Elizabeth Banks is set to topline “True Blood” producer Alan Ball’s new serial killer comedy What’s the Matter with Margie? Directed by Dan Minahan from an original script by Ball, the story finds Margie murdering the asshole work colleagues that have made her job unbearable.
Production on What’s the Matter with Margie? will begin early next year in Los Angeles. Myriad Pictures is handling foreign distribution. U.S. and Canadian rights are being shopped at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Banks is coming off the Lionsgate blockbuster The Hunger Games, in which she played Effie Trinket, the District 12 bureaucrat who chaperons 16-year-old Katniss and Peeta through Panem’s death games.
Banks previous genre creds include the Guard Brothers’ J-horror remake The Uninvited, James Gunn’s creature-feature comedy Slither, and Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy.
While its not a spin-off of the popular Naked Gun comedies staring Leslie Nielsen, David Ren’s The Girl from the Naked Eye looks every bit as ridiculous and fun. The long gestating flick will finally be released by Archstone Distribution on June 15 in selected theaters and VOD.
A ’40s-inspired pulp thriller, The Girl from the Naked Eye follows an escort service bodyguard (Jason Vee) as he sets out to avenge the murder of his prostitute girlfriend (Samantha Streets). If that’s not enough to pique your interest, the film also stars former anal queen Sasha Grey.
Images from writer/director Scott Walker’s movie debut Frozen Ground have gone online. The film is based on the true story of Robert Hansen, an Anchorage-based serial killer who murdered 24 women over a 12 year span by hunting them down like game in the Alaskan wilderness.
Frozen Ground stars John Cusack as Hansen, Nicolas Cage as the detective who brings him to justice, Radha Mitchell as his wife and Vanessa Hudgens as the teen prostitute who managed to escape from Hansen after being abducted, raped, and sexually assaulted with a hammer.
The film, shot in Anchorage, Alaska, is slated for release on December 1.
ABC has picked up “666 Park Avenue,” a new supernatural drama from producer/writer David Wilcox (“Fringe”), Warner Bros. TV and Alloy Entertainment. The show is an adaptation of the Gabriella Pierce book series.
Peep it:
“666 Park Avenue” is the address of The Drake, a historic Manhattan apartment community where demonic forces are possessing the tenants.
The program stars Terry O’Quinn (”LOST”) and Vanessa Williams (”Desperate Housewives”) as the building’s owners and Rachael Taylor (”Charlie’s Angels’) and Dave Annabel (”Brothers & Sisters”) as its new supers.
Rounding out the cast are Mercedes Masöhn (”The Finder”) and Robert Buckley (”One Tree Hill”) as a photographer and playwright couple and Swedish actress Helena Mattsson, best known for her nude turn in Species: The Awakening.
Fox is bringing home the Bacon this year with a new serial killer series from “Vampire Diaries” and Scream creator Kevin Williamson. “The Following” stars Kevin Bacon as a retired FBI profiler out to catch a sociopath who enlists accomplices via the internet.
Question: why does the Bureau alway have to turn to its retired agents to solve cases? What kind of jokers do they currently employ?
“The Following” costars James Purefoy as the serial killer Joe Carroll, Natalie Zea as his ex-wife Claire Matthews, Jeananne Goossen as Agent Jennifer Mason, Shawn Ashmore as Agent Mike Weston and Maggie Grace as a survivor.
Lionsgate has released the first official trailer for Ghost House Pictures’ The Possession, a creepy curse story inspired by an old internet urban legend brought to light by a 2004 Los Angeles Times piece entitled “A Jinx in a Box.”
According to the Times’ story, an Oregon antiques collector sold an old Jewish wine cabinet box on EBay when he realized that it was haunted by a dybbuk (a Yiddish poltergeist). Like the box’s previous owners, he had suffered sudden and inexplicable misfortunes.
The last time I wrote about Ghost House’s adaptation of the dybbuk urban legend I inexplicably spilt a can of Diet Coke on my keyboard and forgot the passwords to all my favorite interracial porn sites. For that reason, I will no longer post on Sam Raimi’s The Possession.
Anchor Bay has released an official trailer for writer/director Richard Bates Jr.’s feature film debut Excision. The film generated a buttload of buzz this year at Sundance for its gory imagery and powerful performances from AnnaLynne McCord (“90210′) and one-time porn star Traci Lords.
Peep it; it’s good:
The film’s synopsis reads:
Life sucks when you’re seventeen. Alienated teen Pauline (McCord) struggles with the pressures of fitting into high school, pleasing her parents and a burning desire to lose her virginity.
With a grotesque curiosity for the darker side of life, Pauline is considered a social outcast by everyone around her. Enticed by flesh, she retreats into her own fantasies and hopes to become a great surgeon…that is if she doesn’t go mentally insane first.
Excision costars Malcolm McDowell (Silent Night, Deadly Night), Ariel Winter (“Modern Family”), Roger Bart (Hostel 2), Ray Wise (“Twin Peaks”), Jeremy Sumpter (Soul Surfer), Matthew Gray Gubler (“Criminal Minds”), Marlee Matlin (Hear No Evil) and director John Waters.
Anchor Bay has released the first official trailer for director Kimble Rendall’s new Aussie shark thriller Bait 3-D. The story finds a group of tsunami survivors trapped in a flooded supermarket with a great white shark (clean up on aisle five!).
Bait 3-D stars Sharni Vinson (You’re Next), Xavier Samuel (Twilight Saga: Eclipse), Phoebe Tonkin (“Secret Circle”), Alex Russell (Chronicle), Cariba Heine (“Dance Academy”), Alice Parkinson (Sanctum), Julian McMahon (“Nip/Tuck”) and one adorable Pomeranian.
Dimension Films has chummed the internet with photos from its upcoming fish-&-chicks frightener Piranha 3-DD. The shots give us a peek at some of the film’s mayhem and stars (i.e. Danielle Panabaker, Katrina Bowden, Christopher Lloyd, The Hoff).
They also provide a look at the movie’s heart, namely the ridiculously busty brunette in the green bikini seen bouncing around in its trailer. While her name remains a mystery, it’s obvious that she’s the one person in the entire cast moviegoers will clearly be rooting for.
I, for one, don’t want to see any harm come to those beautiful floaties.
Syfy has released a trailer for American World Pictures’ silly new creature-feature Piranhaconda. Produced by Roger Corman and directed by Jim Wynorski (Not of This Earth), the film revolves around a mutant piranha/anaconda monster out to devour a beachside community.
