News

Corpse Bride, among this year's Halloween highlights

During the rest of the year, you have to travel to festivals to see classic horror films on the big screen. At Halloween, they come to you. We've put together a list of screening highlights around the country so that wherever you are, you can find something fun to scare yourself with nearby.

Aberdeen 28th - Halloween (free), Aberdeen Cineclub, Aberdeen Students’ Union, 18:45 31st - The Addams Family (2019), Boys and Girls’ Club of Aberdeen, 15:45

Aberystwyth 31st - Nosferatu (with live score), Bank Vault, 19:30

Belfast 29th - Don’t Let The Bed Bugs Bite, Children’s Theatre, 11:00 & 13:00 29th - Mars Attacks!, the Black Box, 15:00 30th - Monsters Inc, the Belfast Barge, 10:30 30th - The Little Vampire (with fancy dress), the Belfast Barge, 13:00 30th - Coco (with face painting), the Belfast Barge, 15:00 31st - The Addams Family...

Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at [email protected].

The Babadook by Joel Herrera

The Blob by Matt Seff Barnes

Christine by Ian Pestridge

Ernest Scared Stupid by Bryan Johnson

The Fly by John Dunn

Freddy vs. Jason by Josh Beamish...

Happy Halloween from The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we talk about Tim Burton! The man! The brand! The artist! The director! The lothario (complimentary)! The B-Sides today include Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes, and Frankenweenie. Our esteemed guest is Maria Lewis, “best-selling author, screenwriter, film curator, and pop culture etymologist currently based in Australia.”

As Beetlejuice Beetlejuice still rakes in money in theaters, we discuss Burton’s influence, whether or not he’s actually a good director (something Burton himself has questioned in the past), his best films and his worst films, his inspirations, and the love-and-hate relationship with Disney from the very beginning of his career. There is also the observation that most of Tim Burton’s films are some version of Alice in Wonderland.

The office of the President of the United States is way more famous than any specific president. Compared to, say, the king and queen of England, a new person gets to be the head of state every four or eight years via election rather than inheritance. This means you can...

Actor and comedian Martin Short has had a remarkable career in Hollywood. With several notable roles as well as projects under his name. Just out of college, the actor embarked on a cinematic journey and started participating in Broadway as well as theatre. After this, he continued to play minor roles here and there until SNL skyrocketed his career.

Martin Short in Father of the Bride | Credits: Touchstone Pictures

With SNL he found international fame and got the much-needed attention from directors. This stardom brought new roles, which in turn boosted the net worth of the actor quite a lot. Let’s take a closer look at his life, his current net worth as well as Short’s other sources of income.

The Early Life of Martin Short

Martin Short was born on March 26, 1950, in Hamilton, Ontario, as the youngest of five children. His mother, Olive, was a concertmistress at the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra,...

Say his name three times and he'll appear ... in your living room. "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" is winding down in theaters, but you can still catch Tim Burton's apparent return to form at home beginning October 8, 2024. That's when the Michael Keaton-led sequel, with which /Film's own Jacob Hall declared that Burton "gets his mojo back," will make its way to digital platforms like Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV, where it'll be available to rent or purchase with plenty of extras.

The current pre-order price for a digital version of the movie appears to be $24.99 on both platforms mentioned above, with Amazon touting its version as the "Bonus X-Ray Edition" and specifying that it includes an Ultra HD format. Buy the movie digitally and you'll also get a bunch of goodies including a commentary from Burton, a feature on the stop-motion art of the movie, and intriguingly titled special extras like "Shrinkers,...

Well, that was fast. Warner Bros. has set a PVOD and digital release of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice for Oct. 8, 33 days after its theatrical release.

At the same time, last night the sequel became the filmmaker’s second highest grossing movie at the domestic box office with a running total of $251.435M inching out Burton’s 1989 Batman ($251.4M). The pic grossed $1.1M yesterday in its fourth week in what has been a great hold throughout September. Burton’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland remains his highest grossing movie ever both domestic ($334M) and worldwide ($1.03 billion). Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the filmmaker’s fourth highest grossing movie ever worldwide at $374.4M currently behind Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factor ($475M) and Batman ($412M).

The Michael Keaton, Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara ensemble will be available for 48-hour rental via PVOD on Oct. 8 and available for purchase or to rent on Amazon Prime Video,...

