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John Lithgow has some big shoes to fill as Jud Crandall

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John Lithgow has some big shoes to fill as Jud Crandall

When I first heard they were remaking Pet Sematary my initial thought was how impossible it would be to replace the iconic role of Jud Crandall. Originally brought to life by the one and only Fred Gwynne, the kindly old man serves as the story’s backbone.

In a true shamanistic fashion, Jud Crandall is our guide down the weathered path leading to the enigmatic Pet Sematary, and he walks about each grave somehow knowing the story behind every one of them. He’s a man who has spent his entire life close to the mysteries surrounding that silent graveyard, and he is one of the very few who still remembers the insidious secrets of what lies beyond its deadfall.

Jud’s character adds a very human touch to the story. He quickly takes to the story’s protagonist, Lois Creed, and feels protective of the whole Creed family who have just moved in across from him. He’s the grandfatherly kind of guy, the one you can trust and confide in. He knows the area like the back of his weathered hand – both the good and the bad. When the Creed family cat dies, Jud Crandall takes it on himself to share the area’s darkest secret with Louis and leads him to the old forsaken Micmac burial ground that lies uneasily beyond the barrier of the Pet Sematary.

image via IMDB, courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Jud later regrets this action and sets in motion dark forces that have set themselves against the Creeds. Jud Crandall is absolutely essential to the story’s success.

The role was masterfully played by the gentle Fred Gwynne, and, honestly, I felt as if no one could ever live up to his high standard. That’s the deal with remakes though: the originals are so firmly rooted in our nostalgia that to imagine anyone else filling in those already-beloved roles is somewhat a heresy.

Then they announced the one and only John Lithgow would be taking over the role and I was hooked. Many people may remember Lithgow from his comedic role on 3rd Rock From the Sun, a fun and lively sitcom where Lithgow stole every single scene he was in.

Me, on the other hand, think of Dexter Season 4 when it comes to John Lithgow. In that season Lithgow played the overarching villain who captivates Dexter’s attention. Lithgow plays the vicious Trinity Killer and is excellent in the role. No, that’s not quite it. Is there a better word for it? It seems like ‘excellent’ is inadequate a word to fully describe the man’s legendary performance. He by far dominated the show by it.

And he was scary as Hell! I mean that. We had already seen a few maniacs on Dexter, but there was something way more to the character John Lithgow played. It was nothing short of sinister. To look at him you would never expect he was capable of such heinous crimes. The guy was a pillar of the community, well respected, and was a family man who lived right next door. That all lent to the terror of his performance.

So they couldn’t have picked a better actor to take on the role of Jud Crandall, one of Stephen King’s most beloved characters. We’ll be there this weekend ready to get chills as we listen to Lithgow/Crandall explain to us why dead is sometimes better.

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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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