How far would you go to save something you love? The new film “Chupa” ventures into familiar territory, exploring the bonds between a boy and an unlikely friend. In this care, teenager Alex travels to Mexico hoping to connect with his extended family. What he finds instead is a legendary creature in need of protection. The film hails from Jonás Cuarón (“Desierto”), the son of director Alfonso Cuarón.

Continue reading ‘Chupa’ Trailer: A Boy Befriends A Mythical Chupacabra In Jonás Cuarón’s Latest Directorial Effort Coming In April at The Playlist.

In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our TV and streaming podcast, host Mike DeAngelo sinks his teeth into Showtime’s new vampire series, “Let the Right One In.” The show follows a father and a 12-year-old girl who traditionally live a closed-off life after the daughter is turned into a vampire as they return home to New York City and the lives they once had. The series stars Demián Bichir, Madison Taylor Baez, Anika Noni Rose, Grace Gummer, Nick Stahl, and more. 

READ MORE: The Best TV Of 2022… So Far, ‘The Bear’ & More

“Let the Right One In” showrunner Andrew Hinderaker joins the podcast to discuss how and why he had to get involved with the long-form adaptation of the beloved novel and pair of films.

Continue reading ‘Let The Right One In’: Showrunner Andrew Hinderaker Discusses The New Vampire Series & His Time On ‘Penny Dreadful’ [Bingeworthy Podcast] at The Playlist.

John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2004 novel “Let the Right One In” has already been adapted three times, first, and most successfully, as a wildly acclaimed Swedish film by Tomas Alfredson in 2008. The Hollywood machine quickly turned that around and retitled it “Let Me In,” directed by Matt Reeves, for an underrated English-language version in 2010. It was even given a stage adaptation in Scotland in 2013, where it got some decent reviews.

Continue reading ‘Let The Right One In’ Review: Showtime’s Adaptation of Hit Novel & Film Lacks Bite at The Playlist.

Does the world need another remake of “Let The Right One In“?  Tomas Alfredson‘s 2008 film was already an adaptation of a 2004 novel, and then the American remake “Let Me In” hit theaters in 2010. Make no mistake, it’s still a chilling story and an intriguing take on vampire lore, but is telling it again necessary?  

READ MORE: The 25 Most Anticipated Horror Films Of 2022

Showtime seems to think so, but don’t worry: their upcoming series “Let The Right One In” isn’t a remake so much as a reimagining.

Continue reading ‘Let The Right One In’ Trailer: Showtime’s Series Remake Of The Kid Vampire Film Premieres On October 9 at The Playlist.

It’s difficult to determine precisely what genre Angelina Jolie’s upcoming movie “Without Blood” is. Based on Italian novelist Alessandro Baricco’s novel of the same name, the film follows a young girl over decades as she grabbles with the complex realities of war, trauma, and violence in an unnamed 20th-century country. So, which genre is it? A war film? A modern fable? In Variety’s piece about the upcoming film, Jolie has an answer of her own.

Continue reading ‘Without Blood’: Angelina Jolie Embraces The Western In Her Upcoming Film Although It Looks At Violence And Revenge In “Very Different Ways” at The Playlist.

Earlier this year, Angelina Jolie signed a three-year overall with British multinational distribution company Fremantle. And now, Deadline reports that the first project of that exclusive deal is in production with Selma Hayek and Demián Bichir as the leads.

READ MORE: Angelina Jolie To Direct Revenge Thriller ‘Without Blood’

“Without Blood,” based on Allesandro Boricco‘s 2002 novel of the same name, is a revenge fable that takes place in a farmhouse after an unidentified conflict in the Italian countryside.

Continue reading Angelina Jolie To Direct Selma Hayek & Demián Bichir In Adaptation ‘Without Blood’ at The Playlist.

“Film isn’t about storytelling or empathy; it’s about cool shit happening,” is an amusing, facetious tweet that recently went viral. Sure, it’s a jokey, flippant sentiment, but there’s also a kernel of truth (and an ironic one at that) that also applies to Legendary Picture’s “Godzilla Vs. Kong.” Because the easy part of making a “Godzilla Vs. Kong” movie— at least, where getting most audiences to buy-in is concerned—is making “cool shit” action sequences and fights.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’: Cool Sh*t Can’t Save Adam Wingard’s Convoluted Titans Clashing Monsterverse Movie [Review] at The Playlist.

Look, you’re not going to ever see a writer at The Playlist talk about how great it is when international films are given English-language remakes. Obviously, we’re all fans of international cinema. But hey, sometimes these remakes aren’t terrible. And in the case of “Let the Right One In” and “Let Me In,” the remake was actually pretty decent, which gives us a bit of optimism that perhaps the upcoming Showtime series based on the vampire drama could potentially work out.

Continue reading Demián Bichir To Star In New ‘Let The Right One In’ Series At Showtime at The Playlist.

