Horror Industry News — Wednesday, April 22, 2026

A24 has tapped filmmaker Curry Barker to direct a reimagining of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with producers including Roy Lee, Steven Schneider and Exurbia Films’ Pat Cassidy, Ian Henkel and Kim Henkel; the film is being developed alongside a separate Texas Chainsaw TV series.

Neon is developing a feature adaptation of Sam Evenson’s viral horror short Mora with Evenson set to write and direct, keeping creative continuity as the short expands into an in-development studio-backed horror film.

Cronin describes several explicit set-piece gore beats from Lee Cronin’s The Mummy — a modern, R-rated horror take produced by Blumhouse and Atomic Monster and released by New Line/Warner Bros. — positioning the film as a distinct, bloody reinvention that deliberately separates itself from Universal/Brendan Fraser’s Mummy revival.

ScreenRant/other outlets confirm Heart Eyes 2 is official for Feb. 11, 2028 with Josh Ruben returning to direct/co-write; Spyglass partners with Paramount for production/distribution and the sequel's greenlight raises questions about returning cast vs. new characters despite the first film's relatively closed ending.

Cornerstone acquired international sales rights (ex-Australia/NZ) to James Ashcroft’s horror adaptation When Darkness Loves Us — which wrapped photography in New Zealand — with Bleecker Street set to release the film in the U.S. in 2027; financing includes the New Zealand Film Commission and local rebates.

James Ashcroft’s horror adaptation When Darkness Loves Us — starring Emilia Clarke, Victoria Pedretti and Natascha McElhone, adapted from Elizabeth Engstrom’s 1980s novella — has wrapped principal photography in New Zealand and will launch international sales at the Cannes Film Market with Cornerstone rep’ing outside Australia/NZ and a U.S. release planned for 2027.

Universal's Miami Vice reboot is titled Miami Vice ’85, directed by Joseph Kosinski, starring Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler, filming starts later this year for an Aug. 6, 2027 IMAX release; Dan Gilroy wrote the script and Dylan Clark and Kosinski produce.

Luna Carmoon’s second feature To Make Ends Meat wrapped a six-week London shoot with Naomi Ackie, Alison Oliver, Éanna Hardwicke and Armande Boulanger attached; Goodfellas will handle international sales and the film is slated to launch at Cannes with financing from BBC Film, BFI and multiple indie partners.

Netflix has begun production on a live-action Gundam film directed and written by Jim Mickle with leads Sydney Sweeney and Noah Centineo plus a multi-national supporting cast; production started April 2026 with release likely 2027–28 but no budget or deal terms disclosed.

Toei's Dragon Ball Super remake of Battle of Gods is slated for Fall 2026 with revamped animation, re-shot scenes, adherence to Akira Toriyama's drafts, and a confirmed follow-up film focused on Frieza — signaling a broader remake strategy for the franchise.

Luke Kleintank has been cast as a series regular opposite Stephen Fry on Fox/Lionsgate Television’s 12-episode straight-to-series drama The Interrogator for the 2026–27 season; Paul McGuigan will direct and Fry, Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie are among EPs/showrunners.

Taron Egerton headlines Netflix's survival thriller Apex opposite Charlize Theron in a two-character cat‑and‑mouse story shot in Australia; the film releases on Netflix April 24 and promises rugged, location-driven suspense.

K-pop artist and writer Tablo contributed translation/subtitle work for the imported comedy-sci-fi film Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie ahead of its May 20 release in Korea; the film previously won SXSW’s Midnight Audience Award and TIFF’s Midnight Madness Audience Award.

Conic has secured all UK‑Ireland distribution rights to Dominik Moll’s Cannes 2025 Competition title Case 137 and will release it later in 2026 after the film’s strong French run (650,000+ admissions) and multiple César nominations.

Early box office: Lee Cronin’s The Mummy has collected approximately $14.6M domestic and $20.9M international for a $35.5M worldwide cume in four days, outperforming Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride and projecting toward a $50M second-weekend milestone.

Netflix is a reported frontrunner to buy the 55-acre Radford Studios lot in Studio City, a foreclosure asset whose recent ownership saga involves Hackman Capital, a $1.1B defaulted note, and chatter of a roughly $400M sale price; the property needs major renovation after Hackman’s paused $1B plan.

AI text-to-video is fragmenting into features embedded across social feeds, creator workflows and pro edit tools (Grok, Kling, Runway), shifting where studios will interact with the tech; Disney reportedly walked away from a planned $1B OpenAI stake tied to character licensing. This diffusion suggests Hollywood won’t face a single dominant supplier and must adapt tool-by-tool rather than platform-by-platform.

A long-running lawsuit by director Alan Elliott against Neon over Amazing Grace exposes disputed accounting lines, $1.5M advance terms, roughly $4.6M in distribution charges, and claims the film remains nearly $2.9M in the red—potentially setting precedents if the case reveals more of Neon’s accounting practices amid chatter of a Neon sale.

ShoStak’s creator-first model centers on IP ownership, audience voting competitions, and a development hub that promises an alternative pipeline for independent filmmakers to scale short-form concepts into larger projects.

YouTube is expanding its Likeness Detection Tool to Hollywood — talent agencies (CAA, UTA, WME) can enroll clients’ faces (via verified selfie/ID) to flag AI deepfakes for review/takedown while YouTube says the enrollment data won't be used to train its generative AI models.

