We finally have an update concerning that “Tomb Raider” sequel. There was some concern when director Ben Wheatly attached himself to direct “The Meg” sequel for Warner Bros., he might have to exit the “Tomb Raider 2” sequel he was developing with actress Alicia Vikander set to reprise the Lara Croft role.

Continue reading ‘Tomb Raider 2’: ‘Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green Takes Over Directing Duties From Ben Wheatley at The Playlist.

Watching a Ben Wheatley film can be a wonderfully disorienting experience. Wheatley enjoys getting under his audience’s skin: he lives to make us uncomfortable and delights in showing us images that may make us lose our lunch. The characters in his films are bedraggled hitmen, schmucky mobsters, bloodthirsty lovers, and downtrodden, ordinary folks who are often one awful day away from regressing to a state of complete lunacy. Wheatley’s movies leave you aghast at their ingenuity and sadism and mischief, to the point where he’s become one of the most consistently unpredictable genre directors working today; certainly, no secret why the likes of Edgar Wright and Martin Scorsese count themselves as fans.

Continue reading The Essentials: The Films Of Ben Wheatley at The Playlist.

Somewhere between the transcendent Alfred Hitchcock original and a total misfire lies Ben Wheatley’s shiny new “Rebecca.” An innocuous adaptation of the 1938 novel by Daphne Du Maurier, the latest Net-flick should reignite debate over the reasons why certain properties are exhumed while others aren’t. For something like Hitch’s 1940 classic, a decent justification might be that the new version fleshes out latent meanings in a more satisfying way—the queer relationship between Mrs.

Continue reading ‘Rebecca’: Ben Wheatley’s Hitchcock Riff Is A Pale Iteration Of A Classic Gothic Horror at The Playlist.

Festival season continues to ebb and flow with the AFI Festival hitting in just a few weeks, making for the discourse around film to stray from the persistent doom and gloom of all of the rescheduling and push backs of previously scheduled releases for theaters.

READ MORE: Cineworld CEO Blames NY Governor’s “Inflexibility” For Causing Company To Shut Down US & UK Theaters Again

Theaters are in a precarious position right now, evidenced by a letter written to congress from filmmakers urging them to save cinemas, as well as the news that Cineworld is shutting down its theaters in the US and UK once again due to lack of business.

Continue reading 10 Movies To See In October: ‘On The Rocks,’ ‘Possessor,’ Chicago 7′ & More at The Playlist.

One of the most versatile and prolific filmmakers on the planet, it seems as if there is nothing English writer/director Ben Wheatley can’t do. He’s done disturbing horror (“Kill List“), serial killer comedy (“Sightseers“), black comic action (“Free Fire“), psychedelic period movies (“A Field in England“), and a dark dystopian adaptation of J.G. Ballard (“High Rise“) among his many movies, that tend to always bend towards the trangressive and outré cinema.

Continue reading ‘Rebecca’ Trailer: Armie Hammer & Lily James Confront A Haunting Legacy For Director Ben Wheatley at The Playlist.

Over the years, it’s become readily apparent that remaking an Alfred Hitchcock film is incredibly difficult. It’s not that remakes are always destined to be bad. Instead, it’s that the films that have tried to replicate the style and effectiveness of Hitchcock have failed miserably, with the most blatant example being the shot-for-shot remake of “Psycho.” With that being said, filmmaker Ben Wheatly wants everyone to understand that his upcoming version of “Rebecca” is not a remake of Hitchcock’s Oscar-winning film of the same name.

Continue reading Ben Wheatley Says His ‘Rebecca’ Is “Firmly Not” A Remake Of The Hitchcock Classic at The Playlist.

COVID-19 is over! Movies are back! And everything is… safe? Hardly. It’s been a weird 2020.5 (an adjunct year that started in March) and it’s been going on for about 2.5 years so far. Sundance and Berlin in the 1st half of 2020 were definitely a few years ago and the new normal is so normal… it’s ok to go back to theaters? We’re as dubious, nervous and hesitant as you. In fact, we’d given up on doing most kinds of film festival previews this year—we threw any ideas of a summer film preview out the window given that the summer schedule kept constantly changing and any predictions about reopening theaters turned out to be as premature and overly optimistic as we all thought.

