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The killer wasp creature feature returns with the upcoming Hivemind, with Deadline reporting that the spec script from writer Peter Gaffney has been acquired by the Badlands label.

The project is being billed as “an environmental thriller.” In Hivemind, “small town authorities team up to prevent a deadly global outbreak of a new breed of killer wasps.”

Badlands is the same label behind the upcoming spider horror movie Arachnid starring Matilda Lutz, so it would seem they’re carving out a particular niche for themselves.

The launch of the genre label Badlands marks a partnership between Thunder Road (John Wick) and Screen Gems executive Scott Strauss, with a “fresh slate of horror IP” in the works.

“We went into production six months after acquiring Arachnid,” Scott Strauss told Deadline. “Hivemind is such a compelling script I expect our timeline to be similar. I appreciate Peter and his team for recognizing...

Hong Won-ki, the South Korean director of recent Busan sales title Gory: A Horror Tale, will direct the K-pop psychological thriller Perfect Girl for Badlands to starAdeline Rudolph and Arden Cho.Upgrade will introduce to EFM buyers next month, with CAA Media Finance handling US rights.

Based on the 2023 Black List script by Lynn Q. Yu, the project is styled as Scream meets Black Swan set in the competitive world of K-pop, where slots are up for grabs as a new super group is about to be unveiled at a massive concert.

When a talented and mysterious new girl is introduced at the last minute,...

Hong Won-ki, the South Korean director of recent Busan sales title Gory: A Horror Tale, will direct the K-pop psychological thriller Perfect Girl for Badlands to starAdeline Rudolph and Arden Cho.Upgrade will introduce to EFM buyers next month, with CAA Media Finance handling US rights.

Based on the 2023 Black List script by Lynn Q. Yu, the project is styled as Scream meets Black Swan set in the competitive world of K-pop, where slots are up for grabs as a new super group is about to be unveiled at a massive concert.

When a talented and mysterious new girl is introduced at the last minute,...

Rolling off her lead role in “Mortel Kombat 2,” Adeline Rudolph will star opposite Arden Cho in “Perfect Girl,” an elevated psychological thriller set in the competitive world of K-pop.

“Perfect Girl” (previously titled “Unnie”) will be directed by genre filmmaker Hong Won-ki, with an original soundtrack created by K-pop powerhouses Sunshine and Moonshine.

Upgrade will introduce the project to buyers in a couple weeks at the EFM in Berlin, with CAA Media Finance handling domestic rights.

The project hails from Badlands, a one-year-old new indie genre label which brings together Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee’s Thunder Road (“John Wick”) and former Sony executive Scott Strauss.

The screenplay, penned by Lynn Q. Yu, landed on the 2023 Black List script and has been described as a “Scream-meets-Black Swan,” revolving around a brand new K-Pop super group preparing to be launched to the world at a massive concert. “A group of girls...

Adeline Rudolph (Mortal Kombat 2) and Arden Cho (Partner Track, Avatar: The Last Airbender) have been cast as the leads in Perfect Girl, a psychological thriller from director Hong Won-ki and Badlands, the genre label set up last year by John Wick producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee’s Thunder Road and longtime Screen Gems executive Scott Strauss.

Based on the 2023 Black List script Unnie by Lynn Q. Yu, Perfect Girl is set in the high-stakes world of K-pop. Described as Scream meets Black Swan, the story follows a group of trainees competing for four coveted spots in a new supergroup. When a talented and mysterious new girl is introduced to the casting competition at the last minute, things start to get strange: Girls are being hunted and attacked one by one.

Upgrade will launch Perfect Girl to international buyers at the European Film Market next month. CAA Media Finance is handling domestic rights.

Warning: Contains spoilers for Conquest 2099 #4!!

Gwen Stacy and her many variants have become a Marvel staple, spanning universes and platforms, but Conquest 2099 just turned her most popular moniker into a horror show. In the 2099 timeline, Spider-Gwen is long gone, but Ghost-Spider lives on in the form of a fanged and bloodthirsty Araneon, enforcer for the timeline's Spidercide. Her appearance transforms Ghost-Spider into a legacy character – and a terrifying one at that.

