ScreamWire Daily

Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists win an 11-studio bidding war for The Mandela Catalogue, with Steven Spielberg boarding to produce and creator Alex Kister set to direct the feature. The viral analogue-horror YouTube series becomes the latest internet IP Hollywood is racing to package.

Terror Films is opening a mobile-first distribution lane through Microhouse Films, with exclusive horror titles in launch windows and a vertical, ad-free monetization model that lets filmmakers control pricing and release timing.

Oscilloscope Laboratories locks North American rights to Oliver Bernsen’s feature debut after festival stops at Sitges, SXSW and Fantasia; the theatrical rollout is set for winter 2026.

Lily James boards Drew Hancock’s Seasons for Amazon MGM; Hancock directs from his script, following Companion. The horror adaptation of Matt & Harrison Query’s viral short story centers on a ranch, ancient spirits and escalating rituals, with Atomic Monster, 21 Laps and 12:01 Films producing.

Paul Feig boards Blumhouse Atomic Monster, Platinum Dunes and Michael Bay’s horror-thriller Detention off Daniel Gold’s spec; Universal is positioned for first look through the companies’ existing relationship. The package is built around a locked director attachment with the plot being held back.

Paramount Primal locks U.S. rights to the original A Nightmare on Elm Street screenplay from the Wes Craven estate, teeing up a franchise reboot while New Line keeps international rights. J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules are producing under the new genre label; no writer is set yet.

AMC has locked The Terror for season four, extending the prestige horror anthology with another true-story-inspired arc after the third season wrapped last month.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s merger killed plans for a third season of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series; the production was reportedly ready to roll before the corporate reset shut it down.

Sony Pictures Classics locks North American, Southeast Asian and airline rights to Florian Zeller’s thriller Bunker, with an awards-qualifying run planned for year-end and an early 2027 release. Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger lead the package.

Women in Fan LatAm launches at Costa Rica Media Market as a permanent Latin American extension of Sitges' WomanInFan, built to push women-led fantastic projects into the international market. The initiative was sparked by a run of top submissions in Fantastic Lab and is meant to open a steadier path to financing and co-production.

Telefilm-backed Canadian Creative Accelerator opens a 2026 horror cohort for Canadian production companies with pre-development funding; five selected companies get LA workshops, 1:1 mentorship, and meetings with U.S. producers, financiers, distributors, and managers.

Spain's Testaferro and Uruguay's Guay Films have boarded Natalia Solórzano Vásquez's hybrid doc Spells to Revive a Witch, with Sputnik Films producing in Costa Rica. The project, built around fortune teller Soralla de Persia, has already come through Rueda, CIMA Impulsa and Ventana Sur's Proyecta.

Reason8 boards Florin Şerban’s Locarno competition title for sales ahead of its world premiere; the film follows a doctor whose son is tied to a murder probe and a masked vigilante crew. Adrian Văncică and Teodor Butănescu star, with Fantascope Films producing.

Fantasia International Film Festival turns 30 in 2026 and is highlighting 5 animated features and 5 shorts to watch, including Cherry and Virgin from Masanao Kawajiri and GROTESQQQUE from Atsushi Nishigori. The festival runs on independent genre voices with a heavy slate of animated titles.

Fantasia’s Cheval Noir Competition books a world premiere for Corpus, with Yellow Veil Pictures handling international sales on Corrin Evans’ feature debut about seduction and terror at a remote manor.

Fantasia gives Michael Gabriele’s holiday horror-comedy a world-premiere launch on July 25, putting UNHOLY NIGHT in front of buyers and programmers at one of genre’s key launchpads.

NIFFF’s top Narcisse prize goes to South African filmmaker Nico Scheepers’ Do You Believe in Angels, Mr. Drowak?; Hokum also picked up honors. The 2026 genre festival’s awards slate continues to surface titles with exportable festival heat.

Breaking Glass Pictures has set a VOD rollout for Mouser, Mary Gallagher’s psychological horror feature about a woman whose night out spirals into hallucinations and a sinister talking cat.

Joseph Scrimshaw’s haunted-DVD horror comedy Dead Media opens in select theaters July 16 before hitting VOD July 28. Joe Lynch exec-produces the 99-minute feature, which is rolling out with a small-city theatrical run and a fast post-theatrical window.

July 22 Hulu debut for Sophia Maddox and Alexandra Orton’s My Grandfather Charles Manson; Disney+ carries the international window, while the title slots into Hulu’s expanding true-crime slate. SMUGGLER Entertainment and Joan of Arc Pictures produce the doc, which is also positioned for Hulu on Disney+ bundle subscribers in the U.S.

Netflix's I Will Find You logged about 24 million views in its first four days and became the streamer’s biggest original series debut of 2026; restrained, family-shareable suspense is proving a strong thriller formula.

AI-assisted de-aging is now part of The Hunt for Gollum, with Andy Serkis saying likenesses will be licensed and used selectively alongside conventional VFX. New Line/Warner Bros. has the fantasy sequel in production in New Zealand for a Dec. 17, 2027 release.

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures mounts The Horror Show on Sept. 26, a yearlong horror exhibition built around props, costumes and production materials from Dracula, Psycho, Alien, Halloween and newer titles like Talk to Me and The Substance.

Crystal Lake, Sweet Revenge and Jason’s gaming appearances are just the start; Horror, Inc. is signaling more Friday the 13th projects are being lined up across the franchise.

Fangoria has announced the 2026 Chainsaw Awards Best Documentary Feature nominees.

Buffalo 8 sets an Aug. 7 digital bow for Sean Astin’s political survival thriller; Jason Mac directs from Alex Hanno’s script, with a Fourth of July dinner turning into a nuclear-strike evacuation scramble.

Summer H. Howell and Samantha Sloyan lead Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King take, with Matthew Lillard, Amber Midthunder and returning Flanagan regulars filling out the cast; Prime Video sets the series for a fall launch.

Select theaters take Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence this August; the trailer is set to debut at SDCC ahead of the rollout.

Ariana Grande exits American Horror Story season 13 after her rescheduled Eternal Sunshine tour pushed into the shoot window. Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk still have Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Jessica Lange, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, John Waters and Leslie Grossman lined up for the Sept. 24 premiere.

Geena Davis boards HBO's Dorothea as serial killer Dorothea Puente, locking in an Oscar winner to lead the true-crime series. The Sacramento-set drama tracks the landlady who poisoned tenants and buried them around her boardinghouse.

AMC showed the first teaser for Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches season 3 during The Vampire Lestat, with the clip now online; the new season is set to premiere in 2027 on AMC and AMC+. Adapted from Rice’s Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy.

A Kiss for Damocles takes the 2026 Prometheus Award for best novel; the Libertarian Futurist Society also spotlights Storm-Dragon, War By Other Means, No Man's Land Volumes 1-3, and Powerless on this year's slate.

Paul Tremblay’s Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep lands June 30 at William Morrow; the novel centers on an AI brain-implant nightmare and keeps the author in the orbit of the OpenAI copyright fight.

Take It Studio is bringing waleedzo’s first-person narrative horror adventure The Green Light, already on Steam and the Epic Games Store, to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch; no console release date has been announced.

DANGEN Entertainment boards Tiago Rech's psychological horror adventure I Shall Name the Dead for PC/Steam, with an early 2027 launch targeted. The cemetery-set game centers on naming the deceased, adding another indie horror publishing pickup to the pipeline.