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Big Theater Chains Ban Universal Films: ‘Halloween Kills,’ ‘Candyman’

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Halloween Kills and Candyman

AMC and Regal Theaters will be social distancing their customers from Universal films once the pandemic rules are over. The chains are the biggest movie houses in the country and executives aren’t too happy with Universal’s decision to release Trolls World Tour to home audiences before a traditional theatrical run. The animated film earned over $100 million since it dropped, making it the highest-grossing first-run film in digital release history.

That’s good for Universal’s revenue but bad for theater owners, and consequently movie ticket buyers. On Tuesday NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell spoke to the Wall Street Journal saying future films will be available on multiple formats, something that provoked both AMC and Regal to respond saying all future Universal releases would be banned from their screens.

If you’re keeping score that means Candyman which has already been moved from a summer to a fall release, Halloween Kills, and an untitled Purge sequel will not be shown in the country’s biggest movie houses.

Cineworld, Regal’s owner, called B.S. on Universal’s decision to traverse a formal theatrical window with Trolls, saying it made no economic sense. They added that the move was inappropriate and showed the absence of good-faith and transparency.

AMC CEO and President Adam Aron said his hand was forced and followed suit soon after Regal’s decision.

“It is disappointing to us, but Jeff’s comments as to Universal’s unilateral actions and intentions have left us with no choice,” Aron said in an open letter. “Therefore, effectively immediately AMC will no longer play any Universal movies in any of our theaters in the United States, Europe or the Middle East. This policy … goes into effect today and as our theaters reopen, and is not some hollow or ill-considered threat.”

Aron doubled-down and added, “any movie maker who unilaterally abandons current windowing practices absent good faith negotiations between us.” Perhaps that was a barb at Warner Bros. whose Scoob! is going straight to digital on May 15.

If Warner does indeed embrace PVOD and the chains are serious, films such as Godzilla vs. Kong, Wonder Woman 1984, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and The Witches have uncertain places among the cineplex.

Today, in the wake of the heated flourishes among the Hollywood power teams, Jeff Shell said Universal’s commitment to releasing movies theatrically is still solid, however, they are also making PVOD a part of the equation.

“The question is when we come out of this (pandemic), what is going to be the model? I would expect that consumers will return to the theaters and we will be part of that. And I also expect that PVOD is going to be a part of that in some way. It’s not a replacement, it’s going to be a complementary element. We’re just going to have to see how long that takes and where it takes us,” Shell said.

He added: “There’s no question that theatrical will some day be a central element to our business and film business, it’s how people make their movies and how they expect their movies to be seen.”

While all this infighting is going on, the question remains, will fans opt to stay at home to watch first-run movies bypassing the theater if that option is available?

Releasing a kid’s movie during a quarantine is one thing since they seem to be the ones who have nothing to do during isolation, and it keeps them occupied while work-at-home parents are busy.

Adult themed blockbusters are a different matter especially to genre-specific fans who enjoy an immersive experience only a dark theater can provide.

The truth is, the big business shareholders can argue amongst themselves all they want, it’s the customer who will ultimately affect their bottom lines and if the person buying the tickets isn’t happy, then no one wins.

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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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