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"There's something about you. There's something fixable. I believe that." So says Benson (Kyle Gallner), a fast food worker turned serial killer in "The Passenger," Carter Smith's lean, mean, bloody machine of a horror movie. Benson is speaking to Randy Bradley (Johnny Berchtold), his nervous, timid, frightened coworker. The two men are on a road trip through hell, and a road trip through Bradley's past. Benson has taken it upon himself to "fix" Bradley, and while his methods are questionable — and bloody — his assumptions about Bradley are not wrong. Bradley is the type of guy too frightened to correct people who get his name wrong; he's a sad, quiet bundle of nerves, haunted by an unfortunate incident from his past — an incident that has seemingly informed his entire shabby existence.

A melancholy horror blankets this movie — it's a frequently nasty piece of work with a kind of sadness in its heart.

"You know what I don't need tonight? Stress!" Rlje Films has revealed an official trailer for a cat-and-mouse thriller called Sympathy for the Devil, yet another new film with "Devil" in the title. We actually wrote about this project being in development way back in 2010, and after 13 years it's finally finished and ready for release. After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger at gunpoint, a man finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat & mouse where it becomes clear that not everything is at it seems. Starring Nicolas Cage as The Passenger + Joel Kinnaman as The Driver, along with Nancy Good as Grandma and Rich Hopkins as The Trucker. This has a cool poster (see below). There's tons of flashy neon style in this, and Cage is letting loose again with this madman performance. Looks solid! Might be good! What do you think? // Continue Reading ›...

Ahead of Interpol’s upcoming tour opening for Smashing Pumpkins, the band is teasing a series of collaborative remixes of songs from last year’s The Other Side of Make-Believe. The project, which they’ve dubbed “Interpolations,” will roll out over the coming months with reworkings of tunes by Daniel Avery, Makaya McCraven, Jeff Parker, Jesu, and Water From Your Eyes. First up is jazz drummer McCraven’s take on “Big Shot City.”

Where the original features an almost reggae-like guitar line, sighing bass, and frontman Paul Banks’ typically tense vocals,...

BritBox International has reached three million subscribers across its eight international markets, Variety can reveal.

The “best of British” streamer, which is backed internationally by BBC and ITV, has reached its latest milestone across the U.S., Canada, Australia, South Africa, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

“Through what’s been a really challenging time for lots of SVODs, we’ve grown by 15% this year, which certainly exceeds that category growth for the U.S., and lots of our competitors in that set,” Reemah Sakaan, the London-based CEO of BritBox International, tells Variety.

BritBox last revealed subs of 2.6 million in March 2022, and prior to that, 2 million in July 2021 and 1 million in March 2020. In the last year, the service has launched in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, and struck new distribution partnerships with Amazon Prime Video and Apple channels across Australia.

The service’s most comparable rival in the U.S. is Acorn TV,...

1993 was an important year for Sylvester Stallone. After a long string of flops, Renny Harlin’s mountaineering epic Cliffhanger was the much-needed international hit Sly needed, with the film helping to reaffirm his position as one of the biggest action stars in Hollywood. But, before that movie had ever come out, Sly was shooting his second film of the year, once which, in the end, would make less money than Cliffhanger but would go on to achieve legendary cult status. Almost thirty years later, it remains Stallone’s most famous film featuring a character that isn’t named Rocky or Rambo. The movie, of course, is Demolition Man.

Flashback to twelve-year-old me walking into a movie theater in October of 1993 here in Montreal. Demolition Man would be my first Sly epic on the big screen. I vividly remember munching on my popcorn as the WB logo hit the screen while...

Singer Ellie Goulding used to be a metalhead when she was a teenager.

The ‘Easy Lover’ hitmaker is a rocker at heart and can’t wait to get “shredding” the guitar on her next tour, although she might be a pop star with a penchant for a ballad, reports aceshowbiz.com.

“I’m going to play guitar pretty much the majority of the set when I start touring next year, because my album is coming out at the beginning of next year. Then I’ll have a year of festivals, I hope,” she said.

“That’s the plan for me. I am going to play guitar for most of it, which will just require a good amount of rehearsals. I’d love to get to a point where it’s just all natural to me. I’ve been doing a few tours with no guitar. It’s weird, but I...

British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom says he has “no regrets” that the events depicted in his upcoming Sky series “This England,” which follows the Covid-19 response of outgoing U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, did not include the turbulent period that led to Johnson’s resignation in July.