Tim Burton and Michael Keaton reunite for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and the long-awaited sequel is headed home. The film debuts for purchase and rental ahead of Halloween.

On October 8, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be available for Premium Digital Ownership at home and for 48-hour rental via PVOD on participating digital platforms where you purchase or rent movies, including Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Fandango at Home, and more.

On November 19, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be available to own on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray and DVD from online and physical retailers. It will also continue to be available to own in high definition and standard definition from participating digital retailers. On November 1, an American Sign Language (Asl) version of the film will also be available at digital retailers.

Premium Digital Ownership, 4K Uhd and Blu-ray contain the following special features:

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Commentary by director Tim Burton The Juice is Loose! The Making of...

The ghost with the most is coming home.

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which reunited director Tim Burton with original stars Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder, alongside his “Wednesday” star Jenna Ortega, has set its home video dates. The sequel will hit digital retailers next week on Oct. 8 (so you’ll have it for your Halloween party) and will be available to own on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray and DVD from online and physical retailers on Nov. 19.

Additionally, the home video release will include special features like a commentary track from Burton, a making-of documentary called “The Juice is Loose!” and mini-documentaries on everything from the cast to the movie’s eye-popping stop-motion animation.

If you haven’t seen the sequel, which has amassed nearly $375 million worldwide since its release last month (enough to make it the sixth highest grossing movie domestically of 2024), it follows Lydia Deetz (Ryder), now a middle-aged host of a ghost-hunting cable show.

Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton existed on opposite ends of the filmmaking spectrum when the latter burst onto the scene in the 1980s. The former was no stranger to tales of terror in the suburbs, having been involved with "Poltergeist" and "Gremlins" by then. (Even "E.T." adapts the stylings of a horror flick in the scene where government agents in spacesuits invade the Taylor family's home in search of the titular alien.) However, the suburbs themselves were cozy and comforting in Spielberg's films; it was usually exterior forces that threatened their domesticity. Burton's movies, on the other hand, depicted the suburbs themselves as being unnerving and baffling. His sympathies laid with outsiders like Pee-wee Herman and Edward Scissorhands, who were content to lead their strange, loner existences until others insisted on intruding upon them.

Burton's adoration of death lay in equally stark contrast to Spielberg's sentiment, so...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Tim Burton has always been an outlier in Hollywood. He's a filmmaker with a distinct, peculiar aesthetic and set of interests, yet his movies have broad appeal and are remarkably consistent in the way they perform financially. Even Burton's weakest franchise films bear the sort of directorial hallmarks that are often missing from tentpoles in the 21st century. Indeed, say what you will against his "Dark Shadows," but only Burton could have enough pull to get a $150 million movie reboot of a cult '60s soap opera oddity green-lit in 2012 while also making it precisely the way he wanted. It's the same reason the critically-derided horror-comedy has found its share of defenders.

Be that as it may, having to deal with the relentless friction between creativity and commerce has taken its toll on Burton in the past. His 1996 sci-fi...

The prevailing wisdom on Tim Burton is that the filmmaker lost his touch somewhere between 1996's "Mars Attacks!" and 2003's "Big Fish." Especially in the post "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" years, when he really embraced CGI, the general consensus is that Burton became somewhat of a parody of himself. But with "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" it seems the filmmaker has gotten his mojo back, reviving his love of practical effects and the subversive element of his earlier films to deliver a movie that proves the now 66-year-old has still got it.

For me, Burton will forever be one of, if not my favorite filmmaker, simply because his earlier movies set my young imagination alight in a way no other film, TV Show, or any media has. Specifically, his 1992 "Batman" sequel "Batman Returns" remains my most transporting movie experience. The world created by Burton and production designer Bo Welch felt so immersive...

When you watch a movie called Batman, you’d expect the Caped Crusader to take center stage. Tim Burton’s Batman took things in a different direction. It might not have been the best idea, but it was certainly an entertaining idea.

Why Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ is swallowed whole by the Joker

If Burton loves one thing, it’s monsters. Sometimes, his main characters are monsters, sometimes, monsters take a side role, and sometimes, he takes the conventional route and has his monsters be villains. Regardless, Burton’s monsters steal the show.

