Come Play Spooks Away Honest Thief
A low-budget horror Come Play scared away its competition just in time for the Halloween weekend. Its story follows parents Marty (John Gallagher Jr. – 10 Cloverfield Lane) and Sarah (Gillian Jacobs – Community) taking care of their autistic son Oliver (Azhy Robertson – Marriage Story). One day Oliver stumbles upon an app called Misunderstood Monsters and frees something far more sinister than a mere computer virus. Written and directed by Jacob Chase based on his short film, Come Play is his feature-length movie debut. In its inaugural weekend, it grossed $3,1 million.
An action-thriller Honest Thief starring Liam Neeson is now in second place at the weekend box office with $1,4 million. Its total domestic gross currently stands at $9,5 million, with another $9,3 million from overseas. In the third place with $1,2 million is the family comedy The War with Grandpa featuring Robert de Niro and a bunch of other famous names. Its total worldwide gross presently stands at $17,4 million. Tenet continues to limp along in fourth place with $885,000. Since its release in late August, Christopher Nolan’s spy-fi thriller grossed $347,1 million globally. And finally, in fifth place at the last weekend’s domestic box office is yet another horror movie – The Empty Man. This adaptation of a graphic novel by Cullen Bunn and Vanesa R. Del Rey earned $577,351 last weekend, with a combined gross so far being $2,7 million.
As always, all of this data comes from the fine folks over at the Box Office Mojo.
Cliver Barker Becomes Executive Producer on the Hellraiser Series
Back in spring, about a million years ago, we reported HBO Max was developing a Hellraiser TV series. Presently come news that Clive Barker, who both directed the first film and wrote the horror novella it was based on, has joined the production as an executive producer.
It’s a solid team, mind you. David Gordon Green, a filmmaker behind the latest Halloween trilogy of movies, will direct the pilot as well as several episodes of the show. Michael Dougherty (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Trick r’ Treat) and Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica, Daredevil) will produce the scripts. According to the press release, they intend to expand and develop the mythology movies established over the last three decades. And it is grisly mythology, focusing on otherworldly creatures called Cenobites who mix pain and pleasure.
Clive Barker’s horror novella The Hellbound Heart was first published in 1986 in the anthology Night Visions. A year later, Barker himself filmed its adaptation in his directorial debut. The leader of the Cenobites, played by British actor Doug Bradley, quickly became iconic due to his performance as well as his character’s distinct and unsettling appearance.
Ellen Page to Star in an eSports Movie 1UP
Ellen Page (The Umbrella Academy, X-Men: Days of Future Past) will star alongside Paris Berelc (Hubie Halloween) in a comedy set in the world of eSports. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the movie – titled 1UP – will be directed by Kyle Newman (Fanboys), based on the script by the actress and screenwriter Julia Yorks.
In 1UP, Berelc would play Vivian Lee, a former gaming competitor who left her college eSports team after she got fed up with the way guys treated her. However, with her scholarship on the line, Vivian finds a coach (played by Page) to assist her in assembling an elite all-female team of underdog misfit gamers.
1UP is the first feature from BuzzFeed Studios. Newman is best known for directing Fanboys in 2009. In this road trip comedy, Jay Baruchel, Kristen Bell, and Dan Fogler play a group of die-hard geeks looking to steal an early copy of the first Star Wars prequel. In 2015, Newman also directed the action-comedy Barely Lethal about a clandestine group of teenage assassins featuring Hailee Steinfeld, Sophie Turner, Jessica Alba, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Production of 1UP should commence in Toronto this November.
