Wes Craven, Nightmare on Elm Street filmmaker, dies at 76

From usatoday, Wes Craven, a master horror director whose nightmarish creation Freddy Krueger clawed to life on the big screen, died Sunday in Los Angeles after a battle with brain cancer. He was 76.

"It is with deep sadness we inform you that Wes Craven passed away," his family confirmed in a statement to USA TODAY. "Craven was surrounded by love, in the presence of his family at home in Los Angeles."

The auteur made his writing/directing debut with the X-rated The Last House on the Left in 1972, unnerving moviegoers five years later with road-trip slasher The Hills Have Eyes. Hills spawned four sequels, including two reboot installments in the mid-2000s (Craven co-wrote 2007's The Hills Have Eyes 2 with his son, Jonathan Craven).

But he made his most indelible mark with A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984, introducing the fedora-wearing, metal-glove-clad serial killer Krueger (played by Robert Englund) to pop culture. Starring Johnny Depp in one of his earliest roles, the horror triumph was continued by eight sequels (the most recent, a 2010 reboot of the same name).

Craven's other horror touchstone includes the tongue-in-cheek Scream franchise, revived this summer as a MTV series of the same name (on which he was a producer). The first movie in the series (1996) starred Drew Barrymore, Courteney Cox and Neve Campbell and made off with $103.1 million. The slasher series revolves around the masked "Ghostface" killer, whose creepy get-up — a Halloween costume favorite — had unremarkable origins.

"To tell you the truth, we were just looking for a simple costume that would hide every inch," Craven told USA TODAY in 2011. "Fortunately, our actors were all about the same height."

Hollywood reacted quickly as word of Craven's death spread Sunday evening.

"I am heartbroken at the news of Wes Craven's passing," Scream producer Bob Weinstein said in a statement to USA TODAY. "We enjoyed a 20-year professional relationship and more importantly a warm and close friendship. He was a consummate filmmaker and his body of work will live on forever. My brother (Harvey Weinstein) and I are eternally grateful for all his collaborations with us. Our deepest sympathy to his family."

Other collaborators took to Twitter to share their grief. "Please say there's a plot twist," wrote Scream star Rose McGowan, who praised him as "the kindest man, the gentlest man, and one of the smartest men I've known."

"I (would) have no career if it were not for Wes Craven," tweeted Jamie Kennedy,another star of the first Scream. "Thank you for believing in me and giving me a chance."

Craven's four-decade-plus career also included films with Meryl Streep (1999 drama Music of the Heart), Eddie Murphy (1995 comedy Vampire In Brooklyn) andRachel McAdams (2005 thriller Red Eye). He was developing his 1991 horror film The People Under the Stairs for the SyFy channel at the time of his death.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK TRAILER in the style of THE FORCE AWAKENS

"Shudder" Netflix for H-fans

[From Huffington Post]

Movie night sure ain't what it used to be.
In the era of streaming video, the options seem limitless. The likes of Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Vudu and even YouTube offer so many movies that scrolling through them can turn into a sort of all-you-can-eat nightmare, the media equivalent of pushing Olive Garden breadsticks down your throat until dough's coming out of your nostrils. With so many options at your fingertips, it's hard for anything to stand out.

But Shudder, a new streaming service just for the horror genre, may have the answers to movie overload we didn't know we were looking for.

The service, which is backed by AMC Networks, offers relatively little content -- you might call it "limited," but "specialized" or "curated" fit the bill, too. There are just 269 movies to choose from, according to our count, and they're broken into collections like "Alien Intruders," "Romantic Bloodsuckers" and "Monster Mash," so you know exactly what type of horror flick you're in for. The curators who select the movies for Shudder aim to present a mix of classics -- a "canon," in their words -- in addition to total obscurities you probably haven't heard about. More on this later.
By contrast, there are well over 300 titles in Netflix's "Horror" section alone, though it also includes not-so-horrory horrors like "Sharknado 2" and lacks entries like "Pulse," an acclaimed Japanese flick offered on Shudder.

