Tag: horror

Johnny Depp makes transformations for a living — he’s played a poet, pirate, cop, crook, lizard, killer, candymaker, astronaut and even (shudder) an accountant — but, surprisingly, he had never portrayed a vampire until ”Dark Shadows,” opening May 11, in which he stars as the aristocratic Barnabas Collins. The movie  actually adds a second unprecedented role to Depp’s career list: Now he can say he’s been the producer of a Tim Burton film. Depp had produced just two previous films, “Hugo” and “The Rum Diary,” both released last year, but expect to see more; in 2010 his production company, Infinitum Nihil, solidified and extended its existing deal with Oscar-winning producer Graham King (“The Departed,” “The Aviator”) and an adaptation of Image Comics’ “The Vault” is among the projects in the pipeline. Years ago, Depp snapped up the rights to the old television show “Dark Shadows” and that led to Depp and King ...

2012 HERO COMPLEX FILM FESTIVAL It might be a good time to work on your cricket swing  – Edgar Wright is bringing “Shaun of the Dead” to the 2012 Hero Complex Film Festival. The always-witty British filmmaker will be on stage at 10 p.m. on May 18 to look back on the 2004 cult comedy that marked his feature-film directorial debut and opened doors that led to him to “Hot Fuzz,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” and Marvel’s planned “Ant-Man” project. “Shaun of the Dead” also introduced many American fans to Simon Pegg, the title star, Wright’s co-writer on the movie and an actor with ramping popcorn prominence these days thanks to the “Mission: Impossible” and “Star Trek” franchises. The film grossed $30 million worldwide, and its mix of the daft and the diabolical had a lot of bite with critics such as Nev ...

2012 HERO COMPLEX FILM FESTIVAL The zombie business isn’t for the meek. Just ask Zack Snyder, who ran in the face of genre tradition with his daring “Dawn of the Dead” remake, or Robert Kirkman, who shattered core assumptions about marketplace and medium with “The Walking Dead,” which began as a comic book epic (the Image Comics series is now closing in on its 100th issue) and found second life on television (last month’s second-season finale drew 9 million viewers, making it the most-watched basic cable drama telecast in history). Snyder and Kirkman will take the stage together on May 18 at the 2012 Hero Complex Film Festival to discuss, celebrate and debate zombies and a horror subgenre that seems to possess an undying appeal. The pair also will share their Hollywood survival tales and share tidbits about their upcoming projects — including Snyder’s “Man of Steel,” which arrives in theaters next ...

Joss Whedon is a fan of Fran Kranz – he must be, considering he cast the actor in “Dollhouse” as well as the upcoming “Much Ado about Nothing.” The latest visit by Kranz to Planet Whedon is the subversive and sly “Cabin the Woods” (Whedon produced and co-wrote the movie with another old pal, Drew Goddard, who makes his directorial debut with “Cabin”). Kranz is on Broadway in “Death of a Salesman,” which costars Andrew Garfield of “The Amazing Spider-Man,” but we caught up with him by phone to hear about Joss as a boss. HC: We should assume that you didn’t do too much research for your role as Marty, the paranoid pothead in “Cabin in the Woods” right? FK: Everyone would like to think that, right? Like they just went out on the street and found me that way. ...

With his third feature, “Intruders,” now playing in Los Angeles, the filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has created a dark fable for adults, a story about how things that go bump in the night might actually be real. Moving between scenes in London and Spain, the film combines the twin tracks of Fresnadillo’s career, from his Spanish debut “Intacto” to the British “28 Weeks Later.” It begins with a young boy in Spain with a vivid imagination who seems to conjure a boogeyman, a human-looking creature missing a face, into his room at night. The action shifts to London, where a construction worker (Clive Owen) narrowly survives an accident while building a high-rise. At home his daughter begins to see the same nighttime visitor, which they call Hollow Face. Having been attached and then unattached to a variety of projects, including ...

What’s awaiting horror fans who visit “The Cabin in the Woods”? The answer will be revealed on April 13 when Drew Goddard’s sly and subversive genre riddle finally reaches movie theaters. At WonderCon, Lionsgate hosted a special sneak preview of the film and, afterward, director-writer Goddard was joined on-stage by his partner on the project, writer-producer Joss Whedon. I interviewed the two of them and, between a lot of laughter, there was a feeling in the room that pair would deliver one of the most intriguing popcorn diversions of 2012. You’ll find some highlight moments from the Q&A below, but first a bit of background about the film’s protracted path to the projection room. Some horror movies keep the audience on the edge of their seat — this one had that effect on the cast and crew, which filmed it back in 2009 with an early 2010 target release. The fiscal calamity ...

For most TV shows, the long days on set are where a lot of the bonding among actors happens, but for the CW show “Supernatural,” friends are made not just in Vancouver, Canada, where the series shoots, but all around the world at fan conventions. Most recently, the talent behind the horror show now in its seventh season (about two brothers who hunt ghosts, demons and all manner of beasties) got together at Creation Entertainment’s Salute to Supernatural convention, which took place Friday-Sunday in Burbank. Matt Cohen, who plays young John Winchester, the father of lead characters Sam and Dean, has never been in an episode with fellow guest stars Richard Speight Jr. (the Trickster) or Rob Benedict (Chuck). But they “now have become my buddies,” Cohen told the media during a roundtable interview at the convention. “We do Q&As together, and ...

He’s been called Italy’s answer to Alfred Hitchcock, but horror master Dario Argento exists in a baroque and brutal world entirely his own. This weekend, the seventh Los Angeles Italia — Film, Fashion and Art Fest will pay tribute to the 71-year-old writer-director famous for his surreal, graphic Grand Guignol aesthetic with a retrospective of some of his best-known films at the Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood. “He’s a master; he’s one of the Italian kings of contemporary movies,” said festival producer Pascal Vicedomini of Argento. “He’s definitely one of the most beloved Italian directors worldwide. He’s been an important inspiration for Quentin Tarantino, for anybody who does movies connected to horror or thrillers. Argento, it’s a brand. It’s a brand of horror. It’s a brand of quality. It’s a brand of Italy.” On Sunday, Argento will be on hand ...

Daniel Radcliffe says he didn’t develop a drinking problem because he was Harry Potter, even though he knows that’s what most people assume. “What ‘Potter’ did do was put me around people who were older than me, and I heard all of their amazing stories about their drunk nights. I just started thinking, ‘That’s what I want,’” said the actor, 22. “I don’t think I ever had one, great drunk night, but I had heard about them, and that was what I was desperately trying to pursue.” On an early morning this week, Radcliffe looked bleary-eyed at his hotel, having just flown to Los Angeles to promote his new film, “The Woman in Black.” The movie, released Friday, marks one of the few times in more than a decade that audiences worldwide will see the actor play someone other than ...

The anthology film,  a collection of shorts often connected by a single thematic idea, has a long and storied history in cinema, and the format is enjoying a bit of a recent revival. The Sundance Film Festival premiered a new anthology of found-footage horror shorts called “V/H/S,” a project that brings together six directors — Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glen McQuaid, Joe Swanberg and a collective known as Radio Silence. Filmmaker David Gregory has his own offering, “The Theatre Bizarre,” which will screen in Los Angeles at the Nuart Theatre on Friday at midnight in addition to other limited engagements across the country. It was while working on a DVD featurette for the film “Diva,” an ’80s era art house anthology with entries by Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Nicolas Roeg and others, that Gregory had his own idea ...