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Snow Valley by director Brandon Murphy is not your typical snowy fairy tale! You’d think it’s all about picturesque mountains covered in snow, but it’s way spookier than that! Here we meet this couple, Laura and Heath. They’re tired of their boring jobs and decide to take a break at Snow Valley. Now, this place holds some serious nostalgia for Heath because he used to ski there with his family when he was a kid. Nothing seems odd, right? Wrong! As soon as they step into Heath’s old ski cabin, which looks more like a creepy, huge mansion, Laura starts experiencing some really weird things! And get this: Snow Valley has a horrific history that nobody likes to talk about. What is it? Is Laura going to make it through the night? Time to buckle up and find out!

Spoilers Ahead

What Happened After Laura...

Starring Barbara Crampton and Rachel Michiko Whitney, we have an exclusive clip from Snow Valley! The film is the directorial debut of the late Brandon Murphy, and is now available from Gravitas Ventures, who had recently acquired Snow Valley from Uinta Productions and Paper Street Pictures.

"Written and directed by Murphy (Hitman’S Wife’S Bodyguard), the film stars Barbara Crampton (Re-animator), Rachel Michiko Whitney (The Card Counter), Cooper van Grootel (One Of US Is Lying), Tom Williamson (All Cheerleaders Die), David Lambert (The Fosters), Paige Elkington (Relationship Status), and Ali Fumiko Whitney (The Road Dance).

In this psychological thriller, a newly engaged couple's swank ski weekend goes horribly awry, when an unexpected guest arrives and the house's dark supernatural forces begin to rise on the anniversary of a tragic event.

Snow Valley was produced by Chris Abernathy, Aaron B. Koontz, Justice Laub, Rachel Michiko Whitney, and executive produced by Andrea Chung and Solco Schuit.

Genre icon Barbara Crampton makes sure to keep busy in the horror world. As we covered earlier today, a character with her voice and likeness will soon be added to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game, and now a trailer for another Crampton project – the horror film Snow Valley – has arrived online. You can check it out in the embed above. Gravitas Ventures holds the worldwide rights to Snow Valley and are planning to give the film a March 26th release.

The feature directorial debut of writer Brandon Murphy, who sadly passed away while the movie was in post-production, Snow Valley tells the following story: A newly engaged couple’s swank ski weekend goes horribly awry, when an unexpected guest arrives and the house’s dark supernatural forces begin to rise on the anniversary of a tragic event.

Crampton, whose credits include Re-Animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, and Suitable Flesh,...

Exclusive: Harry Connick Jr. (Dolphin Tale) and Mira Sorvino (Shining Vale) are set to star in the romantic comedy The Islander, from Cyprus-based filmmaker Stelana Kliris, which has also cast newcomer Ali Fumiko Whitney (The Road Dance).

The film shooting next month in Cyprus follows a has-been musician (Connick Jr.) as he moves, sight unseen, to a remote cliffside house on an island, only to discover his new home has an unfortunate notoriety. Through a series of charming mishaps, it turns out maybe love can be found right where he left it.

Kliris will direct from her own screenplay, and produce alongside Keith Arnold and Steven Shapiro. The project is from Uinta Productions (Tommy’s Honour) and Kliris’s Cyprus-based Meraki Films, in association with Das Films (The November Man), with support from the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Cyprus Film Commission’s incentives scheme. Pic will...

Brandon Murphy, the screenwriter who co-wrote last year’s action-comedy sequel Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, died January 9 in Los Angeles, friends told Deadline. He was 43. No cause of death was given.

Murphy penned Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard with his younger brother, Phillip Murphy, and with Tom O’Connor, who wrote the original 2017 pic. Both starred Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, with Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas joining for the sequel. The latter opened to $17 million domestic on Father’s Day weekend last year and finished at $70 million.

Murphy also wrote and was making his directing debut on horror thriller Snow Valley, which was in postproduction at the time of his death.

The Murphy brothers made the 2011 Black List with their script The Last Drop. The project now is set up at 21 Laps.

Born in Norristown, Pa, in 1978, Murphy gained notoriety during a stint in New York City in the mid-2000s as...