Conquest 2099 #4 – written by Steve Orlando, with art by Ibraim Roberson and Jose Luis – the battle between Dracula's vampire forces and the Araneon horde reaches a crescendo. Wolverine, as 2099's Nova, Spider-Women, and others put themselves in the midst of conflict, Ghost-Spider offers to bring Dracula's head to Spidercide. Her offer is rebuked, but the appearance is enough to show fans just how horrifying the new Ghost-Spider really is.

With four orange eyes, an extra set of arms fashioned into blades,...

Published in 2019, Lucia Peters’ Dangerous Games to Play in the Dark is headed for the screen with a movie adaptation from director Angel Gomez (Arachnid), Deadline reports.

Evan Spiliotopoulos (The Pope’s Exorcist) wrote the upcoming supernatural horror movie adaptation of the book, which is currently going by the title Dangerous Games to Play.

The team behind the movie explains to Deadline, “The source material is a collection of spine-chilling games based on urban legends from around the world.

“While these games might seem like simple dares or tests of bravery, the book warns those who risk playing should remember: What they summon may not want the games to end…”

Deadline’s report also notes, “Altitude Film Sales will introduce the project to buyers next week at the American Film Market, with CAA Media Finance handling domestic rights. The team is eyeing a spring 2025 production start. Casting discussions are underway.

Exclusive: Angel Gomez (Arachnid) has been set to direct Dangerous Games To Play, a supernatural horror movie for former Sony exec Scott Strauss and Thunder Road’s genre label Badlands.

Written by Evan Spiliotopoulos (The Pope’s Exorcist), pic is based on Lucia Peters’ novel Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark. The producers said of the novel: “The source material is a collection of spine-chilling games based on urban legends from around the world. While these games might seem like simple dares or tests of bravery, the book warns those who risk playing should remember: What they summon may not want the games to end…”

Altitude Film Sales will introduce the project to buyers next week at the American Film Market, with CAA Media Finance handling domestic rights. The team is eyeing a spring 2025 production start. Casting discussions are underway.

As we revealed earlier this year, Badlands is a...

Exclusive: Sony Pictures International Productions and Mucho Mas Media are in development on The Pet Nup, an original rom-com to be directed by Elaine del Valle (Midnight Hustle). Cast for the pic will include Emeraude Toubia (With Love), Gregg Sulkin (Runaways), Halston Sage (Dark Phoenix) and Emmy winner Jaime Pressly (My Name Is Earl).

Scripted by Tate Hanyok (Sex Appeal), the film’s logline is as follows: While a recently divorced couple navigates new life and love apart, the arrangement in their “Pet-Nup” forces them to extremes as they fight for custody of the one thing in their life that can’t be split in two: their dog.

Javier Chapa will produce for Mucho Mas Media (The Long Game). Phillip Braun will exec produce for Mucho Mas, along with Sherrese Clarke Soares for Harbourview Equity.

Previously starring in Gloria Calderón Kellett’s Prime Video series With Love and Freeform’s Shadowhunters,...

Exclusive: Gregg Sulkin (Runaways), William Miller (The 100) and Melina Matthews (Warrior Nun) have signed on for roles in the spider thriller Arachnid marking the debut feature from Badlands, the new indie genre label from Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee’s Thunder Road, longtime Screen Gems exec Scott Strauss, and Andrew Schwartzberg and Jon Shiffman’s Renegade Capital, on which we were first to report.

As previously announced, Matilda Lutz also stars in the film, shooting overseas, which Ángel Gómez Hernández (Voces) is directing from a script by Jayson Rothwell (Underworld: Blood Wars).

In Arachnid, a man returns from a trip unwittingly harboring a new breed of arachnid. Subsequently, the people in an apartment block are quarantined and left to fend for themselves against a plague of venomous spiders.

Producers include Rothwell, Schwartzberg, Shiffman, Peter Welter, Alexandra Milchan, and Josh Weinstock. Altitude Film Sales is handling international sales, having introduced the...

