ScreamWire Daily

Over 1,000 filmmakers and stars—including David Fincher, Bryan Cranston and Celine Song—signed an open letter opposing Paramount Skydance’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros, a transaction reported at roughly $108.4B that faces regulatory and state AG scrutiny ahead of a possible autumn close.

A24 has released Ian Tuason's auditory horror undertone to digital after it grossed over $19M on a reported $500K production budget; Tuason — whose debut was shot in Toronto — is tapped to direct the next Paranormal Activity reboot.

Glitch and Fathom are packaging Episodes 8+9 of the YouTube psychological dark-comedy The Amazing Digital Circus as a U.S./Canada/LatAm/Japan theatrical event on June 5; Fathom reports a record $5M in presales and expanded bookings to at least 1,800 theaters after exhibitor demand, pushed by fandom and spoiler-avoidance ahead of the finale's YouTube premiere.

The BFI is allocating £9.3m across 23 recipients from its Audience Projects Fund for 2026–29 to boost UK exhibition and immersive projects; Vertigo Releasing received £55,464 to support distribution and immersive campaigning for Genki Kawamura’s Japanese horror Exit 8 aimed at 18–30 audiences.

Alex Garland’s live‑action Elden Ring (A24/DNA Films/Bandai Namco) is filming across the UK (including Scotland) with Garland credited as screenwriter and Kit Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Ben Whishaw and Nick Offerman attached; George R.R. Martin and Hidetaka Miyazaki are EPs/creative contributors.

Cronin is positioning his Mummy as an R-rated body-horror reimagining—saying the film leans into visceral skin-removal effects as central plot mechanics—and Blumhouse is emphasizing separation from Brendan Fraser’s adventure-style franchise to carve a distinct horror audience.

Blink49 Studios has hired Tieren Hawkins as VP of vertical content to build a slate of mobile-first microdramas produced across Canada, leveraging the studio’s brand relationships and Canada’s film tax credits; Hawkins’ credits include viral microdramas and the feature horror film Stitches.

Netflix will stream Karyn Kusama’s horror cult title Jennifer’s Body on May 1, reintroducing the Diablo Cody-scripted film starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried to a wider audience.

Dave Boyle is set to direct and rewrite a sci‑fi‑inflected horror feature for Paramount and Walter Hamada’s 18Hz label (part of Hamada’s discretionary fund under his Paramount overall deal); Boyle’s attachment follows SXSW buzz for Never After Dark and the project is currently in development with Nick Romano attached as EP.

Netflix has added Alexandre Aja's 2024 supernatural thriller Never Let Go, starring Halle Berry, to its UK streaming lineup—the Lionsgate film has a divided critical reception but growing fan interest and sequel speculation.

NEON mounted a strong CinemaCon presence highlighting indie and genre titles: Boots Riley's I Love Boosters (May 22), indie horror Hokum (May 1) and Australian horror Leviticus (June 19) — early reactions for the horror titles are positive.

Neon dated Chloe Domont’s thriller A Place in Hell for December 25, starring Michelle Williams and Daisy Edgar Jones; the film positions a legal/thriller premise as a counter‑holiday release against other genre and tentpole titles.

James Wan confirmed a Creature from the Black Lagoon remake is in development but cautioned the creature is hard to modernize into something truly scary, with no production timeline revealed.

Linda Cardellini has been cast in Bill Hader’s feature directorial debut THEY KNOW, joining the film’s ensemble as production moves forward; Cardellini is also slated to play Mrs. Voorhees in A24’s Crystal Lake.

Kier-La Janisse launched Spectacular Optical, expanding her indie publishing imprint into a distribution label focused on theatrical releases of genre films, signaling more curator-led theatrical play for folk/arthouse horror and niche catalog titles.

Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group chairman Tom Rothman used his CinemaCon speech to press exhibitors to improve the theatrical experience — urging enforcement of exclusive windows, shorter preshows and fewer ads — and cited recent studio shifts (Universal reverting to a 45‑day window) as context for his plea.

Neon reorganized marketing: Joey Monteiro promoted to President of Worldwide Marketing with multiple internal promotions and hires (Alex Altschuler, Don Wilcox, Mike Winton, Danielle Lee, Cat Fisher) after CMO Christian Parkes departed for Warner Bros.

Toho Holdings reported record revenue and profit in FY2/26 driven by hit films and anime plus growth in overseas and digital businesses, while guiding for a profit dip in FY2/27 due to higher SG&A and planned investments.

