Assemblog: August 16, 2013

How I Live Now

New this week on Popshifter: Lisa calls The Conjuring one of the best movies of the year; Brad takes a look at Antiviral, My Amityville Horror, Swamp Thing, and The Incredible Melting Man, all out now on home video; Ricky wants to go to a strip club in Hell if they’re going to play Demon Queen’s Exorcise Tape; Jemiah is impressed with Into The White with Rupert Grint; Chelsea hopes The Hot Flashes does better on home video than it did in theaters and suggests Los Nuggetz for garage rock fans who are looking for something they haven’t yet heard; Melissa calls Intoxicated Man 1958 – 1962 a tantalizing glimpse into the early work of Serge Gainsbourg; and I am touched by the music documentary A Band Called Death and amused by the new video from Big Black Delta, “Money Rain Down.”

There is a great interview on The A.V. Club with Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick on Season 5 of The Venture Bros. They don’t so much walk us through the season, as they explain why the finale wasn’t as intense as the one for Season 4. And of course, talk about gay sex and stuff.

Another great interview appears on Fangoria, this one with Steve Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie of Astron 6 (Manborg, Father’s Day). They have a couple of movies in the works. One is The Editor, a giallo-style film that is being shot this month. The other, the topic of the interview, is The Void. Kostanski says it “has a lot in common with [John Carpenter’s] siege movies like Assault On Precinct 13.” If that wasn’t enough to get you pumped, he also says that practical effects-created monsters will be “crucial to the narrative.” They are currently seeking backing for the film, having shopped it around at Fantasia’s Frontières market.

The roster of directors for The ABCs of Death 2 has been announced. Well, except for one. As with the first installment, there will be a competition for the 26th film, this time for the letter M. The list of directors currently on board is impressive indeed, and includes some non-horror directors like Julian Barrett of The Mighty Boosh. You can read more about the directors already chosen and the competition on Twitch.

Transmedia is something that’s getting quite a bit of buzz these days and with good reason. It’s a new way of storytelling that involves the audience as consumers and does so across multiple media platforms. Now there’s Darknet:

Darknet is an experimental hybrid web and television series in which fans will be able to contribute their own scripts and even upload fully completed segments to the web after the first six prototype episodes have been unleashed on the world this fall.

Darknet will be executive produced by Vincenzo Natali and Steven Hoban (both of whom worked on Splice) and directed by Rue Morgue‘s Rodrigo Gudino, and will feature writing from Natali, Pascal Trottier, Doug Taylor (Splice), James Kee, Randall Cole (388 Arletta Ave) and Sarah Larsen. There will be a preview launch of the series at this year’s FanExpo Canada so be sure to check it out if you’re there. (H/T to Twitch.)

Of the several articles I’ve read about Ridley Scott’s upcoming Exodus film, only /Film mentions the concerns over whitewashed casting. With Christian Bale as Moses and the potential for Joel Edgerton to play Ramses, that is a valid concern. (I’m also amused that Bale has played Jesus in the past.) It would be nice if they could hire actors from the Middle East. Let’s hope that they don’t wear brown face makeup at least.

Although this trailer for Saoirse Ronan’s upcoming film How I Live Now is a bit heavy-handed, the movie itself sounds terrific. From The Hollywood Reporter:

How I Live Now, based on Meg Rosoff’s novel of the same name, is set in the U.K. in the near future, where the nation is at war. Ronan plays Daisy, an American teen who ventures overseas to live with her aunt and cousins in the countryside. When her aunt is stuck in Norway and England is invaded by an unnamed force, Daisy and her cousins are left to live in a utopian-type setting, unencumbered by adults.But when soldiers arrive at the farm and tear the teens apart, Daisy must face the horrors of occupation while attempting to reunite her family.

—Less Lee Moore, Managing Editor