Speaking to Variety at the Sarajevo Film Festival, where the director will be giving a masterclass on Friday, Winterbottom said it was his intention from the start to end the six-part limited series after the first wave of the pandemic, a decision that didn’t change with the dramatic events that forced Johnson to step down.

“There are limitations in ending it there, but I still think that was the best idea,” the director said. “It was very fresh, so I think we got a lot of stuff right.”

Produced by Richard Brown’s Passenger and Winterbottom’s Revolution Films, “This England...

Kenneth Branagh plays UK prime minister Boris Johnson.

Michael Winterbottom’s This England, starring Kenneth Branagh as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has closed sales across 88 territories through distributor Fremantle.

Commissioning broadcaster Sky will launch the series this Autumn across its territories in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.

This England has sold to Movistar+ in Spain, Viaplay for the Nordics and Baltics, Poland and the Netherlands, Cosmote (Greece), Osn TV and Osn+ (Mena), M-Net (South Africa) and BBC First (Australia) and Tvnz (New Zealand). Further deals are due to be announced in the coming weeks.

Produced...

Fremantle has scored a raft of sales on “The Trip” director Michael Winterbottom’s drama on outgoing U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, “This England.”

The 88 territories closed for “This England” include Movistar+ (Spain), Viaplay, Cosmote (Greece), Osn TV and Osn+ (Mena), M-Net (South Africa), BBC First (Australia) and Tvnz (New Zealand). Further deals are due to be revealed in the coming weeks.

The Sky original drama series stars Kenneth Branagh (“Death on the Nile”) as Johnson. Despite Johnson’s dramatic resignation, the series will stick to the early part of his tenure. Produced by Richard Brown’s Passenger (“True Detective”) and Revolution Films, the six-part series is based on Boris Johnson’s tumultuous first months as Prime Minister, tracing the impact on the country of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The events in government are interwoven with stories from around the country, from the experts and scientists racing against time; the doctors,...

[Editor’s note: The following story contains spoilers for “Bullet Train.”]

David Leitch’s “Bullet Train” cast is packed with big names — including Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz, Michael Shannon, and Bad Bunny — but it’s a bit of a treat to see it cram in so many major cameos.

Based on the Kōtarō Isaka’s novel “Maria Beetle” (published in English as “Bullet Train”), the film follows Pitt’s “Ladybug,” a trained assassin dispatched for one job on the eponymous bullet train who finds that things are not at all what he expected — namely, the train is populated with other assassins out to kill him.

Along the way, Pitt’s Ladybug comes into contact with friends, foes, and a random dude. “Bullet Train” producer Kelly McCormick told IndieWire how each cameo came together.

[One more time: The following story contains spoilers for “Bullet Train.”]

Channing Tatum

How random is Channing Tatum’s recurring role in “Bullet Train”? He’s officially billed as “Random Passenger,...

It’s about bloody time! Die-hard Dexter fans who didn’t love the 2006–13 series’ controversial finale — principled serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) faked his death and went into hiding in Oregon — get a do-over with this 10-episode revival. The former Miami Pd blood spatter expert now resides in idyllic (fictional) Iron Lake, New York, under the name Jim Lindsay (a nod to Dexter novelist Jeff Lindsay). He “is trying to be as innocuous and untempted [to kill] as possible,” explains exec producer Clyde Phillips. (Credit: Seacia Pavao/Showtime) But this truck-stop town “is sort of a Bermuda Triangle of women who go missing.” Which means Dexter’s Dark Passenger — the inner voice that leads him to eliminate bad guys — can’t be ignored. Continues Phillips: “This is Dexter, so people are going to die.” One target: the imposing Kurt Caldwell (Clancy Brown), who “has too much bad history.” Expect to see a few familiar faces,...

Filming of La Pasajera (The Passenger) begins in Spain on August 24th and we were waiting for the cast announcement for the rideshare horror flick to let us know who is on this fateful road trip. We’re translating this from the original Spanish and because mi Espanol es muy malo I’ve entrusted the mighty Google to help me. Even then I don’t think we have all this down right. Such is life. For now invoking the names of Carpenter and Cronenberg is a good place to start. I’ll have to reach out to our friends en Espagne to know why mentioning the cities of Cuenca and Albacete is so significant. The cast will be led by Ramiro Blas, with roles in Rec 4...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...