Friday, August 7, 2026

Blumhouse lands an option on Puppet Master, with Charles Band saying the pact covers a feature reboot and possible series while he keeps the existing films and merch.

Sony Screen Gems wins Mime from Amazon and Searchlight; Nikyatu Jusu directs, John David Washington stars and produces, and Scott Derrickson is in via Crooked Highway. The supernatural horror package is in active development with a spring shoot targeted.

Focus Features’ $15M Obsession acquisition returns to Midnight Madness as a special screening; Neon also slots Na Hong-jin’s Korean sci-fi title Hope, with 10 late-night screenings and six world premieres in the section.

Yash Raj Films enters horror for the first time with Abhay Pannu directing and Varun Dhawan starring; the banner is targeting a 2027 theatrical rollout and a broader genre-slate push.

Black Ribbon Productions launches in Los Angeles with a 2026 horror/sci-fi slate built for digital-first release; first wave includes The Veil anthology, sci-fi shorts Emergence and Thin Air, plus the digital horror campaign Dark Ages.

Locarno’s Alliance 4 Development slate leans into genre crossover, with Jessica Puppo’s "Reign of Silures" pitched as ecological body horror and Claudia Rorarius’ "Humanoid" as grief-driven sci-fi; Bruce LaBruce’s "Third Take" is also in the mix.

Giorgia Whigham boards Amazon MGM horror thriller Summoner opposite Kevin Bacon, with Jeremy Slater directing and Andy Muschietti producing. The production is eyeing a fall shoot in Ireland and Amazon MGM is planning a theatrical release.

Prime Video and Paramount+ order Trauma via a global co-production; Richard Madden boards to headline the thriller, with Lionsgate Television and 42 Management brokering the distribution split.

Blue Finch has taken worldwide sales rights on Kick On, excluding Australia and New Zealand, with Umbrella Entertainment locking ANZ distribution ahead of the Midnight Madness world premiere. The action-horror feature from Nick Kozakis and Fableist Films gets Toronto launchpad exposure as buyers line up at the market.

Studiocanal rolls Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man into 409 UK and Ireland venues; the slasher’s generative-AI use is part of the hook, with Radiance also reissuing Nadja in two locations.

Brainstorm Media sets Big Baby for VOD Aug. 7; Spider One and Krsy Fox's meta slasher leans hard into bloody horror-comedy territory and keeps Cher, Chaz Bono and Barbara Crampton in the producer orbit.

8-episode Carrie limited series lands on Prime Video in October; Summer H. Howell leads a cast that includes Samantha Sloyan, Amber Midthunder, Siena Agudong and Matthew Lillard. Mike Flanagan says he auditioned more than 1,000 actresses and is taking the Stephen King classic in a new direction.

Excel Entertainment and AA Films are set to present and distribute HALF in Hindi across North India as the vampire action thriller gears up for a TIFF Midnight Madness world premiere; the Malayalam title stars Ranjith Sajeev, Aiswarya Raj, Abbas and Amala Paul.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment lines up Evil Dead Burn for 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD on Sept. 22 while the film continues in select theaters and on digital; the package adds Dolby Vision, Atmos and a batch of behind-the-scenes extras.

Apple TV’s 2026-set limited-series remake of Cape Fear, created by Nick Antosca and starring Javier Bardem, Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson, updates John MacDonald’s revenge thriller with AI, surveillance, phone-tracking and deepfakes.

Ryan Murphy says he’s built ‘The Shards’ around his own AIDS-era memories and is already mapping a multi-season arc for the FX thriller. The project is adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, with Murphy saying he acquired the rights and sees Seasons 2 and 3 pushing deeper into the serial-killer and epidemic fallout.

Cauldron Films lines up Sept. 8 U.S. Blu-ray debuts for Brivido Giallo Vol. 1 and Ricco The Mean Machine, both restored from 4K scans and packed with new extras.

Blue Finch Films has taken international sales rights on Drag outside North America, with Briarcliff already holding U.S. theatrical distribution. The SXSW-premiered heist thriller comedy is heading to the TIFF market after festival stops at BiFan, Fantasia and FrightFest London.

Netflix is no longer moving forward with “Heckler,” David Fincher’s long-developing English-language “Squid Game” spinoff, according to sources; a familiar cinematographer is joining reshoots for Fincher’s “Cliff Booth.

Apple TV+ and Rutgers University are taking Widow's Bay's final three episodes into AMC Theatres for a free one-night run, a rare theatrical stunt for an Emmy-nominated streaming series.

Carrousel Studios launches from Louis Leterrier, Omar Sy and Thomas Brenski as the filmmaker lines up Netflix’s The Last House, wraps Apple’s Liminal and keeps Fast 11 pending a budget reset.

David Bertolino headlines a Midsummer Scream conversation on how haunted attractions became a multibillion-dollar business; the Spookyworld founder also has a new book, Behind the Screams at Spookyworld, on the table. The panel spotlights the professionalized haunt sector behind seasonal horror entertainment.

Russell Crowe and Priyanka Chopra Jonas board sci-fi action-thriller Bluefly; Highland Film Group launches worldwide sales at TIFF Market and sets a Gold Coast shoot for later this year. Nimród Antal directs from a script by David Frigerio, William Eubank and Carlyle Eubank, with the package already positioned for buyers.

Bhargav Saikia’s multilingual folk-horror feature Bokshi opens theatrically across India on Oct. 9 after a festival run that included IFFR, Sitges, Neuchatel and SXSW Sydney. Lorien Motion Pictures is backing the rollout for the indie genre title.

Dark Half is credited on Ice Cream Man’s VFX as Eli Roth confirms a small AI-assisted patch in the film; the disclosure lands amid growing horror-sector backlash to generative tools.

Bloodline is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival; no cast, filmmaker, release date, or additional production details were provided.

VIZ Media and The Gotham Group team up to develop film and TV adaptations from VIZ Originals and RWBY; Volume 10 is already in production. The pact gives Gotham first crack at packaging a global IP brand that has topped 350 million views and expanded into games, publishing and merch.

Korean-UK co-production from February Films and Story Robot lines up its world premiere as the opening film of Tubi FrightFest 2026; Abner Pastoll's Nervous stars Sarah Bolger, Ko Asung and Sungsoo Yune. The psychological horror set around a silence-playing vinyl record rolls into Leicester Square on 27 August.

Studio Dome sets Shivaan Makker’s psychological serial-killer thriller HATE THYSELF for U.S. and Canada digital release on September 1; the cast includes Oscar Torre and Tony Todd.