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‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ Tours With A Mind Blowing Live Show Riffing On ‘The Brain’ and ‘Deathstalker II’

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“We’ve got movie sign!”

Hard to believe, but it’s been 30 years of riffing for the Minnesotan puppet show Mystery Science Theater 3000 that has since become a cult phenomenon. Having returned to the airwaves with Netflix last year along with a live nation-wide tour, they are re-returning to the airwaves and doing another live tour! This time around, comedian Jonah Ray will be uniting with series creator/original host Joel Hodgson to riff on some B-Movies together.

Jonah, Joel, and The Bots

The tour includes shows based on two different movies. Deathstalker II, the sequel to the wacky swords-and-sorcery action fantasy franchise from the 80’s. The other bing The Brain, a Canadian sci-fi horror monster movie from 1988 (funnily enough, meaning it’s also celebrating 30 years!). Needless to say, I made sure to go to The Brain version of the show! I’ve been a life-long MST3K fan for as long as I can remember, and some of my favorite episodes were the sci-fi horror episodes, such as WerewolfThe Final Sacrifice, and Manos: The Hands Of Fate.

Image via IMDB

The set-up involves Jonah and the bots, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, being subjected to a riffing contest by Sinthia Forrester (Rebecca Hanson) with Joel. Points being marked by certain riffs (brand names, call-backs, etc.) but all in good fun, even if Crow makes threats. The movie itself was a blast. The Brain follows bad boy prankster high school student Jim Majelewski (Tom Bresnahan) who’s sent to the institute of psychologist/TV show host/cult leader Dr. Anthony Blakely (David Gale of Re-Animator!) following a stunt involving pure sodium and the bathroom. Jim soon discover that a rash of murders and suicides are being cause by a giant, alien brain that Blakely is growing in his lab and will only grow bigger and stronger wiht the more minds it controls. Now, Jim must race against the clock alongside his girlfriend Janet (Cynthia Preston) to stop Blakely from broadcasting nationally and taking over the world!

David Gale and The Brain
Image via IMDB

Needless to say, the movie is ripe for the MST3K treatment. With a big, weird monster brain, the leads being rather cartoonish, and with plenty of call-back jokes. My personal favorite being a ‘Rowsdower’ line directed at Verna (George Buza), Dr. Blakely’s henchman. Mystery Science Theater 3000 has always been a great group event. Be it with friends or with a crowd, so a live theatrical show was an absolute blast! The show continues now until the final show in Minneapolis, Minnesota November 17th. And for more MST3K action, Season 12 will be dropping on Netflix this Turkey day/Thanksgiving!

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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