ScifiPulse

With a new trilogy in production, Ralph Fiennes gave a major update on '28 Years Later', a followup to Danny Boyle's '28 Days Later' (2002).

A production company for Blade Runner 2049 has sued Tesla, which allegedly fed images from the movie into an artificial intelligence image generator to create unlicensed promotional materials.

MasterChef. Supergirl. The Kelly Clarkson Show. These productions all initially filmed in California but were convinced to leave at least in part due to more lucrative tax credits in others regions. Now, as runaway production and Hollywood cost-cutting threatens the state’s hold on the film and television business, Gov. Gavin Newsom is stepping in.

I have no words... #bythttmwfi

The most common villains Ghosts or demons. The most common villains were supernatural, with 20 movies focused on ridding homes/islands/TV sets of unwanted spirits. A quarter of the movies in this category were from the Conjuring franchise. One scary guy. These villains have no help from the supernatural and no friends: Twelve of the top 50 films featured a weirdo with a horrifying tool or leaned on a controversial interpretation of mental illness. The first three Screams made up a third of this category. Monster. Ten movies starred some type of nonhuman being or horde of nonhuman beings (like zombies) as the villain. This might be the most disputed category, though, because we included World War Z, I Am Legend, and Van Helsing, three films some consider more action than horror. Alien. Many extraterrestrial movies fall into the sci-fi category, but if they rip off limbs and jump-scare humans, we’re counting them as horror. Seven of the top 50 movies had alien villains, and three of those were from the Quiet Place franchise. Cult. Only one movie fell into this category, mainly because it didn’t fit anywhere else. The villain in Jordan Peele’s Get Out was a group of scary people, no ghost or monster help, just racists.—MM https://lnkd.in/eUKwyt7b #halloween

When you think about scary holiday travel, the most frightening things that come to mind are probably the vampiric airlines that drain your money with hidden charges or the monsters that take their shoes off and go barefoot next to you for an entire flight. But for a certain group of people, the startle that comes with discovering how much a bottle of water costs at the airport isn’t what they’re after—they’re more interested in “scream tourism,” the name given to the travel trend for people hunting spooky destinations during the Halloween season. Here are three historic and fun locations for travelers looking to step it up from their local haunted hayride https://lnkd.in/esrE26RJ #halloween

How? “The folks of New York have been providing us with a good client base for 21 years,” BloodManor’s owner and creator, Jim Lorenzo, told Morning Brew. He said the operation has drawn a bigger crowd almost every year since opening (except where pandemic restrictions interfered) and now scares 500 to 2,000 people per night. With tickets starting at $40, BloodManor could do more than $1 million in sales this year over 21 nights of business between late September and early November. Reaping the scares of its labors: After two prior iterations, Lorenzo moved the haunt in 2017 to its current spot—which he rents year-round—and did a $1 million renovation that covered: New staircases, bathrooms, ventilation, and about 25,000 sheets of Sheetrock. About 1,500 canisters of spackle and paint, “every drop” of which was sprayed with a fire retardant costing ~$75 per bottle, he said. https://lnkd.in/exTugKyV #halloween

Retailers are so bullish on Halloween that even Jack Skellington might think it’s time to pump the breaks. The spooky holiday, once the domain of kids and homemade costumes, has taken over store aisles earlier than ever as stores cash in on the popularity. The National Retail Federation (NRF) expects Americans to spend $11.6 billion on Halloween this year after a record $12.2 billion last year. And it’s not just Spirit Halloween—the highly memeable pop-up chain that opened a record 1,525 stores this season—that’s taking advantage: Home Depot already had a reputation as a go-to stop for Halloween shopping thanks to Skelly, the 12-foot-tall lawn ornament that went viral in 2020. Home Depot’s rival, Lowe’s, tried something of its own: It debuted a “Haunted Harbor” collection this year that featured an inflatable octopus and zombie fisherman. Costco also released its own response to Home Depot’s Skelly this year—the “Giant Ground Breaking Skeleton,” which has glowing eyes and a motion sensor that plays spooky noises. (It hasn’t gone viral, though.) https://lnkd.in/e8yEjuTw #halloween

This is correct. It is time for Kennedy to go.

I've said before that #StarWars is a broken franchise. This is a truth that many agree with. What is hard to accept is that #Disney's Star Wars has been poorly run for nearly a decade and it is only getting worse. To date, the franchise has been so poorly managed that only two Disney Star Wars movies have been started and finished by the same person. (See chart below.) And now, another Star Wars movie has just lost its writer ("‘Star Wars’ Movie With Daisy Ridley Loses Screenwriter Steven Knight" - https://lnkd.in/esmKe77A ). Simply put, it is time for Disney's leadership to accept the obvious: Kathleen Kennedy has to be replaced.