Take the nomad out of “Nomadland,” and you’re left with “Land,” Robin Wright‘s feature-directing debut (she previously directed 10 episodes of “House of Cards“), in which she also stars, as a grieving woman who, somewhat ironically given the film bows in the era of mandatory isolation, moves way up into the mountains “to get away from people.” Problem is, take the nomadic element out of “Nomadland” (she moves only once and has done with it) and you’re also left with a less interesting, much more obvious movie, in which not only are we not introduced to a radically different way of living, we’re ultimately confirmed in our safest and most simplistic assumptions about how we live right now.

Continue reading ‘Land’: Robin Wright Directs Herself Through A Familiar Wilderness Grieving Process [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

After a renowned career of nearly four decades in both film and TV, actor Robin Wright makes a confident feature directorial debut with “Land,” screening this year as part of Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres line-up. An assured, brawny film that melds together a character study, a friendship tale, and a story of survival inside a modern-day Western of sorts, “Land” follows Edee (Wright), a woman that goes off the grid to a mountain in Wyoming to make a fresh, solitary start after experiencing unspeakable tragedy.

Continue reading Robin Wright Talks Her Directorial Debut ‘Land,’ Grief, Survival & Renewed Hopefulness [Sundance Interview] at The Playlist.

Not even the COVID-19 pandemic can keep this epic showdown from happening. After first being announced over five years ago and a slew of shuffled release dates, “Godzilla Vs. Kong” finally reaches audiences in just over two months from now.

READ MORE: ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ Release Date Moves Up From May to March

While the movie’s March release date comes mired in controversy (more on that later), this mash-up of cinema’s great super-species is the latest installment in Legendary‘s MonsterVerse.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ Trailer: Titans Clash In The Ultimate Battle March 26 at The Playlist.

Surprise! Legendary‘s “Godzilla vs. Kong” is getting yet another release date change. However, in this case, audiences will get to watch the latest entry in the Monsterverse franchise earlier than once scheduled. Warner Bros. will move up the film on HBO Max and theaters to March 26 instead of the most recent date that had been etched-in for May 21 according to Deadline.

READ MORE: ‘Godzilla Vs.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Release Date Moves Up From May To March at The Playlist.

George Clooney has a gregarious, outsized personality, especially in his acting. Still, he’s more thoughtful and introspective than you’d think, and a lot of that side of him comes out in his filmmaking. Take “The Midnight Sky,” his latest directorial effort, which is a sad, lonely, and bleak look at the apocalypse, but also the stars and hope for humanity.

READ MORE: 2020 Fall Film Preview: 40 Most Anticipated Films To Watch

Reviews for the film have recently hit, and some of them aren’t exactly kind (ours is somewhere in the middle), and the film is rated Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, but just barely (it started our Rotten for all of yesterday).

Continue reading ‘Midnight Sky’: George Clooney’s Enlists Sad Radiohead For The Final Trailer To His New Sci-Fi Film at The Playlist.

There aren’t many films with journeys to reach the big screen as torrid as “Chaos Walking.” Director Doug Liman‘s adaptation of the first book in the young-adult series by Patrick Ness has hit snag after snag on its way to theaters. Now, over nine years after Lionsgate first acquired the rights to the novels, a trailer for the film has been released, and fans of the series get their first glimpse of the New World onscreen.  

READ MORE: Long-Delayed ‘Chaos Walking’ Finally Gets A January 2021 Release Date

Set in a dystopian near-future on an alien planet, “Chaos Walking” follows Todd Hewitt, a boy brought up to believe a pathogen has killed all the women in his colony Prentisstown.

Continue reading ‘Chaos Walking’ Trailer: Doug Liman’s Long-Delayed Sci-Fi YA Adaptation Finally Arrives at The Playlist.

For all his extroverted personality as an affable mensch, George Clooney, is no stranger to working in a minor key. Nor is he alien to the ideas of moody space films (“Solaris“), art movies (“The American“), or films with an introspective bent. All of those ideas, including something epic and awe-inspiring, appear to be at work in Clooney’s latest directorial effort “The Midnight Sky,” which looks like its melding the scope of something like “Gravity,” to more humanist sensibilities about survival, connection, and hope despite the ways humankind seems destined to doom itself.

Continue reading ‘The Midnight Sky’ Trailer: George Clooney’s Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Film Hits Netflix On December 23 at The Playlist.

Even though much of the 2004 version of the J-horror “The Grudge” is loud, unapologetic cornball schlock—see the unintentionally funny scene where Bill Pullman plummets to his death from the peak of a hotel high rise—the new 2020 version produced by Sam Raimi, is one of the more muddled horror remakes in recent memory. Takashi Shimizu inadvertently spawned a franchise when he remade the 2004 version from his own Japanese horror staple “Ju-On: The Grudge” (2002) and the series comprised mainly of carefully calibrated jump scares and haunted house mumbo-jumbo.

Continue reading ‘The Grudge’: Artful Horror Filmmaker Nicolas Pesce Falters With A Typically Dull January Horror [Review] at The Playlist.

