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Alchemy, Jinn and dark magic abound in this month’s new fantasy books. Take a look at our picks for best fantasy books in May 2022.

Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire

Type: Novel

Publisher: Tordotcom

Release date: May 3

Den of Geek says: McGuire’s Middlegame was a twisty, experimental-leaning fantasy novel guaranteed to make you think. The follow-up promises more alchemical experimentation and how it connects to very human relationships.

Publisher’s summary: The king of winter and the queen of summer are dead. The fight for their crowns begins!

“Melanie has a destiny, though it isn’t the one everyone assumes it to be. She’s delicate; she’s fragile; she’s dying. Now, truly, is the winter of her soul. Harry doesn’t want to believe in destiny, because that means accepting the loss of the one person who gives his life meaning, who brings summer to his world.

In ninety-three spellbinding minutes, director Philippe Lacôte takes us through centuries of magical storytelling devices in Night of the Kings, as a young convict attempts to talk his way through the night in this magnificent take on One Thousand and One Nights. Featuring a fiercely layered performance from newcomer Bakary Koné as the Scheherazade-esque balladeer charged with this mammoth task, the film becomes more than the sum of its very impressive parts through masterful weaving of sound, light, and movement in one of the year's most impressively artful outings. A young man (Bakary Koné) stares down his fate as his transport van approaches the more notorious prison in the Côte d’Ivoire, la MacA. His first stretch is about to begin, unluckily for him a man on the inside is...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Tony Sokol Feb 13, 2020

Last summer's Aladdin made Disney rich enough to impress a princess. Studio stands by its oath loyalty to a sequel or three.

There's still a lot of gray area, but after the billion-dollar success of last summer’s reboot, Disney is developing a sequel to Aladdin, according to Variety. Director Guy Ritchie is scheduled to return to the helm. Aladdin starred Will Smith as Genie, Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Naomi Scott as Jasmine, who are expected to take another ride on the carpet.

Aladdin 2 will be an original story and not follow the sequels to 1992's Aladdin, 1994's The Return of Jafar or Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996), which went straight-to-dvd. The Aladdin 2 screenplay will be written by John Gatins, who was nominated for an Academy Award for writing the Denzel Washington film Flight, and Andrea Berloff, who was nominated for an Oscar...

Prepare your magic carpet for your return trip to Agrabah, as Disney has officially given the greenlight to Aladdin 2. Serving as a direct sequel to last year's live-action Aladdin movie, the follow-up will be written by John Gatins (Flight) and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton) with original helmer Guy Ritchie back in the director's chair. Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, and Will Smith are also all expected to reprise their respective roles as Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie, though the actors have yet to formally sign on. Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich are also back on board to produce.

Last year, it had been reported that discussions for a potential sequel to Aladdin had begun taking place at Disney. According to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter, the company held a writers room about possible creative directions to take Aladdin 2. Reportedly, the studio and the producers were considering adapting...

The Sundance Institute has announced the projects that have been invited to the 2019 Directors and Screenwriters Labs. At the Directors Lab (May 27-June 18), filmmakers will rehearse, shoot, and edit key scenes from their scripts. The Screenwriters Lab (June 20-24) immediately follows and provides the opportunity for one-on-one story sessions with screenwriter advisors. The labs are overseen by Sundance’s Feature Film Program director Michelle Satter and Labs director Ilyse McKimmie.

Founded in 1981, the Sundance labs have been a launching pad for directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Miranda July, Dee Rees, Boots Riley, Ryan Coogler, and Marielle Heller, among other names. At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, breakout titles such as Joe Talbot’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” and Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell” were supported by the labs.

The 2019 Sundance Institute Directors Lab Projects and Fellows are:

“The American Society of Magical Negroes” (U.