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas, Morgan Freeman, Richard E. Grant, Frank Grillo, Rebecca Front | Written by Tom O’Connor, Brandon Murphy, Phillip Murphy | Directed by Patrick Hughes

Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson and Salma Hayek reunite with director Patrick Hughes for a sequel to 2017’s disappointing action caper The Hitman’s Bodyguard. Unfortunately, the best you can say about it is that it’s marginally better than the first film.

Reynolds plays former triple-a rated bodyguard Michael Bryce, who’s had his license taken away because of his multiple failings, several of them the direct result of his association with hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson). When his exasperated therapist (a wasted Rebecca Front) recommends a vacation, Bryce heads to picturesque Capri, but he’s barely there five minutes before Darius’ fiery-tempered wife Sonia (Hayek) plunges him into the centre of a gunfight and recruits him into...

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas, Morgan Freeman, Richard E. Grant, Frank Grillo, Rebecca Front | Written by Tom O’Connor, Brandon Murphy, Phillip Murphy | Directed by Patrick Hughes

Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson and Salma Hayek reunite with director Patrick Hughes for a sequel to 2017’s disappointing action caper The Hitman’s Bodyguard. Unfortunately, the best you can say about it is that it’s marginally better than the first film.

Reynolds plays former triple-a rated bodyguard Michael Bryce, who’s had his license taken away because of his multiple failings, several of them the direct result of his association with hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson). When his exasperated therapist (a wasted Rebecca Front) recommends a vacation, Bryce heads to picturesque Capri, but he’s barely there five minutes before Darius’ fiery-tempered wife Sonia (Hayek) plunges him into the centre of a gunfight and recruits him into...

Remember 2017’s “The Hitman’s Bodyguard”? No, seriously — do you? Does anyone? You might be surprised to learn that it has spawned a new sequel, “Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard”; you might not be surprised to learn that returning director Patrick Hughes has made a movie even more negligible and forgettable than the first one.

These aren’t movies as much as they are spreadsheets; we can imagine the math that determined that an action-comedy starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson and Salma Hayek — all reprising their roles, alongside new additions Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman — could make x number of money based on a budget of y dollars and Euros. What we can’t imagine is how Hughes and screenwriters Tom O’Connor, Phillip Murphy, and Brandon Murphy can so consistently turn a silk purse of a cast into a sow’s ear of a film.

“Hitman’s Wife Bodyguard” is a comedy with not one legitimate laugh,...

Brandon Murphy, the screenwriter of “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard,” is set to make his directorial debut with the indie horror thriller “Snow Valley,” TheWrap has learned exclusively.

Cooper van Grootel, Tom Williamson, David Lambert and Barbara Crampton will star in the film, which centers around a newly engaged couple on a ski weekend that goes horribly wrong when an unexpected guest arrives and the house’s supernatural forces begin to rise.

Rachel Michiko Whitney and Paige Elkington round out the cast. Justice Laub, Rachel Whitney and Chris Abernathy are producing alongside Paper Street Pictures’ Aaron B. Koontz. The film is from Ulinta Productions.

Murphy is currently in development on the romantic dramedy “The Last Drop” as well as a biopic on the Rolling Stones titled “Exile.” He is represented by Range Media Partners.

Van Grootel can be seen in Peacock’s “One of Us Is Lying,” while Lambert recently starred in ABC’s “The Fosters.

Welcome to the latest TV and movie trope: therapists telling professional killers not to kill anymore. It happened in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and now, it’s happening to Ryan Reynolds in “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” — although technically, he’s being told not to bodyguard anymore.

Reynolds returns as Michael Bryce in the sequel to “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” apparently trying to put his old life behind him. It’s not exactly going well, as he finds himself tangled up once more with Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson), having been hired to protect Darius’s wife, Sonia (Salma Hayek).

Life as a bodyguard is hard at the best of times, but lest we forget, Bryce is still unlicensed. So not only is he dealing with that, but then comes the pressure of finding out that Darius and Sonia are trying to have a baby. Oh, and also,

per the official synopsis of the film,...

Ryan Reynolds is trying really hard not to kill anyone in the first trailer for “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.” In fact, he’s on a doctor-mandated psychological “sabbatical” from doing any work as a gun for hire.