Skybound, Image, and Hasbro announced five new G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero 'Sssilent Missions' one-shots by creators including Jöelle Jones, Declan Shalvey, Gabriel Hardman, Pat Olliffe, Tom DeFalco, Howard Porter and Jorge Fornés, priced at $3.99 each and releasing weekly in April 2026.

A long-running dispute over Fox’s licensing practices for Bones ended with an arbitrator finding Fox undercharged its own affiliates and hid revenues — the cast/creators were ultimately owed roughly $51M after Fox’s internal licensing to Hulu and affiliates suppressed residuals.

GLAAD and other advocacy groups publicly condemned FCC chair Brendan Carr’s inquiry into TV ratings and transgender representation, framing it as government overreach that could chill storytelling and urged public comments opposing the move.

Reese Witherspoon clarified her public curiosity about AI after backlash, stressing she doesn't want computers to replace humanity and plans to educate herself on AI’s impact; the piece notes industry debate and references SAG-AFTRA’s endorsement of a federal AI policy framework.

ABC MD Hugh Marks warns Australia has outsourced financing and distribution risk offshore, eroding domestic rights and long‑term upside—an industry critique with implications for local producers and international co‑productions.

Cannes added Zachary Wigon’s gothic horror Victorian Psycho — starring Maika Monroe, Thomasin McKenzie and Jason Isaacs — to its lineup (Un Certain Regard), signaling a high‑profile festival slot for a contained gothic/horror entry.

Saccharine — Natalie Erika James' sapphic body-horror — opens in select theaters May 22 via IFC Films and will stream on Shudder after its theatrical run, following a Sundance world premiere.

István Szabó’s Embers, a period psychological drama adapted by Christopher Hampton and starring Ralph Fiennes and Viggo Mortensen, has begun filming in Budapest with Embankment launching sales at Cannes; producers include Robert Lantos and support comes from MTVA, Beta Film, Bell Media and CBC Films.

Season 2 of X‑Men ’97 will have its world premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Festival with a likely Disney+ release soon after; Marvel is already developing Season 3 and appointed Matthew Chauncey as the next showrunner for future seasons.

Netflix will add the first season of Assassination Classroom to its May 2026 slate (potential for later seasons), marking another catalog acquisition by the streamer and a win for accessibility of older Shonen Jump anime on global platforms.

Sam Raimi’s survival-horror thriller Send Help — a recent theatrical hit — will begin streaming on Hulu in May, moving the title from theatrical window to SVOD.

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 reintroduces Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones and reveals she has a daughter, Danielle (likely Dani Cage-Jones), tying back to Netflix-era character continuity and suggesting Luke Cage (Mike Colter) as the father — a notable Defenders-era reunion that deepens MCU TV continuity.

Attendees report CinemaCon footage of Clayface (Tom Rhys Harries) shows heavy body‑horror makeup and a Feat of Clay–inspired tragic origin; DCU’s Clayface (2026) is being positioned as a creative, horror-leaning solo villain film within James Gunn’s shared universe.

Cronin, Wan (Atomic Monster) and Blum (Blumhouse) describe practical-effects methods for the movie’s graphic skin-flaying sequences — a mix of tearable latexes and paper-like thin layers designed to rip without disintegrating; the film is in theaters and earning strong audience reactions.

Netflix's 2021 Western The Harder They Fall is a high‑profile, revisionist revenge picture directed by Jeymes Samuel (The Bullitts) with a $90M production scale and an ensemble led by Idris Elba, Delroy Lindo, Zazie Beetz and Jonathan Majors (now persona non grata); the piece argues the film was underpromoted by Netflix despite strong critical reception.

RZA and Tyler Bates co-wrote and produced the score for the grindhouse-styled feature RZA’s One Spoon of Chocolate, with the soundtrack and the film both arriving May 1 via Gravel & Echo Recordings, including a limited 180-gram signed vinyl edition.

The first teaser and official plot synopsis for Evil Dead Burn—the sixth entry in the Evil Dead franchise—have been released; the film was originally slated for July 24, 2026 from New Line and Warner Bros., signaling the franchise's continued studio-backed expansion.

Neon’s Leviticus — Adrian Chiarella’s Sundance Midnight pick — reportedly cost Neon $5M+ to acquire and has strong critic scores (96% RT, 83 Metacritic); the trailer is out and theatrical release is June 19.

DC and James Watkins released the first trailer for Clayface, positioning the DCU entry as a body-horror origin story co-written by Mike Flanagan and starring Tom Rhys Harries; the film is set for an Oct. 23 theatrical release and signals DC leaning into mature horror tones within its franchise slate.

First-look images show Maika Monroe starring in gothic horror-thriller Victorian Psycho, which is Cannes-bound and slated for a later theatrical release this year, reinforcing Monroe's scream-queen trajectory and festival play strategy.

AMC released a new trailer for The Vampire Lestat (Season 3), revealing explicit on-screen intimacy between Lestat (Sam Reid) and Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle) that leans into the incestuous subtext from Anne Rice's novel; series returns June 7 and adaptation choices around Gabriella's gender expression remain a key talking point.

AMC and AMC+ released a trailer for The Vampire Lestat — the third season of Interview with the Vampire — which stars Sam Reid as Lestat and premieres June 7; Rolin Jones showruns with Anne Rice and Christopher Rice as EPs.

Speed Demon — a nun vs. demons supernatural action-horror directed by Jon Keeyes and starring Katie Cassidy and William H. Macy — will arrive in theaters, on demand and digital May 31 via Maverick Film and Complex Corp; the trailer teases a contained, train-set exorcism thriller.