A Quiet Place Mutes Rampage
After spending a single weekend in the first place of the weekend box office, Rampage was silenced by the low-budget, high-concept horror A Quiet Place, reports Box Office Mojo. Written and directed by John Krasinski (who also stars in the film), A Quiet Place thus triumphantly returned to the first place it held just two weeks ago by earning $20,9 million. So far, this $20 million movie has grossed over $130 million worldwide.
Rampage, a sci-fi disaster movie starring Dwayne Johnson, slid down to the second place of the last weekend’s box office by grossing a bit over $20 million. Rampage was directed by Brad Peyton who already worked with Johnson on the 2015 disaster film San Andreas. In the third place is the comedy I Feel Pretty. Featuring Amy Schumer (Inside Amy Schumer) and Michelle Williams (Shutter Island), I Feel Pretty earned a bit over $16 million in its opening weekend. Comedy Super Troopers 2 – a sequel to a 2001 movie of the same title – is in the fourth place with $15,1 million. In the fifth place of the weekend’s box office with $7,8 million is Truth or Dare, yet another low-budget horror flick that premiered last week in the third place of the weekend box office.
RIP Ash Vs. Evil Dead
After three seasons of horror and hilarity, Starz has decided to pull the plug on Ash Vs. Evil Dead due to its declining ratings, says the AVClub. Based on Sam Raimi’s cult horror trilogy starring the one and only Bruce Campbell, Ash Vs. Evil Dead marked the miraculous return of Ashley J. Williams – chainsaw hand and all – more than two decades after the release of the last film, the 1992 Army of Darkness. And while the fans of the show have clamored for Netflix to pick it up from Starz, Campbell himself thanked them for their effort and announced his retirement as Ash:
Big props to fans for the effort, but I’m retired as Ash. #timetofrysomeotherfish https://t.co/Di1aeBV0dl
— Bruce Campbell (@GroovyBruce) April 23, 2018
Throughout three seasons of the show, much older but barely wiser Ash continued his never-ending war against the supernatural evil of the Deadites with the help of his convenience store co-workers Pablo Simon Bolivar (Ray Santiago), Kelly Maxwell (Dana DeLorenzo) and mysterious Ruby Knowby (the irreplaceable Lucy Lawless). And while the news about the show’s cancellation will undoubtedly sadden its viewers, it is nevertheless worth reflecting how incredible it is that Sam Raimi’s low-budget 1981 creation not only led to two sequels but also became a TV show.
New Stephen King Adaptations in Work
Deadline reports that Universal won the bidding war over Netflix and Sony to film a new adaptation of Stephen King’s 1987 horror novel Tommyknockers – a novel that, in the grand opus of America’s horror master, could be charitably referred to as “a clunker”. Thus, Universal continues its rather clumsy approach to picking and choosing their horror movie projects, as witnessed by the meteoric fall of its Dark Universe. On the other hand, this adaptation will be helmed by the Australian filmmaker James Wan, known for Saw and Conjuring franchises, giving hope that this Tommyknockers adaptation will fare better than the 1993 ABC miniseries starring Jimmy Smits, Mar Helgenberger, and Traci Lords.
This week New Line Cinema announced its plans to adapt Stephen King’s early novel The Long Walk, published in 1979 under the pen name Richard Bachman. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the script will be penned by James Vanderbilt, who previously worked on Zodiac and The Amazing Spider-Man movies. Set in a dystopian future, The Long Walk follows a group of teenagers forced on a grueling walk down the eastern coast of the USA with all but the winner being shot by the troops guarding them.