That, of course, doesn’t stop him from getting into obscene fire fights and running for his life, this time while trying to protect not just Samuel L. Jackson’s hitman Darius Kincaid, but also Kincaid’s wife: the infamous, international con artist Sonia Kincaid, played by Salma Hayek.

“I promised my therapist no bodyguard. So that means no guns, no killing and no blood,” Reynolds says in the trailer as he attempts to subdue a bad guy.

“Are you using pepper spray?” Jackson responds before erupting into a laughing fit.

Patrick Hughes is returning to direct the sequel to 2017’s “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” as is screenwriter Tom O’Connor, who wrote the story...

Mon. March 29

Lionsgate has dated Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson’s “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” for June 16.

Salma Hayek co-stars in the sequel to the 2017 “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” which grossed $176 million worldwide. The comedy action film sees the return of bodyguard Michael Bryce, played by Reynolds and hitman Darius Kincaid, played by Jackson, for another life-threatening mission, this time joined by Darius’ unpredictable wife, Sonia, played by Hayek. Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman also co-star.

Patrick Hughes directs the Millennium Media production from a screenplay by Tom O’Connor and Phillip Murphy and Brandon Murphy with a story by O’Connor.

Viola Davis and Women in Film Celebrate Female Oscar Nominees

Women in Film celebrated this year’s female Oscar nominees with over 50 attendees present.

The event was co-hosted by Oscar, Emmy, and Tony winner Viola Davis, who is nominated this year as Leading Actress in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,...

Announcement is latest addition to US release calendar

Lionsgate has set a June 16 US release for The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel Jackson, Salma Hayek, and Antonio Banderas.

It is the latest addition to the calendar as US cinemas continue to reopen and studios and distributors date their slates.

On Monday president Biden said 90% of adults will be eligible to receive a vaccine within the next three weeks.

Warner Bros and Legendary’s Godzilla Vs. Kong, which arrives in North America in cinemas and on HBO Max on Wednesday (March 31), scored the highest global opening for a Hollywood...

After Disney plopped its Ryan Reynolds action comedy Free Guy from 20th Century Studios on August 13, a week before Lionsgate’s sequel The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard which also stars Reynolds, it stood to reason the latter would move. The new date for the Reynolds-Samuel L. Jackson sequel, which also stars Salma Hayek, is June 16.

The announcement was made Monday by Ron Schwartz, Lionsgate’s president of worldwide distribution. The sequel, on its new date, arrives the weekend after Warner Bros/HBO Max’s feature musical In the Heights, and the weekend prior to Universal’s F9 on June 25. Also opening the weekend of June 16-18 is Focus Features’ Edgar Wright-directed feature documentary The Sparks Brothers.

Schwartz said, “This is the kind of summer action film that delivers even more comedy and more thrilling action than the first film – and it’s perfect for fans new to the franchise as well.

Vince Vaughn and Sharon Horgan are set to star in Christopher Storer’s romantic dramedy “The Last Drop.” The pic is being produced by 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy and Dan Levine, both Oscar-nominated for “Arrival,” and their 21 Laps partner Dan Cohen, Emmy-nominated alongside Levy for “Stranger Things,” and Jen Dana of 3311, which is co-financing with Endeavor Content.

Endeavor Content is representing worldwide sales and will introduce the film to buyers at Afm.

“The Last Drop,” written by Brandon Murphy, Phillip Murphy, and Elizabeth Chomko (“What They Had”), follows culinary show host Clay Mason (Vaughn), a charming bon vivant whose endless meals and long nights of drinking have brought his career to a tipping point. Just as his debilitating lifestyle begins to unwind his career, he crosses paths with Holly (Horgan), a spirited antiques dealer who sees through Clay’s bravado and helps him find the strength to pull out of his tailspin.

