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“Predator” Sequel Announces Keegan-Michael Key to Join Cast

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It’s official, Keegan-Michael Key ain’t got time to bleed. It was recently announced that he’ll join the fight in 2018’s The Predator.

Directed and written by Shane Black (The Nice Guys) with co-writer Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad), The Predator will be a sequel to the 1987 original. I guess that means we’ll be ignoring the 1990 sequel, Predator 2 (with the bizarre cast of Danny Glover and Gary Busey) as well as the other features in the franchise.

Honestly, that’s probably a wise choice considering the low ratings for the rest of the films (and yes, I’m including Alien Vs. Predator and AVP: Requiem because they somehow still count). It will be important to put some distance there.

Thankfully, the project seems to be in good hands. Black has close ties to Predator; he played the character of Hawkins in the original, so we can hope that his familiarity with the material (and perhaps his nostalgia) will result in an excellent end product. We can respect that this sequel is not trying to “re-write” the original that we all know and love.

The announced ensemble for The Predator has already gained some notice. The cast currently includes Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight) as an ex-marine, Boyd Holbrook (Narcos) as a Special Forces Commando and Olivia Munn (X-Men: Apocalypse) as a scientist. We’re not sure if one of them will be a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus, but, that mantle is already taken anyways. Thanks Jesse Ventura.

Trevante Rhodes in Moonlight [Image credit: Collider]

Boyd Holbrook in Narcos [Image credit: Dario De Navarra]

Olivia Munn in X-Men: Apocalypse [Image credit: ET Online]

Black seems committed to the tonal range that we saw in the original Predator, which was difficult to fit into one genre.

It’s kind of a sci-fi battlefield action horror thriller with moments of comedy, I guess. Again, I emphasize that this is a sequel and not a reboot. This means that there should be a lot of room to play here.

Keegan-Michael Key in Keanu [Image credit: Arts Technica]

Key’s stellar comedic timing and dramatic reach are a welcome addition to the project. I’m excited to see him stretch his legs in an action/horror movie.

We can hope there’s some room for improv, because you just know he will amp up every scene. Key is perhaps most well-known as half of the comedy duo Key and Peele, where they’ve demonstrated their knowledge of horror and their skill with blending different genres in to sketch comedy.

Jordan Peele has also ventured further into the horror realm with his upcoming directorial debut; the racially-charged thriller Get Out (read more about it here).

Overall, this casting news certainly has turned a lot of heads. They had our interest, but now they have our attention.

The Predator is set for a release date of February 2018

[Featured image credit: Hollywood Reporter]

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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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