The monster in Burton’s Batman is, of course, Jack Nicholson’s Joker. The movie alludes to The Phantom of the Opera multiple times as if to say that the Joker is a Universal Studios creature for the 1980s. Nicholson steals the show — perhaps a little too much.

Nicholson gets almost all of the film’s oneliners,...

As the prophets of De La Soul once proclaimed, "Three, that's the magic number!" Yes folks, that's right — for the second week on the bounce we have a terrific trio of guests joining us on the Empire Podcast. First up, our features editor Alex Godfrey speaks no evil — and speaks Speak No Evil — with the psychological thriller remake's star (and podcast regular) James McAvoy [19:49 — 34:40 approx]. Then, Amon Warmann sits down for a chat with Kate Winslet, star of wartime biopic Lee [56:50 - 1:12:15 approx]. And last but most certainly not least, we have for your listening delectation the interview that the entire podteam did with Reawakening star and all-round acting legend Juliet Stevenson during last week's live show at the London Podcast Festival [1:41:33 — 1:57:42 approx].

Either side of those, Chris is back in the pod booth after a rare holiday and hosts Helen, James and Alex Godfrey as they discuss films from 1996 that deserve sequels — and...

Tim Burton has made fewer sequels than the other big-budget, brand-name cinematic fantasists of his era: fewer than Steven Spielberg, fewer than Peter Jackson, fewer than James Cameron. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Burton’s first feature in more than five years, is only his second-ever follow-up after Batman Returns, which he took...

Are you a Hot Topic child who used to walk around the local mall in A Nightmare Before Christmas merch? Did you fancy yourself a topiarist after marveling at the spectacular shrubbery of Edward Scissorhands? Would you fight someone who says Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns are lesser than Nolan’s Batman films? It’s difficult to choose a favorite Tim Burton movie, with so many of the freaky filmmaker’s classics remaining a part of the pop culture zeitgeist. Stop-motion enthusiasts love Nightmare and Frankenweenie, while sentimental types love a good cry at the end of Big Fish. Mars Attacks! is making a comeback via Spirit Halloween stores, with standees of aliens and their weaponry up for sale. While not all of Burton’s films are bangers, you’ll find more gems in the pile than unpolished lumps of coal.

Still, the time has come to put your...

This article contains mild spoilers for "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice."

Ever since the first "Beetlejuice" escalated the obsession the ghostly Maitland couple had with Harry Belafonte to them trying to rid their home of the obnoxious Deetz family by making them do a possession lip sync dance number to "Banana Boat (Day-o)," it seemed like a given that a follow-up setpiece had to happen if "Beetlejuice" ever got a sequel. Of course, follow-ups to gags can be tricky, especially in comedy sequels. Some try to go bigger and wilder, such as the climactic news team battle in "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues." Others try and undercut or subvert the expectation, like when Phoebe Cates' Kate starts delivering a monologue about some trauma that happened to her on Lincoln's birthday and is cut off in "Gremlins 2: The New Batch." Others still merely pick up where the bit left off in the first film,...

Tim Burton, who turned goth into chic and made nightmares fun, has received a much-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. With Beetlejuice Beetlejuice now out in theaters (read our review here), there was no better moment for his showtime.

Tim Burton received his star – the 2,788th on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – on Tuesday, with a crowd gathering to show off their love for the filmmaker. Also in attendance to pay tribute were frequent collaborators Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, who of course all worked together on 1988’s Beetlejuice and its much-anticipated sequel.

In his speech, Michael Keaton remembered their greatest box office achievement, 1989’s Batman, which was the second of four collaborations, preceding the aforementioned Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Dumbo (although he’d probably rather forget about that one). Keaton, as many do, gave Tim Burton credit for showing the box office potential of comic book movies. “There...

Tim Burton was already a graduate of the Disney hard-knocks school of animation, a filmmaker with a few shorts under his belt, and the man who helped Pee-wee Herman go from underground favorite to alpha-manchild of ’80s cinema, when he begun working on his sophomore film: a 1988 horror-comedy about a Goth, some ghosts, and a particularly uncouth ghoul. Beetlejuice gave us our first introduction to the full, uncut Burton sensibility, in which the macabre and the madcap walked hand in hand while Michael Keaton ricocheted off the walls. It was spooky,...

