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Un-su Kim’s ‘The Plotters’ is a Fast-Paced, Cinematic Novel

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The Plotters by Un-Su Kim

In Un-Su Kim’s debut novel, The Plotters, he envisions a Korea run behind-the-scenes by guilds of assassins creating a political climate that would make Jason Bourne’s head spin.

The book opens as Reseng, a young assassin stakes out his latest target, sizing the seemingly harmless old man up, taking stock of how he lives. When the old man invites Reseng to sit with him in his home and eat his food, the younger man agrees.

He stays the night, enjoying the man’s hospitality, and in the morning treks back to his vantage point, waiting for just the right moment before finally killing the old man at his leisure.

Reseng is very good at his job, but not always at following his instructions to the letter. He was instructed to bring back the body intact, but instead, he takes him to Bear, a man who runs a pet cremation services and also gets rid of human bodies for various assassins for a little extra income.

Well…he has daughters to put through college, after all.

This is not the first time Reseng has failed to follow his instructions to the letter, but little does he know the events he will set in motion with this particular failure.

In the highest echelon of the guilds, live the plotters. They meticulously plan each step of an assassination. They decide where, how, and what is to be done with the body afterward.

No one knows who they are. No one even knows how many of them there are, and some believe they are only legends. One thing is certain, however: They do not like to be disobeyed.

Un-su Kim’s tension-filled, fast-paced prose, translated into English by Sora-Kim Russell, quickly draws the reader into the world he has created. It’s as though he takes us by the hand and leads us, running, from start to finish.

Complex plotlines merge in unexpected places; characters introduced halfway through the narrative become some of the most important. The central character’s backstory is kept fresh by revealing just the right information at the right time.

Kim makes each step seem like a living, breathing moment that the reader is experiencing through his anti-hero’s eyes. You can feel the explosion of bullets around you, hear the sound of steel blades leaving their sheaths, and smell the smoke of Bear’s crematorium.

In fact, as I read I found myself aching for Reseng’s loneliness one minute and chastising his rash decisions the next as though he were sitting next to me relating the story in his own words.

It is the mark of great storytelling, and Mr. Kim has all the marks of a master storyteller.

The Plotters is available in the U.S. and Canada on January 29, 2019. Pick up a copy, immerse yourself in Un-su Kim’s world, but keep a handkerchief handy to wipe the blood-splatter from your face.

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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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