ScreamWire Daily

Lionsgate taps Sam Raimi to direct a remake of William Goldman’s 1978 psychological horror Magic with Mark Swift and Damian Shannon writing and Zainab Azizi producing; Raimi moves from producer to director after recent Send Help success that grossed over $90M worldwide.

Chuck Russell’s Neumorphic AI and generative-video platform Higgsfield board two AI‑native sci‑fi features, Hyperia and b, embedding generative AI across worldbuilding, creature design, VFX and LED‑volume production with humanoid robot Erica supervised by Hiroshi Ishiguro and generative AI leads Elena Kaya and Anoush Sadegh attached; the partnership aims to operationalize AI in a professional feature pipeline.

German producer Augenschein is scaling up into higher‑profile, star‑led projects including Panos Cosmatos’ vampire thriller Flesh of the Gods with Kristen Stewart and Wagner Moura (A24 pre‑bought U.S. rights) plus airplane thriller Left Seat and smaller genre titles like Bloody Tennis, leveraging revamped German tax incentives and a mix of soft money and international partnerships to finance riskier genre fare.

$2.6M Thurs previews; projected ~$15M opening weekend for Curry Barker’s Obsession after Focus Features paid ~ $15M at TIFF; $10M production cost gives the film solid early ROI and positions Barker as a hot genre director with another Focus picture and an A24-linked Texas Chainsaw reboot lined up.

Amazon MGM boards $70M streaming-rights deal for Gordon Green-directed Supermax starring Will Smith, with production set to begin mid-August and Smith producing via Westbrook alongside The Picture Company; the four-figure rights figure signals Amazon MGM’s continued strategy of paying premium for theatrical/streaming exclusives on star-driven thrillers.

Yellow Veil Pictures secured North American rights to David Kittredge’s Boorman and the Devil following a Venice premiere and is planning a New York opening Aug 28 and wider U.S. release Sept 4; the doc features interviews with Boorman, Linda Blair, Mike Flanagan and others analyzing Exorcist II’s legacy.

SAG‑AFTRA’s tentative agreement with studios closes key AI‑likeness loopholes while leaving room for future negotiation; the deal enshrines baseline protections for performers’ images and usage, creating a new precedent for digital likeness in production and licensing.

EAVE Think Tank report flags a sharp rise in producer burnout driven by funding cuts and increased financial risk; recommendations include structural safeguards, slate support, company development investment and enforcing no-fee-deferment policies to protect independent producers.

Bong Joon-ho accepts responsibility for Mickey 17’s divisive reception and box office underperformance, concedes the film’s problems were his creative choices; Warner Bros. reportedly tested an alternate cut that scored higher, and Bong plans a career reset toward smaller films and an animated feature Ally with Neon for 2027.

Comcast-owned Sky and ITV remain in active talks on an acquisition that could close within weeks; MIPCOM is leaning further into branded-content programming which may shift buyer-seller dynamics at autumn markets.

Contemporary genre series are increasingly dramatizing real‑world authoritarian threats; shows like The Boys, The Handmaid’s Tale and For All Mankind are cited as reflecting or presaging fascism and market a creative imperative for writers to engage with political peril in prestige TV.

Retrospective on Koji Suzuki’s Ring and Hideo Nakata’s Ringu traces the novel-to-film pipeline that launched the J-horror boom and Sadako’s iconography; notes Suzuki’s recent passing and the global legacy driving multiple adaptations and remakes.

Cannes market shows measured optimism as indie buyers and financiers ramp up meetings; on-the-ground conversations point to warmer indie financing and quiet dealmaking away from red-carpet drama.

Aaron Eckhart has begun principal photography in Bulgaria on action-thriller The Walk-In with Roel Reiné directing; Film Bridge International is launching the title at Cannes and has already secured multiple territorial pre-sales to partners including Wildbunch, Vertical and Eagle Pictures while funding comes from Calgary-based Orogen Entertainment.

Archstone Entertainment is launching world sales at Cannes for crime-thriller Murdering Michael Malloy starring Tim Roth and Timothy Spall; Raymond De Felitta directs from a script he co-wrote with David Zellerford, production aims for Q3 2026 and Archstone will handle worldwide sales.

Curry Barker’s Obsession retools the Monkey’s Paw archetype into a sharp horror-romcom hybrid; strong central turn from Inde Navarrette and Barker’s comedy-to-horror trajectory mark him as an emerging genre auteur, though the film may provoke divided audience readings around its morally complicated male lead.