Who could forget the impromptu game of paranormal peek-a-boo with a terrified KaDee Strickland? How about the same entity uttering its unmistakable death rattle, as it slinks its way down the stairs to confront Sarah Michelle Gellar? Most iconic of all, what about the cold fingers that seemingly emerge from the back of the latter’s head within the personal privacy of a shower? It has been 15 years since Takashi Shimizu brought “The Grudge”—itself an Americanized remake of his 2002 film “Ju-On: The Grudge”—to audiences.

Continue reading ‘The Grudge’ Trailer: The Horror Franchise Returns With John Cho, Andrea Riseborough & Director Nicolas Pesce at The Playlist.

The lockstep nature of horror sequels is hard to escape. Once you’ve shown your hand, it’s difficult to keep bluffing. “The Conjuring” series is no exception, though it’s maybe a more heartbreaking one given the roundabout way that Warner Bros./New Line Cinema have gone about it by forgoing serialized sequels in favor of the Cinematic Universe approach. “The Nun” — a spinoff from the character introduced in “Conjuring 2” — cannot be accused of forgetting to pull out all the stops.

Continue reading ‘The Nun’ Doesn’t Learn From The Sins Of The Previous ‘Conjuring’ Films [Review] at The Playlist.

James Wan’s “The Conjuring” universe is a force to be reckoned with and it looks like we are about to be hit with the darkest version yet. The newest entry to the series is Corin Hardy‘s spin-off “The Nun” which will star Demian Bichir and Taissa Farmiga.

READ MORE: The Creepy Nun From ‘The Conjuring 2’ Is Getting A Spinoff Movie

Much like “Annabelle” and “Annabelle’s Creation,” the story of “The Nun” is also a prequel.

Continue reading ‘The Nun’ Trailer: ‘Conjuring’ Spin-Off Asks You To Pray For Forgiveness at The Playlist.

20th Century Fox is bringing the intensity with “Alien: Covenant,” the followup to “Prometheus” and the latest chapter in the “Alien” saga. Once again, it looks like very brainy people are going to get in some big trouble.

In ‘Covenant’ Michael Fassbender plays two characters, and a new crew will face countless horrors and probably make some terrible decisions (like having sex in the shower while a creature is loose on your ship?), and we’ll be there watching anyway, hoping we’ll finally get a great “Alien” sequel after waiting decades.

Continue reading ‘Alien: Covenant’ Unleashes Xenomorph Mayhem In New Trailer at The Playlist.

With Neill Blomkamp‘s “Alien” looking unlikely to happen, the future of the franchise rests on the shoulders of the man who started it all: Ridley Scott. He’s back with “Alien: Covenant,” which for fans will have to show some improvement over the beautiful looking, viscerally engaging, but kinda really dumb “Prometheus.” And he’s going to try, bringing buckets of blood along with him.

Continue reading ‘Alien: Covenant’ Serves Up 5-Minute ‘Last Supper’ Prologue at The Playlist.

Despite being a hugely iconic and popular franchise, you can count the number of great “Alien” movies on one hand. Of course, there’s Ridley Scott‘s original and James Cameron‘s sequel, but after that is when the debate begins. You will find apologists for David Fincher‘s studio manhandled “Alien 3,” some who will go to bat for “Alien: Resurrection,” and even I’ll give a pass to “Prometheus,” but even those who defend those movies will be the first to admit they’re all deeply flawed.

Continue reading Get Ready To Scream In Terror With The Intense, Red Band Trailer For Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien: Covenant’ at The Playlist.

Coming-of-age films, especially those about transitioning from the goldfish bowl of high school to the unchecked freedom of college, are a genre unto themselves. Some of the best, such as Richard Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” and James Pondsolt’s “The Spectacular Now,” capture the bittersweet evolution of young life, frozen in a moment of time. Chris McCoy’s “Good Kids,” examines this specific point of change by following the misadventures a group of straight-and-narrow teens who decide to cram four years worth of partying, sex and drugs into one summer before heading off to college.

Continue reading ‘Good Kids’ Is An Uneven Coming-Of-Age Film About The Joy Of Having One Last Hurrah [Review] at The Playlist.

As far as his big-screen output goes, Paul Weitz has been keeping a fairly low profile as of late. This is not to say that the writer, director, playwright, and producer hasn’t been busy. He released an amicably scaled-down indie in the form of last year’s Lily Tomlin-starring “Grandma” that amassed mostly good reviews, particularly for its lead actress’s performance. Weitz has also garnered considerable acclaim for his work on the Amazon comedy “Mozart in the Jungle,” a show that he produces and frequently directs alongside show creators Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman.

Continue reading Julianne Moore, Ken Watanabe & Demian Bichir To Star In Paul Weitz’s Hostage Thriller ‘Bel Canto’ at The Playlist.

Demian Bichir, Amy Seimetz, And More Join Ridley Scott's 'Alien: Covenant'

Continue reading Demian Bichir, Amy Seimetz, And More Join Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien: Covenant’ at The Playlist.