The John Wick franchise producers at Thunder Road Pictures are partnering with longtime Screen Gems executive Scott Strauss to launch an independent genre label called Badlands, Deadline reports, and the first project to come our way from Badlands is the spider thriller Arachnid, which has Don’t Listen and El hombre del saco director Ángel Gómez Hernández attached to direct from a screenplay by Jayson Rothwell, whose previous credits include Silent Night (2012) and Polar. The film is set to star Matilda Lutz of the awesome 2017 revenge thriller Revenge and the upcoming Red Sonja reboot.

Badlands is backed by Andrew Schwartzberg and Jon Shiffman’s company Renegade Capital. According to Deadline, the label will “feature development and co-fi funds and plans to make two to three films per year.” Filming on Arachnid is set to begin in Madrid, Spain this July. Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road are producing the film with Strauss,...

Spider horror movies seem to be all the rage, with Infested streaming on Shudder and Sting now available on Digital at home. And there’s another one on the way, with Deadline reporting that Matilda Lutz (Revenge) will star in an upcoming spider movie titled Arachnid.

The project is the first from the new genre label Badlands, a partnership between Thunder Road (John Wick) and Screen Gems executive Scott Strauss that Deadline first reported on.

Jayson Rothwell (Underworld: Blood Wars) wrote Arachnid, with Ángel Gómez (Voces) directing. Deadline notes, “the spider thriller is due to begin filming this July in Madrid.”

“I am lucky to be in business with Thunder Road and Renegade,” Strauss said in a statement shared by Deadline. “Badlands will be an extension of both companies’ entrepreneurial spirit and is moving quickly to acquire and produce a fresh slate of horror IP.”

“Thunder Road has been looking...

Thunder Road Pictures has lined up Sam Claflin and Rupert Friend to star in Henry Dunham’s Second World War action thriller Perdition.

UK sales outfit Mister Smith Entertainment is launching international sales at Cannes, with CAA and UTA to oversee North American rights.

The film is in pre-production, and scheduled to start principal photography this in autumn in Europe.

The thriller is set in December 1944 in war-torn Belgium. A lone American soldier (Claflin) escapes a prisoner of war camp execution, while a ruthless Nazi SS officer (Friend) becomes obsessed with tracking him down.

Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee will produce for Thunder Road,...

Exclusive: Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee’s Thunder Road (John Wick) is partnering with longtime Screen Gems executive Scott Strauss to launch Badlands.

Backed by Andrew Schwartzberg and Jon Shiffman’s Renegade Capital, the independent genre label will feature development and co-fi funds and plans to make two to three films per year.

First up for the new venture will be Arachnid, starring Matilda Lutz. Written by Jayson Rothwell (Underworld: Blood Wars) and directed by Ángel Gómez (Voces), the spider thriller is due to begin filming this July in Madrid. Altitude Film Sales will introduce the film to buyers in Cannes next week, with CAA Media Finance handling domestic rights.

Rothwell, Schwartzberg, Shiffman, Peter Welter, Alexandra Milchan, and Josh Weinstock are part of the Arachnid producing team.

Lutz is best known for genre projects including Revenge, Reptile and the upcoming films Magpie and Red Sonja, in which she has the title role.

A new breed of creature-features was unleashed in the 1990s and continued well into the next decade. Shaking off the ecological messaging of the past, these monsters existed for the sake of pure mayhem. Just to name a few: Tremors, The Relic, Anaconda, Godzilla, Deep Rising and Lake Placid all showcased this trend of irreverent creature chaos. Reptiles and other scaly beasts proved to be a popular source of inspiration for these films, but for that extra crawly experience, bugs were the best and quickest route. Spiders, in particular, led some of the worst infestations on screen in the early 2000s. And on the underbelly of this creeping new wave — specifically the direct-to-video sector — hangs an overlooked offering of spider horror: Arachnid.

In 2000, Brian Yuzna and Julio Fernández launched the Spanish production company Fantastic Factory. The Filmax banner’s objective was to create modestly budgeted genre films for international distribution.