As with other platforms, each movie on Shudder is rated and reviewed by community members. And, if you're truly indecisive, there's the Shudder TV experience, which drops you right into the middle of a film, emulating the experience of stumbling upon a movie while channel-surfing.

You can sign up for a free 14-day trial on Shudder.com. The service also offers apps for Android and iPhone. A subscription is $5 per month, or $50 for the whole year.

In fairness, it's Shudder's smaller library that helps it avoid the discoverability problem common to Netflix, where the glut of content can be a hinderance. Since there are fewer movies to sift through on Shudder, it's harder to get lost finding something you want to watch, especially if you're enough of a horror fan to sign up for the service to begin with.

(DCD - I haven't checked out the listings yet - wonder how many have been reviewed here over the years?)

That 'Twin Peaks' music you like is coming back in style

From cnet, One of the things that makes David Lynch's TV shows and movies work so well is the music, and the eclectic director will once again turn to the haunting melodies of award-winning composer Angelo Badalamenti with the upcoming "Twin Peaks" reboot, according to areport in TVLine.

Badalamenti has been working with Lynch since the 1986 film "Blue Velvet," and won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance on the "Twin Peaks" theme song.

The TVLine report suggests that not only is Badalamenti confirmed to return to "Twin Peaks" for the Showtime reboot, but that he is already hard at work on new music for the show.

Showtime didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.


The "Twin Peaks" reboot got off to a bit of a rocky start after David Lynch initially dropped out of the series due to budget concerns, but he's since come back and is reportedly set to begin filming in September.

Once filming for the series is complete, it's expected to debut on Showtime sometimein either 2016 or 2017, depending who you ask. Only the Log knows for sure.

Whether it's 2016 or 2017, we're looking forward to the return of Special Agent Dale Cooper, Sheriff Harry Truman and the rest of the wacky "Twin Peaks" residents. After a long 25 years, that show we like is finally going to come back and catch us up with some of our favorite characters over a damn fine cup of coffee and an incredible slice of cherry pie.

The Force is Strong With This New 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' IMAX Deal

From latinoreview, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is truly bringing a whole new meaning to the term "go big or go home." The seventh installment in the billion dollar franchise has struck a deal with IMAX to reserve every IMAX screen for four straight weeks, basically pushing out any would-be competition. If you think this sounds odd or unusual, this isn't the first time IMAX has struck a deal like this with a studio or film before.

They did this with all 3 Hobbit films, allowing them to have plenty of time to make as much bank at the box office before any other films could come by and try to stop their parade. And with another Star Wars film already being hyped up as the second coming of Christ, this news will only help it to cross the threshold of being the highest grossing film of all time.

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" will debut on December 18th, and will be directed by J.J. Abrams. It will star actors such as Oscar Isaac, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong'o, and the return of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford.

What do you think about this news? As always, leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Luke Cage tv series!

From iwatchstuff, The upcoming "Luke Cage" TV series, the third one in the Marvel and Netflix deal, isn't set to premiere until next year sometime. However, with shooting on the first season set to begin within the next week or so, an official synopsis appears to have leaked.

Heroic Hollywood has posted the synopsis which indicates that the forthcoming 13-episode Netflix series will see Mike Colter's Luke Cage taking on Willis Stryker (aka Diamondback) as the main villain of the season, while his love interest will be Reva Connors. Here's the synopsis:


Luke Cage is a former gang member who is framed for a crime. In prison, he volunteers for a medical experiment that goes awry, giving him super strength and bulletproof skin. Using his newfound powers, Cage escapes and becomes a hero for hire. His archenemy is Willy Stryker, a former childhood friend from Harlem. The two committed petty crimes together, and both fell for the same woman, Reva Connors, which led to their eventual falling out. It was Stryker who framed Cage for a drug deal that sent him to prison."

Luke Cage will first appear in the upcoming "Marvel's Jessica Jones" which will debut sometime this Fall on Netflix.