Gillian Anderson’s Cannes horror satire Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is earning perfect critical reviews at Cannes, signaling breakout festival acclaim and potential for a limited U.S. release this summer.

Curry Barker cut specific head‑smash beats from Obsession after MPA feedback to avoid an NC‑17 rating following its TIFF premiere; Barker endorses the trimmed theatrical cut while leaving open an unrated director's cut release that could restore excised material and drive later ancillary interest.

Sci‑Fi‑London highlights include Chatlines, a near‑future screenlife ghost romance, and Shackled, a world premiere neo‑noir sci‑fi about paired criminals with lethal implants; festival emphasizes first‑time filmmakers and boundary‑pushing sci‑fi formats.

Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard describe a close collaborative process on Cannes Competition title Karma, a film about a woman whose life is upended by a child's disappearance; Pathé handles French distribution and international sales while Iconoclast and Caneo France produce.

Crunchyroll Manga expands its catalog with 24 titles on May 18, including genre entries Parasyte and Vampire Dormitory alongside Attack on Titan and Bakemonogatari; move increases availability of horror and supernatural manga for English readers on the Crunchyroll Manga app.

Nemesis launched all eight episodes on Netflix and immediately charted in Top TV rankings; co-creator Courtney A. Kemp emphasizes L.A.-based production to preserve local below-the-line jobs and notes the show’s mix of marriage, mayhem, and visceral crime storytelling.

Jim Queen; adult animated satirical comedy world premieres in Cannes Midnight Screenings about a virus turning gay men heterosexual, created by Nicolas Athané and Marco Nguyen and produced by Bobbypills with Global Constellation handling sales.

GDH 559’s Out Of The Box moves from Thai theatrical distribution into international sales by boarding Piyakan Bootprasert’s $3M fantasy period epic In The Name Of Love; produced by Julian Taesung Jeong for Black Dragon Entertainment and supported by THACCA’s new Thai film fund with local cast set for a September release.

Inde Navarrette boards Curry Barker's Obsession as Nikki after a casting search keyed to a rare combination of naturalness and volatile range; Barker says Navarrette withheld her full performance until shooting, delivering a singular, human horror lead that positions the film for awards season attention and critical reappraisal of elevated horror acting.

Obsession; Focus Features horror from writer/director Curry Barker hinges on a monkey’s-paw-style One Wish Willow that grants a man’s wish for love with disastrous, murderous consequences; film explores displacement of the original partner and offers two undo options—buy a second wish or die.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! lands on Max May 22; the stylized reinterpretation of Bride of Frankenstein stars Christian Bale, Annette Bening and Jessie Buckley and moves from festival/critical conversation into streaming with Dread noting its odd but exciting take on the classic.

Yeon Sang-ho’s latest zombie/virus thriller Colony is a bloated 123-minute facility-bound outbreak picture that leans on gore and security-camera staging but stumbles on glacial pacing and flat character work; Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan and Ji Chang-wook lead a messy follow-up to Train to Busan that introduces slime-mold mutation lore but fails to elevate the genre.

Between Father and Son, a Mexican erotic thriller micro‑series on Netflix, runs 20 roughly 10‑minute episodes; created by Pablo Illanes and led by Pamela Almanza, Erick Elías and Graco Sendel, it leans into glossy, cliffhanger‑driven telenovela aesthetics.

Valentina Maurel’s sophomore feature follows Elsa returning to San José to care for a mentally unstable sister; the film mixes familial drama with a faint supernatural thread as the sister foresees deaths, creating a mood-leaning, character-driven piece with limited narrative momentum.

Obsession is a slow‑burn horror from writer‑director Curry Barker centered on a wish gone wrong; emphasizes atmosphere and a gore‑ramped final act, with cast including Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette and distribution by Focus Features.

Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster is an unsettling domestic morality thriller led by Léa Seydoux that interrogates trust and toxic masculinity after a husband faces sexual-crime allegations; Seydoux’s performance anchors the film even as musical interludes and tonal choices divide critics.

Netflix's new Narnia feature is being discussed as the streamer’s biggest-budget fantasy to date; budget scrutiny raises questions about Netflix's high-cost tentpole strategy for franchise revivals and international market expectations.

Bloody Disgusting launches a limited three-episode podcast series to support André Øvredal’s Passenger ahead of its May 22 theatrical release; Øvredal bills the film as his scariest to date and the podcast serves as a marketing tie-in.