Fresh off the recent introduction of world warriors Juri and Kimberly (as well as their game faces), Capcom has revealed the musical character themes for the fighters, exclusively for Rolling Stone. Premiering live on our Twitch daily show, each of the tracks has a unique feel attuned the personality of the characters. Check them both out below:

As can be gleaned, returning fighter Juri’s track leans into the fiendishness and playful chaos of the villainous brawler who, after the downfall of series big bad M. Bison in Street Fighter V,...

Exclusive: Stefanie Scott (Insidious: Chapter 3), Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan), Judith Roberts (You Were Never Really Here) and Rory Culkin (Lords of Chaos) have been cast in The Last Thing Mary Saw, a mythological horror pic from writer-director Edoardo Vitaletti.

Film is a period horror set in 1843 that follows the youngest daughter of a strict religious family who finds herself detained after discovering her ominously matriarchal grandmother dead. Project will lense in New York this month.

Vitaletti, a New York based Italian writer and director, is making his directorial debut on the feature. Producers are Intrinsic Value’s Aimee Schoof and Isen Robbins alongside Harrison Allen and Madeleine Schumacher’s Arachnid Films, with Stephen Tedeschi. Scoop Wasserstein is an executive producer.

Scott is represented by Gersh and Medavoy, Fuhrman by UTA and Gang Tyre, Roberts by Leading Artists, Culkin by Paradigm and Brookside Artist Management.

“Guilty Pleasures” just about sums them up, but if you happen to be a fan of the output of director Brian Yuzna and producer Julio Fernandez’s now retired Fantastic Factory label, then count yourself in luck as Arrow Video will be releasing a four-film set in the UK on April 18th entitled – you guessed it – Fantastic Factory Presents!

From the Press Release:

From Arrow Video comes an essential collection of four of the biggest hit features from the Fantastic Factory, the specialist horror, sci-fi and fantasy genre label created by cult writer, director and producer Brian Yuzna (Beneath Still Waters; Bride Of Re-Animator; Society) and Spanish producer Julio Fernandez (Rec; Perfume; The Machinist).

This exclusive four-disc box set includes Brian Yuzna’s Beyond Re-Animator and Faust: Love Of The Damned, along with Arachnid, directed by Jack Sholder (A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge), and Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt,...

Bits 'n Bloody Pieces is a quick look at stuff we might have missed, viral-related promotions or light newsy bites that are easy to digest. Got something weird, or a news nugget, to share that fits in with B'nBP? Send it on over to To Me Right Here . . The UK is getting a Fantastic Factory collection on DVD. I know, exciting times. Beyond Re-Animator , Faust , Arachnid and Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt are included to celebrate Brian Yuzna's deceased production company. The set arrives on April 18 with a bevy of bonus content. . You didn't think the long-mooted Suspiria remake was dead, did you? The Playlist talked to director David Gordon Green who says Natalie Portman was interested in starring, however, Black Swan sort of sapped that interest. He...

All you DVD collecting horror fanatics out there have probably noticed some of the awesome releases that have been coming out of the UK’s Arrow Video as of late. They do an amazing job packaging their discs, windowed slip covers, allowing you to choose which of the multiple artworks to display on your shelf, posters, and several discs to hold all the fantastic extras. They know what we collectors want, and they provide.

Now Arrow is releasing their first several film box set, and it is, brace yourself… all Fantastic Factory titles.

The Fantastic Factory was a branch of Filmax founded in 2000 in Barcelona by filmmakers Brian Yuzna and Julio Fernández. The purpose of the studio was to make modestly budgeted genre films in English for an international audience, to have more opportunities to work with genre favorites like Screaming Mad George and Jeffrey Combs, and, of course, to...

So you wrote this killer script but you have no friggin' clue what to do with it, whon to show it to, or even if you should show anyone at all. Everyone working in this biz has been in your shoes at one time or another, and now some of them are ready to tell you all about it!

Scriptwriters Network is excited to take a look at the television and film industry and discuss what it takes to turn a story into a “hot” property in Hollywood.

From the Website

This intimate discussion will cover the latest trends in popular films and television shows: from teen comedies to popular vampire franchises to over-the-top action and everything in between.

Featured speakers are industry professionals — writers, directors, producers — from both sides of the independent and studio spectrum.

This event will be moderated by TheRichard.

Sheri Bryant worked for The Walt Disney...