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Star Wars: Rogue One May Bring Back A Key Character With CGI Magic

From cinemablend, Star Wars fans will forever remember Peter Cushing for his role as Grand Moff Tarkin in George Lucas' 1977 classic - and while the actor may have passed away back in 1994, apparently that may not stop him from reprising the part. That's because a new rumor is going saying that director Gareth Edwards is planning to create an entirely CGI version of the character for his upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One.

This story comes to us from the folks over at The Daily Mail (and should probably be taken with a grain of salt). According to an anonymous source, Grand Moff Tarkin will reportedly play a significant part in the plot of Star Wars: Rogue One, and that the process is one of the "most complex and costly CGI re-creations ever." No explicit details are given about how exactly the character will fit into the plot, but the source offers that it's a significant role "as he was the one to create Darth Vader." (It should be noted that this isn't actually part of the established canon, and could be proof that the news is spurious).

In case it isn't clear, we have some serious doubts about this story, but the source does offer up an interesting detail concerning what makes the process of creating a CGI Grand Moff Tarkin so complicated. During the filming of the original Star Wars, Peter Cushing found the boots worn by Imperial commanders to be incredibly uncomfortable, and got permission from George Lucas to just wear slippers on set. As a result, there's a limited amount of footage featuring Tarkin's feet, and this has reportedly necessitated the visual effects team on Star Wars: Rogue One to look back at Cushing's long film history in order to make sure the recreation is entirely realistic. If it were me, I would just make it so that his feet don't appear in any shots - partially as an ode to Cushing's performance - and, honestly, that could very well be more evidence against this accuracy of this report.

Described as a gritty war movie - in juxtaposition with the more standard space opera approach - Star Wars: Rogue One will be set in the time just before the events in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and follow the squadron sent in to steal the plans for the original Death Star. It is unknown at this time if there will be any familiar characters featured in the movie, but the impressive cast includes Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk.

Production has actually already begun on Star Wars: Rogue One, with the film targeting a release date in December 2016. We'll just have to wait and see if it includes a CGI Peter Cushing.

Box Office

From ew, After its record-breaking debut last weekend, Straight Outta Comptononce again topped the box office, bringing in an estimated $26.8 million and handily beating this weekend’s three other new releases.

he N.W.A. biopic opened to an enormous $60.2 million last weekend, and 10 days after its release,Compton has already grossed more than $111 million domestically. Compton was actually one of two Universal movies to cross that milestone this weekend, as Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck also hit the $100 million mark. That brings Universal’s total number of $100+ million films to seven this year.

But while Straight Outta Compton held up well in its second weekend, the trio of newcomers fell flat, and all three performed under expectations. Sinister 2 did the best out of the three, opening to $10.6 million, but that’s still under initial expectations of $14 to $16 million — and well under the $18 million that the firstSinister opened to in 2012. The sequel’s debut wasn’t enough to secure second place; instead, that went toMission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which earned $11.7 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to just shy of $160 million.

The action flick Hitman: Agent 47 also failed to live up to its predecessor. Even though it was expected to debut around $10 to $12 million, Agent 47 didn’t even reach double digits, opening instead at $8.2 million. Fox’s adaptation of the Hitman video game series stars Rupert Friend, and the first Hitman, starring Timothy Olyphant, opened to $13.2 million in 2007.

And the weekend’s final new release, American Ultra, only opened to $5.5 million, falling short of the top five. The stoner action-comedy from Lionsgate, which opened in sixth place, was expected to debut between $6 and $8 million. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.took American Ultra’s spot instead, holding up better than expected after its disappointing debut last weekend. U.N.C.L.E.brought in $7.4 million, dropping 45 percent in its second weekend, and its domestic total is now at $26.6 million.

Here are this weekend’s top five at the box office:

1. Straight Outta Compton — $26.8 million
2. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation — $11.7 million
3. Sinister 2 — $10.6 million
4. Hitman: Agent 47 — $8.2 million
5. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. — $7.4 million