Bloomberg (via Digital I) data shows only about 4.4% of 2025 streaming shows met bonus thresholds (20% of a service's US subscribers in 90 days), with Netflix having 26 eligible titles out of 350 and Prime just five of 337—raising concerns about the effectiveness of bonus-driven compensation and studios scaling back movie output.

Brian Tetsuro Ivie’s Anima — shot on 16mm and starring Sydney Chandler and Takehiro Hira — is a near‑future sci‑fi road film about a driver escorting a dying businessman to upload his consciousness, mixing indie aesthetics with Black Mirror–style themes.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity will screen the first three episodes in limited theatrical engagements June 25–29 via VIZ Media and Fathom Entertainment with subtitled and dubbed options and an appearance by creator Tite Kubo and director Tomohisa Taguchi.

David Lowery’s A24 film Mother Mary — starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel — mixes personal drama with possible supernatural elements; Fangoria published a review describing it as a heady, pop-star nightmare.

A spoiler-heavy essay examines Faces of Death (2026) and the cultural legacy of onscreen 'snuff' depictions in horror, tracing the film's impact on audience boundaries and genre taboos rather than reporting deal or production news.

Lip Sync Productions was named a ‘deliberate tax defaulter’ by HMRC after failing to pay a £14.1M ($19M) tax bill from 2019–2023 and was hit with a £7M penalty; Begbies Traynor was appointed voluntary liquidator amid related Lipsync Post collapse and ongoing administration claims.

Sony announced an R-rated, feature-length animated adaptation of FromSoftware’s Bloodborne at CinemaCon; PlayStation Productions and Lyrical Animation are producing/co-financing with YouTuber Seán “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin as a co-producer, but director, writer, cast, release date and distribution format remain unannounced.

At CinemaCon StudioCanal previewed footage from Danny Boyle’s Ink, confirmed Paddington 4 development with unnamed writers, and announced genre remakes including Escape From New York and The Howling while Sixth Dimension will release Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man in the U.S. through Iconic Events/The Horror Section.

Sony's CinemaCon footage for Zach Cregger's Resident Evil shows mood-driven, single-protagonist survival horror inspired by Resident Evil 2–4, avoids game-character cameos and aims for a simpler, scarier through-line; release set for Sept. 18, 2026.

Creator Don Mancini announced a seventh Child's Play film that will tie together the franchise and the cancelled SYFY TV series continuity (ignoring the 2019 remake) and aims to return to the tone of Curse of Chucky with possible returns from the TV cast to resolve the Terror Trio cliffhanger.

Gremlins 3 is officially greenlit with Chris Columbus directing and Steven Spielberg exec-producing; script had additional passes by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, Jenna Ortega was falsely reported attached, and the film is slated for November 19, 2027.

Warner Bros. has named Melina Matsoukas to direct a new film adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s dystopian novel Parable of the Sower; A24 previously acquired the rights and attached Garrett Bradley but the project stalled, and Matsoukas’ appointment signals renewed studio movement on the high-profile sci‑fi adaptation.

Zach Cregger and producer Roy Lee are re-teaming to produce Little One, a dark family-comedy thriller directed by Alex Kavutskiy with Hammerstone Studios financing; casting is underway, the film got a California tax credit and is slated to begin production in Los Angeles in June.

Peacock has ordered a second season of The ’Burbs, the eight-episode present-day reboot of the 1989 cult film; season one debuted Feb. 8, hit Peacock's top 10 for four weeks and sold to more than 100 international territories — UCP/Universal Studio Group produces, with Celeste Hughey as creator/writer/EP and an ensemble cast attached.

Paramount released the official trailer for André Øvredal's driving horror Passenger — a supernatural stalker/van-life thriller starring Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell and Melissa Leo, opening theatrically in late May.

A Blind Bargain, a 1970-set reimagining of the lost 1922 Lon Chaney horror, released a stylized trailer showcasing a cast led by Crispin Glover, Jake Horowitz, Lucy Lawless (note: Lucy Loken in article), and Annalisa Cochrane in a period-tinged body-horror reimagining.

Netflix released trailer and first looks for Nemesis, Courtney A. Kemp's eight-episode psychological crime thriller debuting May 14, led by Y'lan Noel and Matthew Law with directors including Mario Van Peebles and an expanded ensemble.

HORDEKILL, a free-to-play biomechanical-horror title from Cult Software with visuals likened to H.R. Giger and Clive Barker, launched today on Steam with monetization limited to in-game purchases.

Lovecraftian first-person horror Necrophosis: Full Consciousness will release as a complete edition on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series on May 28 via PQube and Dragonis Games, with Steam timing expected to coincide with the console launch.