Hollywood Hotline - Week of May 2, 2024
HOLLYWOOD HOTLINE Archives
Howdy Hollyweridos,
Welcome back to my second ever newsletter! Not sure anyone got my first ever newsletter but that’s OK! Every forest fire starts with a spark. I’m going to keep collecting the choicest industry trade articles to shine a spotlight on, to give you insight into what is truly interesting on the horizon.
Without further ado, let’s dive right in:
Francis Ford Coppola’s MEGALOPOLIS shares its first onscreen image, which appears to have been shot on “The Volume.” Clearly nothing but the prop Adam Driver holds is real/tangible. Hopefully the rest of the film is less glossy shallow fake. This article might be the most definitive backstory on where and when this film idea originated.
Paramount+ is making a ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968) prequel SVOD feature starring Julia Garner (OZARK 2017-2022) that Platinum Dunes and Sunday Night producing with Natalie Erika James directing (RELIC 2020). I’m really over the IP Wars but there’s no end in sight. Hollywood-ouroboros continues! Why not a prequel to TAXI DRIVER (1976)?
MANDY (2018) director Panos Cosmatos is making a 1980’s vampire film scripted by Andy Kevin Walker (SE7EN 1995) and starring Oscar Isaac and Kristen Stewart? Sign me up please!
Mega-superstar Michael B. Jordan is adapting the Philip K. Dick sci-fi 1974 short story A Little Something for Us Tempunauts? This sounds awesome: an action-thriller along the lines of “Top Gun meets Back to the Future, with a Philip K. Dick twist.” Sign me up too please!
Actor Adam Scott (PARTY DOWN 2009-2010/2023) is making his feature directorial debut which sounds like he’s taking a page out of the BARBARIAN (2022) playbook. I love Adam Scott and he can do no wrong. This will be great! I hope! Sign me up three please!
Director Adam Wingard (THE GUEST 2014, YOU’RE NEXT 2011) is re-teaming with writer Simon Barrett (THE GUEST 2014, YOU’RE NEXT 2011) for something called ONSLAUGHT. Logline is being kept under wraps but you just know it’s going to be something fun, cool, and subversive like the two previous films they’ve worked on together. I love both of those movies. So sign me up four please!
Actor Harris Dickinson (TRIANGLE OF SADNESS 2022) is making his feature directorial debut which sounds like it could either be a drama like THE SOLOIST (2009) or thriller like EXTREME MEASURES (1996) based off scant information save for the “film will deal with the subjects of homelessness and mental health.” My guess is grimy thriller. No way this guy is going for Oscar-glory first time out the gate.
Filmmaker I’ve never heard of: Francis Gallupi whose debut feature, THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY opens this May 10, apparently got himself a meeting with THE EVIL DEAD (1981) director Sam Raimi where he pitched the maestro on another installment of the E.D. franchise, that Raimi bit on. So color me intrigued?
The filmmakers of TALK TO ME (2022) are following that up with BRING HER BACK starring Sally Hawkins (HAPPY-GO-LUCKY 2008). Logline is being kept under wraps but I’d imagine it’s going to be a grounded and gritty psychodrama supernatural body horror thriller probably? Didn’t love TALK TO ME (I could see the ending coming by a country mile, which makes for tedious viewing experience. The ending should’ve been the midpoint!)
Slamdance Film Festival is moving from Park City, Utah to Los Angeles next year, permanently, after [checks notes]: 29 years of being held in Park City. I cannot applaud this move enough. Should’ve happened 28-years ago! The fact that both Slamdance and Sundance were founded in Park City is some real elitist bourgeoisie shit. I went there once in 2013 and it was a firetrap nightmare everywhere you went. Honestly, if someone wants to write a spec to get to the top of the Black List, write about a disgruntled filmmaker who gets rejected from both festivals and shows up to wreak havoc on the small snowed in town with an ending to match THE DAY OF THE LOCUST (1975).
Out now:
Horror anthology show in its second season on Amazon Prime. Created and written by Little Marvin. Had never heard of this until I stumbled upon it. Low-budget but effective. A million times better than TRUE DETECTIVE NIGHT COUNTRY (2024)
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