Theater, a large and powerful theater company that will definitely throw campaigning dollars behind Taylor. Third, the show is a one-woman show and is unlikely to be nominated for any other category. Considering the show is being performed on the largest stage of the most powerful theater company in New York, how could Taylor not be nominated?

The show will play at...

Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks: Pickford-Fairbanks Studios Filmmaker Allison Anders will be present at a protest "to lead all supporters" of the old Pickford-Fairbanks Studios, which is set to be (at least partially) torn down in the near future. Located at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Formosa in West Hollywood, the studio currently known as The Lot was bought by the Cim Group, which intends to expand facilities by demolishing near-century-old buildings. The protesters, who have named April 1 "Pickfair Day," are scheduled to assemble outside The Lot at 1 p.m. According to the Save Pickfair Studio website, protest organizers "will, as time and technology allows, be live tweeting and blogging our protest." Organizers suggest that protesters should "bring your friends and all the press," in addition to video and phone cameras. They explain that street parking shouldn't be a problem on a Sunday. I'd never heard of the...

The Undying is a supernatural thriller created by first time feature filmmaker Steven Peros ("The Lot"). This is a haunted house styled film that incorporates other themes of romance and possession as character Barbara (Robin Weigert) falls for a Civil War ghost. Can she make him mortal? Surely only gods can do this, but Barbara's passion ensures she will at least try.

The Undying has received some positive early reviews and Peros freely admits being influenced by other horror films including The Changeling and Robert Wise's The Haunting (IMDb). This title also has a release on DVD December 12th through Mti Home Video and those interested in an intriguing storyline of death, possession and rebirth can preview the film's trailer below.

Tagline: "Let the Dead Lie."

Release Date: December 12, 2011 (DVD).

Director: Steven Peros.

Writers: David M. Flynn and Steven Peros.

Producer: Thomas J. Rasera.

Cast: Robin Weigert, Anthony Carrigan,...

Why should the Emmy voters get to have all the fun? Weigh in now on who win the Outstanding Supporting Actor and Outstanding Supporting Actress Comedy Emmys in 2010.

The Outstanding Actor category welcomes mostly new faces this year. Only Jon Cryer ("Two and a Half Men") and Neil Patrick Harris ("How I Met Your Mother") have been previously nominated. Cryer has five noms and one win, while Nph has four noms and no wins. Chris Colfer of "Glee" and the "Modern Family" gang of Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet and Ty Burrell are all first-time Emmy nominees.

On the women's side, Jane Lynch ("Glee"), Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara (both of "Modern Family") are all first-timers, though Lynch is also nominated in 2010 for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy. Kristen Wiig ("Saturday Night Live") and Jane Krakowski ("30 Rock") are second-time nominees, as they were both nominated in 2009. Veteran actress Holland Taylor...