In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week: two music videos Tim Burton made for The Killers. Tim Burton wears his influences on his sleeve. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which premieres this week at the Venice Film Festival, is the first time since Batman Returns that Tim Burton is making a sequel to his own movie. And this is the first time that an original concept by Burton is sequelized by himself. Recently, Burton has been playing the franchise-game, with films like Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. But even before that films like Mars Attacks, Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow aped the styles of predecessors and inspirations from Burton's childhood....

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Well, this is one way to use the Mars Attacks license. At Gamescom, indie studio Outlier has revealed Mars Attracts — a theme park management sim that’s set in the Mars Attacks universe. Revealed as part of the Future Games Showcase, Mars Attracts is slated to release into Early Access on Steam in 2025.

Rather than vaporizing humans in Mars Attracts, you will instead take control of advanced Martian technology to abduct humans from across history to use in your customizable habitats, around which you build up an attractive theme park to draw in visitors. Or, you can subject them to whatever twisted experiments you can imagine.

You’ll need to keep your captives happy by tailoring enclosures to appeal to each human’s preferences. Of course, some humans will try to escape, requiring you to deal with them as they terrorize their Martian guests.

Much like “the rich systems and...

[Editor’s note: this list was originally published in July 2022. It has since been updated with new entries to coincide with the release of “Alien: Romulus”]

Aliens are never far from the pop culture hive mind. It makes sense that audiences would turn to the skies in the 21st century: a time of existential ennui that’s left many screaming for escape and wondering “What else?” But where the enduring nostalgia of “E.T.” or the effortless charm of “Earth Girls Are Easy” might have made emotional contact in the past, a burning need to really feel something has festered.

The scariest alien movies terrify in many of the same ways the scariest earth-bound horror movies do: building (and sometimes killing) likable characters; producing otherworldly visual displays with seriously grim implications; getting the jump scares, if applicable, timed just right; and daring to put the unimaginably terrible on screen. Alien flicks further distinguish themselves through the subgenre’s unparalleled ability to explore the unknown, conjuring up heinous fates for humans so sweepingly sadistic few other films can attempt them.

It’s 1970, and as the astronauts of Apollo 13 ventured around the dark side of the moon, they faced a life-threatening crisis. Who helped save the day? Judith Love Cohen. Judith had helped create the Abort Guidance System that would ultimately rescue those astronauts.

But wait, it gets better. Judith was still working on a problem for the Apollo program, the day she gave birth to a son. She took a printout to the hospital, called her boss to say she’d finished it, and then casually gave birth to the future star of School of Rock, Po himself, the man who brought Bernie Tiede to the silver screen, the one-and-only Jack Black. Talk about multitasking!

Now, with a mom like that, you’d think Jack would be all about the math and science, right? Well, not exactly. Jack was a kid who was not great at academics, but had a knack for making people laugh.

Peacock on Thursday revealed the premiere date for Teacup, its horror series inspired by the New York Times bestselling novel Stinger by Robert McCammon.

A new teaser also was released for the series that drops October 10 on the streamer (watch it above). Starring Scott Speedman and Yvonne Strahovski, Teacup follows a disparate group of people on a ranch who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat. The first season comprises eight 30-minute episodes.

“When I read these scripts, I knew there was going to be a very character-based slow burn,” Speedman told reporters before the series’ Comic-Con panel. “It takes awhile to get going, but then when it does, it just becomes more meaningful and the horror elements kick in.”

Related: Comic-Con 2024 Photos: Best Of Panels, Cosplay & Convention Floor

“When Atomic Monster first approached me about creating a series adaptation of Robert McCammon’s Stinger — a no-holds-barred,...

What's the best Jack Nicholson movie? Ask a group of film fans, and you'll likely get a half-dozen different answers. The actor's most historically significant movie may be "Chinatown," the sun-baked California noir from 1974 that earned 11 Oscar nominations and a permanent spot in the American Library of Congress' National Film Registry. Or it might be "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," the beloved adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel that swept the Oscars in 1975 and turned the already-popular Nicholson into Hollywood's hottest commodity.

The actor's most popular films according to Letterboxd users are Stanley Kubrick's horror masterpiece "The Shining" and Martin Scorsese's crime saga "The Departed." His highest-grossing role at the box office came in 1989, when Tim Burton cast him as the rictus-grin supervillain The Joker in "Batman." Other popular moneymakers featuring the veteran performer include James L. Brooks' "As Good As It Gets," Nancy Meyers' "Something's Gotta Give,...