This year’s Blood List has named the 13 best genre scripts around town, and in its sixth year the annual screenplay contest is expanding its scope to include hot books, TV pilots, and young scribes ripe for signing. Taking top honors in 2014 is sci-fi thriller Bird Box from The Thing and Final Destination 5 scribe Eric Heisserer, an apocalyptic tale of a woman trying to lead her children to safety – all three blindfolded – after monsters descend on earth that turn people insane on sight. Universal set Heisserer to adapt the manuscript from Josh Malerman in 2013 for Mama helmer Andy Muschietti. Previous Blood List alumni include Black Swan, Stoker, Warm Bodies, and the upcoming Blumhouse thriller The Boy Next Door.

Like the Black List naming the top unproduced screenplays circulating around Hollywood, the genre-focused Blood List taps exec votes to determine each year’s best unmade horror, sci-fi, and thriller scripts.

The Cecil Hotel has a macabre history that includes serial killers, suicides, and murder, but perhaps its most disturbing event happened last year, when a woman was recorded acting strangely in an elevator before being found drowned in a sealed water tank on the hotel’s roof two weeks later. The Bringing is an upcoming film inspired by the bizarre death and now Sony’s chosen a director for the project.

Deadline reports that Sony Pictures is in talks with Jeremy Lovering to direct The Bringing. The film’s script was written by brothers Brandon Murphy and Phillip Murphy after the woman’s bizarre drowning occurred last year. A video of the woman talking either to herself or an unseen entity went viral, adding a seriously spooky layer to the already mysterious circumstances surrounding her drowning. The event gave the brothers the idea to write a movie in which a...

It has not been brougthen. Well, apparently. Justin Kroll of Variety reports via via his Twitter (via /Film) that director Nicolas Winding Refn will not direct the poorly-named, loosely fact-based horror film The Bringing, freeing him up to make other films with (probably) better names. Refn was rumored for the gig last month, and although it sounds as if he got pretty far into the negotiation process with Sony, Kroll reports that Refn is off the film because “negotiations have stalled.” The Bringing would have, ahem, brought Refn back to downtown Los Angeles (home of his Drive) and allowed the notorious horror fan to make a true scary story for the big screen. Penned by the Murphy brothers – Brandon Murphy and Phillip Murphy – the story is supposedly inspired by the creepy disappearance of Elisa Lam at downtown La’s Cecil Hotel. Lam, a Canadian visiting the country, went missing back in February of 2013. Her body was eventually...

The Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles has the type of history that conjures up memories of the Overlook Hotel from Stephen King’s novel, The Shining. Its history includes serial killers, suicides, and murder. Perhaps its most chilling event, though, occurred last year when a woman was recorded acting very strangely in a Cecil Hotel elevator. She was later found drowned in a sealed water tank on the hotel’s roof, which was seemingly inaccessible to hotel visitors.

So bizarre and disturbing was this drowning that it inspired a screenplay titled The Bringing that Sony Pictures recently picked up. Now a notable director is in talks to helm the upcoming horror movie.

Deadline reports that Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Valhalla Rising and Only God Forgives) is actively pursuing the director’s chair for this haunted hotel project that was written by Brandon Murphy and Phillip Murphy. It’s important to...

The project "Triumph Aka 40 Summers Ago" has found a home at Sony Pictures with Jerry Weintraub producing, a source familiar with the project told TheWrap. The true story follows the relationship between Steve McQueen and his stunt double, Bud Ekins. It covers the early years of their friendship in the 1960s and their adventures as the first American team in the European motor-cross race. Also read: Jerry Weintraub: How I Snookered Elvis Presley, Saved Sinatra Brandon Murphy and Philip Murphy are writing the screenplay for the project, which is in development. Susan Ekins...

The Rolling Stones are no strangers to film, be it powerful uses of their music in the films of Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, and Terry Gilliam, or their own presence in, among others, Gimme Shelter and Jean-Luc Godard‘s essay-like Sympathy for the Devil. But, though Mad Men flirted with a direct onscreen portrayal just a few weeks back, the project at hand might be their first onscreen appearance in a (slightly) fictional capacity.

Deadline reports that Richard Branson and his film arm, Virgin Produced, have landed film rights to Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones, Robert Greenfield‘s recount of the recording process behind their legendary 1972 album, Exile on Main St. Like that tome, the untitled movie — set to be scripted by Phil and Brandon Murphy — shines a light (get over it) on “the professional and personal relationship between head Stones Mick Jagger...

