The first official trailer for Danish director Lars von Trier’s apocalyptic thriller Melancholia has arrived. Budgeted at a modest $7 million, the film follows a group of people as they freak the fuck out upon discovering that the earth is on a collision course with the planet Melancholia.
Peep it:
Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg—last seen flashing her balloon-knot in Trier’s Antichrist—as estranged sisters trying to yada yada yada Dunst goes nude and Gainsbourg (pictured above) probably does too.
Syfy is getting the jump on director Tommy Wirkola’s big screen retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s Hansel & Gretel fairy tale with their own upcoming Saturday night original Gretl, starring “Charmed” and “Beverly Hills 90210” starlet Shannen Doherty in the titular role.
The film’s synopsis reads:
As an adult, a witch hunter returns to the village where he lived as a child to find and kill the witch who killed his sister, Gretl, only to find that Gretl is not dead and danger lurks around every corner.
Gretl is directed by Mario Azzopardi (“The Outer Limits”) and costars Paul McGillion (“Stargate: Atlantis”) as Hansel and genre babes Erica Cox (Repo! The Genetic Opera), Sarain Boylan (Saw IV), Marianthi Evans (Max Payne), and Nahanni Johnstone (Infested). Syfy will air the film in November.
Doherty’s genre creds include Satan’s School for Girls, in which she costarred with “Dexter” babe Julie Benz, the time travel drama Another Day, and the classic dark-comedy Heathers.
DreamWorks has released the first official images from their upcoming Fright Night reboot starring Anton Yelchin (Terminator: Salvation), Colin Farrell (Ondine), David Tennant (“Dr. Who”), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Kick Ass), Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense) and British cutie Imogen Poots (28 Weeks Later).
Originally directed by Tom Holland (Child’s Play), Fright Night’s plot centers around Charley Brewster, a small town horror fan, who is convinced that his new neighbors are vampires. Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) directs the remake from a script by “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” producer/writers Marti Noxon.
“Californication” bad girl Madeline Zima is set to topline writer/director Matt Winn’s British frightener Storage. The 25-year-old starlet will play a woman who learns a terrifying secret when she’s trapped in an underground storage facility with a group of strangers.
Zima broke into Hollywood at the age of six in the 1992 Rebecca De Mornay thriller The Hand That Rocked the Cradle. Since then she has only starred in a couple of horror flicks: the direct-to-DVD thriller Trance and Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton’s gruesome slasher The Collector.
She is best known, however, for her roles as sexy teen plagiarist Mia Lewis on Showtime’s “Californication” and Gretchen Berg, Hayden Panettiere’s bisexual roommate, on NBC’s “Heroes.”
Disney has released a few photos of French starlet Astrid Berges-Frisbey as mermaid Syrena from their upcoming tent-pole release Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. One particularly interesting pic shows Syrena as having legs, suggesting that she may actually be a selkie (unlike mermaids, selkies can shed their tails at will and grow legs to walk among humans).
Frisbey makes her American feature film debut in the Rob Marshall (Chicago) directed sequel that finds Capt. Jack Sparrow searching for the Fountain of Youth. She, along with model-turned-actress Gemma Ward, were chosen to play the film’s sirens after casting agents got wind of their natural breasts talents.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides stars Johnny Depp (Jack Sparrow), Geoffrey Rush (Capt. Barbossa), Keith Richards (Capt. Teague), and new faces Ian McShane (Blackbeard) and Penelope Cruz (Blackbeard’s daughter).
Pop star Britney Spears shares her vision of earth’s impending apocalypse in her new music video entitled “Till the World Ends.” From the looks of it, Armageddon will see cities crumble to the ground as gay guys with faux-hawk hairdos rave in the streets.
According to Spears manager, the 29-year-old singer’s upcoming Femme Fatale shows will feature a post-apocalyptic theme. The tour is slated to start June 17 in Sacramento and will run for 26 dates through North America.
Matrix star Carrie-Anne Moss and genre icon Malcolm McDowell have been cast as Claudia and Leonard Wolf in producers Samuel Hadida and Don Carmody (Resident Evil: Afterlife) upcoming sequel Silent Hill: Revelation 3-D.
Fans of the Silent Hill video games will recognize the Claudia Wolf character from the series’ third installment. Leonard Wolf is her abusive cult-leader father. Sadly, I never got far enough along the game to figure out their deal (I do, however, kick ass at Q-bert).
Silent Hill: Revelation 3-D is directed by Michael J. Basset and stars Adelaide Clemens (Vampire) and Kit Harington (”Game of Thrones”) and original Silent Hill stars Radha Mitchell, Deborah Kara Unger, and Sean Bean. The film is currently shooting in Toronto.
Malaysian stunner Natassia Malthe headlines writer/director Matthew Schilling’s feature film debut Avarice. The sci-fi mystery thriller costars Kevin Sorbo (Sorority Party Massacre), Tinsel Korey (Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn), Brad Dourif (Priest), Ray Park (“Heroes”), Jason London (51) and Patricia Richardson (“Home Improvement”).
Peep the trailer:
The synopsis reads:
A mysterious box from space lands in the desert; it holds the power to grant anyone’s desires, but at a deadly cost. When a group of strangers are brought together by their most desperate desires, they will unwittingly release the evil darkness lurking inside.
Malthe’s genre creds include BloodRayne 3: The Third Reich, Alone in the Dark 2, the werewolf thriller Skinwalkers, superhero flick Electra (she shared a kiss with Jennifer Garner), Halloween: Resurrection, the David E. Kelly penned creature-feature Lake Placid, and the most stroke-worthy video game-based actioner ever DOA: Dead or Alive.
Australian actress Amber Clayton is set to star in writer/director Justin Dix’s sci-fi actioner Crawlspace. The film is produced by Wolf Creek director Greg McLean.
The synopsis reads:
The film follows a squad of elite soldiers sent to infiltrate and extract the lead science team from Pine Gap, Australia’s top secret underground military compound, after it comes under attack from unknown forces.
The mission is compromised when they encounter a young woman with no memory of who she is or how she came to be there. As they try to escape, the group quickly discovers all is not as it seems and the facility has become a testing ground for something far more sinister.
Clayton is perhaps best known in the States for her portrayal of Dr. Lisa Reed on the short-lived CBS medical drama “Three Rivers.”
Crawlspace is currently being shot at Docklands studios in Melbourne, Australia.
Warner Bros. treated WonderCon and CinemaCon attendees this week to four minutes of footage from its upcoming Green Lantern release. If you couldn’t borrow mom’s car to get down to the shows, there’s no need to get your Underoos in a bunch. The footage has hit the web.