Continue reading 2020 Fall Film Preview: 40 Most Anticipated Films To Watch at The Playlist.

It’s been over a year since we last heard any news of Ben Wheatley‘s upcoming remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic “Rebecca.” Now we don’t only have a release date for the Netflix film, but our first look at Armie Hammer and Lily James as the aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter and his new wife.

READ MORE: Amy Adams Is A Woman Turning Into A Dog For Annapurna’s Dark Comedy ‘Nightbitch’

The new photos come from Daily Mail, who also reports the October 21 release date for the new “Rebecca.” The film is the latest adaptation of the 1938 murder mystery novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, which follows a newly married young woman who finds herself haunted by the shadow of her aristocrat husband’s now-dead first wife.

Continue reading ‘Rebecca’ Remake: First Look At Ben Wheatley’s Adaptation Of The Hitchcock Classic, Starring Lily James And Armie Hammer at The Playlist.

Composer Clint Mansell had a hell of a beginning to his film career. His first two scores were featured in the films “Pi” and “Requiem for a Dream.” Not a bad way to start your film career, huh? Since then, Mansell has composed music for a huge number of high-profile film and TV projects, including “Moon,” “Stoker,” “High-Rise,” and most recently, “Out of Blue.” Not to mention, he has continued to score the films from Darren Aronofsky.

Continue reading Composer Clint Mansell Reteaming With Director Ben Wheatley On Hitchcock Remake ‘Rebecca’ at The Playlist.

British filmmaker Ben Wheatley, known for darkly comedic genre fare like “Free Fire” and “High Rise,” is about to remake an Alfred Hitchcock classic. The director, who most debuted the scaled-back family dramedy “Happy New Year, Colin Burstead” at the BFI London Film Festival has signed on to helm a remake of Hitchcock’s gothic romance and psychological thriller “Rebecca.” Lily James and Armie Hammer will star in roles originally played by Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier.

Continue reading ‘Rebecca’ Remake: Ben Wheatley Directs, Armie Hammer & Lily James To Star at The Playlist.

This weekend, eclectic indie filmmaker David Lowery‘s quirky “A Ghost Story” will start heading into cinemas. Starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, “A Ghost Story,” shouldn’t work. A moving and existential movie about longing, love, sadness and the immensity of time, it’s about a man that dies, but lingers as an apparition as his wife eventually moves on with her life. But it’s a movie where the ghost is simply a white sheet over Casey Affleck’s head, but nonetheless, the experience is still deeply emotional and profound, creating a spellbinding picture about loss told from the point of view of silent, motionless ghost.

Continue reading Essentials: 20 Of The Best Ghost Movies at The Playlist.

This fall, students across the country will be entering their first year of film school, but The Criterion Collection will be putting on some classes of their own with their lineup of September releases.

Leading the pack is Michael Haneke‘s powerful “The Piano Teacher” starring Isabelle Huppert. The director’s second entry on the boutique label won’t be brimming with too many extras, but we should just be thrilled that the film, long unavailable on DVD, is in print, and coming newly restored as well.

Continue reading Criterion’s September Lineup Includes Michael Haneke’s ‘The Piano Teacher,’ Kelly Reichardt’s ‘Certain Women’ & More at The Playlist.

Interview: Writer & Director Steven Knight On 'Locke,' Tom Hardy & Future Projects Including 'Eastern Promises 2'

Continue reading Interview: Writer & Director Steven Knight On ‘Locke,’ Tom Hardy & Future Projects Including ‘Eastern Promises 2’ at The Playlist.

'A Royal Affair' Helmer Nikolaj Arcel To Direct Remake Of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rebecca'

Continue reading ‘A Royal Affair’ Helmer Nikolaj Arcel To Direct Remake Of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rebecca’ at The Playlist.

Continue reading Remake Of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rebecca’ In The Works, ‘Eastern Promises’ Scribe Steven Knight To Pen The Screenplay at The Playlist.