The 2011 Black List, the Top Unproduced Screenplays of the year has been released. The best unproduced screenplays from The Black List 2011 is compiled by votes from over 300 “execs, agency guys, and high-level assistants. Titled The Black List, the compendium highlights both established screenwriters and up-and-comers, and has served as a launching pad in the past for projects like Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, and (500) Days of Summer. Last year’s list included Margin Call, Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Hunger Games, and Snow White and the Huntsman.”

Regarding the validity of The Black List, things to keep in mind:

some of these screenplays have already been acquired and are already in development, though…none will have entered principal photography by December 31, 2011. Also worth pointing out is that, as in previous years, there have been rumors that some of the participants have been accused of using the Black List to promote their own clients or friends.

For the seventh annual year a list of the top unproduced screenplays written in the past 12 calendar months has been made. The Black List is the most recognized and celebritized compilation for screenwriters and unknown movie ideas to be heard. While some prior Black List scripts have gone on to be made (like Juno or 500 Days of Summer), most scripts do not. However, what being on The Black List can do is to give a big push of credibility to a screenwriter hoping to carve out a career in Hollywood.

The Black List recepients are chosen by a committee of 300 individuals working in Hollywood: agents, writers, producers, managers and the like. They read the screenplays that float around the showbiz ecosystem; some are bought and are already in development while others are still seeing the interest of talent of financial backers.

The makers of The Black List are good to...

The 2011 Black List has arrived online and there are a bunch of the hottest scripts in Hollywood. Some have already been picked up by studios, while most are still unproduced. Here is the press release: The Black List was compiled from the suggestions of over 300 film executives, each of whom contributed the names of up to ten of their favorite scripts that were written in, or are somehow uniquely associated with, 2011 and will not have begun principal photography during this calendar year.

This year, scripts had to receive at least six mentions to be included on the The Black List.

All reasonable effort has been made to confirm the information contained herein. The Black List apologizes for all misspellings, misattributions, incorrect representation identification, and questionable 2011 affiliations.

It has been said many times, but it's worth repeating:

The Black List is not a "best of" list. It is, at best, a "most liked" list.

[1] Each December since 2004, studio executive Franklin Leonard has compiled the best unproduced screenplays of the year, as voted by hundreds of execs, agency guys, and high-level assistants. Titled The Black List, the compendium highlights both established screenwriters and up-and-comers, and has served as a launching pad in the past for projects like Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, and (500) Days of Summer. Last year's list included Margin Call, Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Hunger Games, and Snow White and the Huntsman. It should be noted that the headline is somewhat misleading -- some of these screenplays have already been acquired and are already in development, though according to Leonard none will have entered principal photography by December 31, 2011. Also worth pointing out is that, as in previous years, there have been rumors that some of the participants have been accused of using the Black List to promote their own clients or friends.

This year at the Austin Film Festival, studio executive and “Black List” founder Franklin Leonard introduced the opening film, Butter. It’s a fantastic satirical comedy written by Jason Micallef and Leonard’s post-screening Q&A with him was equally hilarious and unconventional.

Sitting in the upper deck at the Paramount Theatre, I was in awe at how Leonard had not only created the list just six years prior but how it provided such legitimacy to emerging screenwriters, like Micallef. He was relatively unknown in ‘08, but his script placed third on the list. Now he has a movie coming out starring Jennifer Garner, his new scripts have Jack Black and Jason Segel attached (separately), and he wrote a movie titled Good Vibrations about, um, marital aids starring Charlize Theron. That’s the power of the Black List.

Simply put, “The Black List” is a collection of the best unproduced screenplays...

Mandate Pictures has picked up The Last Drop,a comedy spec script Brandon and Phillip Murphy. The Last Drop tells of an alcoholic who has to overcome his problem before he loses everything, which includes his life. Brandon Murphy, who is a graffiti artist, has sold materials before. His Pony Brush went to Dimension which Broken Lizard is producing. Stand-up comedian Phillip Murphy hosts the online radio show "The 99 Cent Bin" and is a regular guest on Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling's Sirius radio show...