Legendary has closed a – surprisingly aggressive – deal with Mob Entertainment, beating out several competitive offers, to develop and produce a live-action feature adaptation of the horror video game, Poppy Playtime. Legendary will develop and produce the project alongside Mob Entertainment and Angry Films’ Don Murphy and Susan Montford. Poppy Playtime is a first-person video game that sees the player acting as a former employee of a faded toy brand and who, thanks to a cryptic letter, is drawn back to an abandoned facility from which all staff disappeared ten years prior, only to discover it ..read more

Warner Bros. has confirmed that, not only will Middle-earth be returning to the big screen, but OG Lord of the Rings helmer Peter Jackson will be working on the new title, with an anticipated release date in 2026. David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said the company is “now in the early stages of script development” for new Lord of the Rings movies, which he states will “explore storylines yet to be told. The first film, which hails from WB and New Line Cinema, is Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum (though that’s a working title at the moment) with Andy Serkis reprising his role a ..read more

Seven years (already, can you believe it?!) after Denis Villeneuve dazzled audiences with Blade Runner 2049, Blade Runner is heading to the small screen in Amazon’s upcoming series Blade Runner 2099, with news that the inimitable, ever-talented, Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh has signed on to star! Ridley Scott, the mind behind the original Blade Runner starring Harrison Ford, is executive producing the live action series, with Blade Runner 2099 reportedly a follow-up to the events of the film sequel, 2049. As Deadline writes in their exclusive, “the latest instalment of the neo-noir sci ..read more

Vin Diesel is officially returning as the galactic antihero Riddick, in a reboot of the the sci-fi action franchise that gave the Fast & Furious actor his first major leading role. Riddick: Furya, which was announced to be in the works back in February 2023, is now moving towards an August 26th film start date, as producers announced this week. Diesel, expectedly, returns to star in and produce the film, reuniting him with David Twothy, the filmmaker who directed the franchise’s previous entries. The film Pitch Black, which released in 2000, introduced Diesel as a captured c ..read more

20th Century Studios is working on a reboot of the sci-fi action adventure franchise The Maze Runner, which ran as a trilogy from 2014 to 2018. Currently, Transcendence and Alien: Covenant scribe Jack Paglen is in talks to write the screenplay for the new instalment. Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Lee Stollman of Gotham Group, along with Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen of Temple Hill, all of whom produced the original trilogy, are returning to produce this new project. Wes Ball, the director of all three films, is also due to be involved as producer. Based on the best-selling YA dystopia novels by Jame ..read more

A character we all love to hate gets a Sith makeover in the trailer for Disney+’s upcoming Star Wars special, an animated LEGO series titled Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy: ladies, gents, and others, please ready yourselves for the arrival of one Darth Jar-Jar. An awkward Gungan outcast living on Naboo, Jar-Jar Binks was infamously introduced as a major character in 1999’s The Phantom Menace, and returned with a supporting role in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. He also had a role in the animated television series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In Rebuild the Galaxy, the Star Wars Ga ..read more

French filmmaker Julia Ducournau should be a name well-known to any self-respecting horror fan, the mind behind the cannibal film Raw and the wild, genre-defying Titane. And in some good news today, we’ve learned her third movie has been confirmed, titled Alpha. Though it carries on the director’s tendency towards snappy, mysterious, one-word movie names, that’s about all we know about the flick. Golshifteh Farahani (The Patience Stone) and Tahar Rahim (The Mauritanian, and… *cough* Madame Web. Don’t hold it against him, though). Variety reports that FilmNation Entertainment and Charades are p ..read more

A24 has come out on top of an auction to pick up Onslaught, an action thriller directed by Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire filmmaker Adam Wingard, which he’s co-writing with frequent collaborator Simon Barrett. The Hollywood Reporter writes that the feature will have a scope more in line with his early movies, which were all original creations. Details for Onslaught are being kept top secret, but sources describe it as a “gonzo action horror thriller”. The project is expected to begin filming this autumn, so Legendary MonsterVerse fans will have to wait a while before Wingard gets ba ..read more

Fast X and Transporter filmmaker Louis Leterrier has been tapped to direct and produce the sci-fi horror film 11817, based on a script by Matthew Robinson (The Invention of Lying, Love and Monsters, the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue Squadron). In 11817, inexplicable forces trap a family of four inside their house indefinitely. As both modern luxuries and life-or-death essentials begin to run out, the family must learn how to be resourceful to survive and outsmart who – or what – is keeping them trapped. “Directing projects where the audience gets behind the characters has always been my ..read more

Genre legend and all-round icon Emily Booth will be joining forces with free-to-air TV channel NYX UK at this year’s HorrorConUK, which takes place at Magna, Sheffield on May 11th and 12th. Emily will be hosting the NYX UK stand, alongside Corinne Ferguson. CEO of NYX Media Corporation. Emily will also be signing photos and merchandise. Emily said, ‘I’m thrilled to be collaborating with NYX. Horror is my happy place, and I can’t wait to reconnect with fans. It’s refreshing to find a channel that curates both classic and contemporary horror so you can sit back and be entertained without spendin ..read more