An unrated trailer for the Alexandre Aja-produced remake of the gory 1980 slasher Maniac is now online. The redo stars Elijah Wood as Frank Zito, a sadistic killer haunted by hallucinations of his abusive mother and who seeks women online to murder and scalp.
Maniac is directed by Franck Khalfoun (P2) and costars French actress Nora Arnezeder (Safe House) as Zito’s girlfriend Anna and America Olivo as his hot-to-trot mom. The slasher, filmed in Los Angeles, is currently being shopped at Cannes.
Anchor Bay has acquired North American rights to Arclight Films’ Shadow People. Directed by Matthew Arnold,the creepy frightener stars Alison Eastwood as a CDC doctor whose research on SUNDS (Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome) leads her to a supernatural conclusion.
Producer Michael Ohoven said:
When I first heard this concept, I couldn’t sleep at night. We had found a very real and terrifying phenomenon that affects millions of people worldwide and has even killed some of them. The idea is so terrifying that people don’t even want to talk about it.
“30 Rock” stunner Katrina Bowden is set to star in The Asylum’s original new slasher Don’t Hold Your Breath. The Jared Cohn-directed frightener is slated to be the studio’s first theatrical movie release.
Bowden plays one in a group of college kids who become possessed by the spirit of an executed serial killer while driving past a cemetery. Randy Wayne (Honey 2) and Gerald Webb (2 Headed Shark Attack) costar in the film, which is currently shooting in Los Angeles.
Bowden is quickly building up her scream queen cred as of late. The New Jersey-born 23-year-old can be seen in Magnolia Pictures’ horror-comedy Tucker & Dale vs. Evil and the upcoming frighteners Piranha 3-DD and Nurse 3-D.
Twentieth Century Fox has unveiled an unrated trailer for producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The Bekmambetov-directed film is an adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s best selling novel in which the 16th president of the United States is revealed to have been a vampire slayer.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter stars Benjamin Walker (Flags of Our Fathers) as Honest Abe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (The Thing) as his wife Mary Todd, Anthony Mackie (Real Steel) as Secretary of State/vampire killer William Seward and Dominic Cooper (Captain America) as Lincoln’s vamp-killing mentor Henry Sturges. It arrives in theaters on June 22.
Zoe Saldana will star in Robert Rodriguez’s Machete Kills, a sequel to the director’s 2010 grind-house actioner Machete. The Puerto Rican stunner’s casting was made known today in an interview with Machete star Danny Trejo.
Machete Kills is going to be a lot more over-the-top than Machete. We’ve got Sofia Vergara, who is a star in her own right, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, and Zoe Saldana – and guess what? I get to kiss all of ‘em.
Machete Kills finds Machete recruited by the U.S. government to bring down a Mexican cartel leader and a billionaire arms dealer plotting global warfare with a high-tech space weapon. Amber Heard, Demian Bichir and Mel Gibson also star.
Saldana is best known for her roles as Lieutenant Nyota Uhurain in J.J. Abrams’Star Trek series reboot and as Na’vi babe Neytiri in James Cameron’s Avatar. She also toplined the Luc Besson-produced revenge actioner Colombiana.
Warner Bros. has released a trailer for Dark Castle Entertainment’s The Apparition, starring Ashley Greene (Twilight Saga) and Sebastian Stan (Black Swan) as a young couple haunted by an evil specter released during an ill-fated parapsychology experiment conducted at their university.
The Apparition is writer/director Todd Lincoln’s feature film debut and costars Tom Felton (Harry Potter) as a wheelchair bound supernatural expert and Julianna Guill (Friday the 13th) as a hot chick with enormous breasts. It appears in theaters on Aug. 24.
Little Miss SunshineAbigail Breslin is going dark for her starring role in Tyler Shields’ Final Girl. Scripted by Adam Prince, the story follows Breslin as she sets out to even the score with the gang of street kids that assaulted her as part of their initiation.
The film marks Shield’s directorial debut.
Breslin, now 16, made her feature film acting debut at the age of 5 in M. Night Shyamalan’s alien invasion thriller Signs. She’s since gone on to star in 2009’s Zombieland and the upcoming sci-fi actioner Ender’s Game opposite Harrison Ford and Hailee Steinfeld.
It’s still a bit of a crawl until “Walking Dead” fans get to see the show’s season three premiere, but AMC is already whetting appetites with a new two-minute-plus behind-the-scenes featurette.
The BTS includes commentary from stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Laurie Holden (Andrea) and Lauren Cohan (Maggie Greene). Director Ernest R. Dickerson also chimes in about the upcoming season.
New Artists Alliance has released a trailer for director Todd Levin’s feature film debut Static. The supernatural thriller stars Sara Paxton (Shark Night), Sarah Shahi (”The L-Word”) and Milo Ventimiglia (”Heroes”).
Static follows a bereaved couple (Shahi, Ventimiglia) teetering on divorce after the death of their child. The arrival of a mysterious young visitor (Paxton) soon changes their outlook, but at an unearthly cost.
Summit Entertainment has released images from its upcoming crime thriller I, Alex Cross, a reboot of the Alex Cross franchise first launched by Paramount Pictures in 1997 with Kiss the Girls starring Morgan Freeman as Cross.
The shots provide a first look at Tyler Perry wearing pants as Alex Cross, Ed Burns as his partner Det. Tommy Kane and Matthew Fox as the very ripped and menacing psychopath Michael “The Butcher of Sligo” Sullivan (a much more frightening look than Jack’s beard on “LOST”).
I, Alex Cross finds the detective tracking down an escort-murdering serial killer whose victims include a beloved relative of Cross. The film is directed by Rob Cohen (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) and costars Rachel Nichols as Kane’s busty girlfriend. It opens on Oct. 26.
