A24, Gary Farkas & Netflix

Toei, Thailand’s M Studio and Korea’s Showbox board a cross‑border Junji Ito adaptation The Long Hair In The Attic with Thai director Sitisiri Mongkolsiri attached; the VFX‑heavy horror is in development with a 2027 shoot and is positioned as a regional model for internationally scalable genre filmmaking.

XYZ Films and Paris financier Vixens ink a multi-picture slate financing deal with Flesh Of The Gods—starring Kristen Stewart and Wagner Moura—set as the first title and backed by IPR.VC and YouRoc; the arrangement continues XYZ’s model of market-savvy international genre financing. The slate dovetails with XYZ’s track record on filmmaker-driven genre (Panos Cosmatos’ A24 acquisition mentioned) and expands cross-border investor appetite for indie genre projects.

Joe Begos and WTFilms are developing They Call Him Zorro, a violent, horror-leaning reimagining of Johnston McCulley’s Zorro set in present-day Los Angeles with Begos writing/directing and shooting planned on 35mm; WTFilms is financing and casting the lead while positioning the property as a brutal vigilante horror-action hybrid.

Alex Turner boards to direct Beg the Devil, a thriller adaptation of Sean Doolittle’s novel The Cleanup, with Brenton Thwaites, Grace Van Dien, Emile Hirsch and Ron Perlman attached and production slated to begin in September in the U.S.; Film Mode Entertainment is handling market representation at Cannes.

$110 billion proposed Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery mega‑merger on the table; analysts claim the deal could create 40,000 jobs and a 30‑picture annual slate with a pledged 45‑day theatrical window, positioning the combined studio to reshape theatrical/streaming economics.

UK indie Unified hired Claire Lamarra as Creative & Production Executive and brought on Aidan Milburn as a digital consultancy to expand its film and TV slate and digital arm; Unified’s slate includes Shane Meadows’ Chork and Scorn, and the company is supported by the UK Global Screen Fund and BBC’s Small Indie Growth Fund.

Deep Fusion appoints Max Alexander, a Vine FX veteran, to head a new VFX/AI division; move signals growing studio investment in AI-enabled effects workflows that could lower costs and accelerate postproduction for indie horror and genre VFX-heavy projects.

ACFM released the Second Half 2025 edition of The A Report mapping trends across 16 Asian screen industries; the report highlights market shifts, festival and distribution signals relevant to international buyers and producers.

Airlines are tightening content budgets and shifting to more frequent refresh cycles; buyers like Anuvu still pre-buy indie titles but note that horror and excessive nudity underperform for in-flight audiences, a distribution constraint impacting genre sales and presales strategies.

Sundance names 10 fellows and eight projects for its 2026 Episodic Lab relocating to Dunaway Gardens, Georgia May 15–20; creative advisors include James Wong from American Horror Story and industry mentors from Netflix, AMC+ and 3 Arts, signaling continued pipeline support for genre-leaning TV creators.

The Nomadic Film Space launched at Cannes as a traveling market platform to connect African creative producers with institutional capital; curated by Yetu (Un)limited with partners including Afreximbank, Téléfilm Canada, Film Fund Luxembourg and SACD, the platform aims to create structured investor engagement from development through distribution.

Japanese genre cinema programming—branded The Horā!—is showcased on the Croisette at Cannes, highlighting Japan’s horror and genre titles for international buyers and festival programmers this market season.

Malcolm McDowell boards a new Herbert West: Reanimator adaptation scripted by Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe with production set to shoot in Alton, Illinois; project revives Lovecraft IP with a veteran lead attached.

Netflix greenlights Barbaric, adapting Vault Comics' medieval fantasy with Sheldon Turner as series creator/co‑showrunner and Robert Rovner co‑showrunning; Sam Claflin boards as lead, Patrick Stewart voices the demonic axe, and Michael Bay set to direct episodes.

$30.99B total primetime upfront spend last year; streamers grabbed ~$13.2B while broadcast and cable split the rest; upfronts tilted toward sports rights, star-driven renewals and conservative slates with AI ad tech buzz, and Peacock/Peacock-adjacent presentations surfaced A24/Linda Cardellini’s Friday the 13th prequel Crystal Lake on the advertiser stage.

Kate Beckinsale boards WHITE, a shark-set survival thriller also casting Katherine McNamara; the project continues the persistent shark-horror subgenre and positions star-driven survival fare for festival and genre-market interest.

Myriad Pictures secured U.S./North American rights to Sebastian Schindel’s Argentine crime-psychological thriller A Silent Death and plans a Q3 2026 release after a deal negotiated by Kirk D’Amico and Guido Rud.

Production has begun in Rhode Island on teen horror My Boyfriend Is a Demon; cast boards include David Arquette, Rosanna Arquette, Coco Arquette, Jack Champion and Mattias Ferrell, positioning the film as multi-generational horror casting with indie production footprint.

IFC sets CHUM for theatrical + VOD/digital release June 5, 2026; Jonathan Zuck directs a destination‑wedding shark thriller starring Alice Eve with international Malta shoot and producers Ryan R. Johnson and Kurt Fethke attached.

Crypt TV boards Peter Klausner’s body-horror short Stomach It for digital release May 15 after a heavy festival run including Screamfest and Panic Fest; ISOTRE Films and producer Torey Rubin produced the practical-effects-heavy crime-scene-cleaner tale debuting at Cannes and streaming on Crypt TV.

Frameline50 logs Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma as its closing-night film and will present Jane Schoenbrun with the Frameline Queer Lens Award; Mubi is lined up to release the film theatrically Aug. 7 and star Hannah Einbinder will attend the Castro Theatre screening.

26-year-old Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession led Focus Features to acquire his follow-up Anything but Ghosts and A24 to tap him to reboot Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Barker is a YouTube-to-feature success with a horror sensibility likened to Ari Aster, marking another young-director pipeline into mainstream genre filmmaking.

Cannes-bound psychological thriller Karma unveils a teaser with Marion Cotillard leading director Guillaume Canet’s village-set mystery; marks another auteur-driven international thriller premiering at Cannes.

Shark survival thriller Chum lands a June 5 theatrical/On Demand release; Alice Eve headlines a Mediterranean-set pic about a wedding turned nightmare with a predatory fisherman and a ravenous shark, positioning it in summer genre play.

South Korea theatrical bow set for June 17, 2026; new trailer teases Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s latest horror feature, confirming an imminent theatrical rollout in Asia.