The competition heats up in the sixth episode of season 2 of Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, titled “Mars Attacks,” airing on Fox on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, at 9:00 Pm. In this exciting installment, the remaining entrepreneurs face a sweet challenge as they innovate new chocolate products. They must craft original names, labels, and jingles […]

Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars: Mars Attacks...

One of Tim Burton's first professional gigs after his stint at the California Institute of Arts was working as an animator, storyboard artist, and graphic designer at Disney. Burton was born and raised in Burbank, California, which is where Disney's offices are located, so he more or less grew up in the company's shadow. He worked at the Mouse House for a few years in the early '80s, working on films like "The Fox and the Hound," "Tron," and "The Black Cauldron." It should be noted that this was a notoriously bad time for Disney, and the financial failure of the ultra-ambitious and very expensive "Cauldron" (it cost $44 million) led to an open conversation about Disney shutting down its animation department. 

Of course, while Disney was floundering financially, they were freer to experiment artistically. I maintain that Disney's most interesting movies came at a time when their kiddie-flick successes didn't define them.

Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars fans, we’ve got a fresh off the press preview for the new Season 2 Episode 6 episode titled Mars Attacks!

Find out everything you need to know about the Mars Attacks episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, including a full preview, videos, release date, cast information and how to watch!

Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars Mars Attacks Season 2 Episode 6 Preview

In the upcoming episode of “Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars” titled “Mars Attacks,” viewers are in for a treat as the entrepreneurs face a challenging task of creating a new chocolate product from scratch. They must not only come up with a unique name and label but also compose a catchy jingle to market their creations. The pressure is on as they strive to impress guest judges from Mars Inc. – Rankin Carrol, Esther Gamble, and Sarah Bilson.

As the episode unfolds, tensions rise in the kitchen as the...

In the upcoming episode of “Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars,” viewers are in for a treat as the entrepreneurs dive into the world of chocolate innovation in Season 2 Episode 6 titled “Mars Attacks.” Set to air at 9:02 Pm on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, on Fox, this episode promises to be a thrilling ride for food enthusiasts and fans of the show.

In this episode, the entrepreneurs are challenged to create a new chocolate product from scratch. Their task involves not only crafting a delicious chocolate treat but also coming up with an original name, label, and jingle for their creations. With the pressure on to impress both Gordon Ramsay and the guest judges from Mars Inc. – Rankin Carrol, Esther Gamble, and Sarah Bilson – the contestants must bring their A-game to the table.

As the competition heats up, tensions run high, and the creativity levels soar. The contestants will need to showcase their culinary skills,...

We're excited to share a really fun and unique project with Daily Dead readers. Illustrator Chris Schweizer and opera's Alek Shrader reimagined The Barber of Seville with 18 figures and a spooky playset. With a Kickstarter campaign launching soon, we have an exclusive look at some of the character art, along with much more detail on the project:

Coming this summer! The House Of Bartolo toy theater and illustrated booklet: a reimagined classic opera “The Barber of Seville” with Monsters! Created by Alek Shrader and Chris Schweizer.

Inspired by classic monster movies, gothic/horror literature, and illustrators such as Bernie Wrightson and Ed Gorey (Dracula), Shrader and Schweizer have injected vampires, wolfmen, and mad doctors into Rossini’s operatic masterpiece without compromising the original characters or plot. “The Barber of Seville” has enjoyed previous adaptations, notably in Looney Tunes.

The project is an entirely independent venture and will be exclusively funded via Kickstarter campaign.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film Forum

Films by Scorsese, De Palma, Woody Allen, Coppola, Jarmusch, and the Coen Brothers play in “Out of the 80s,“ which includes Cutter’s Way on 35mm; Le Samouraï continues in a new 4K restoration; Raiders of the Lost Ark plays on Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

A massive overview of Bulle Ogier continues with films by Rivette, Duras, and Oliveira.

Museum of the Moving Image

The Thin Red Line, Mars Attacks, and Princess Mononoke all play on 35mm as part of “See It Big at the ’90s Multiplex“; The Right Stuff shows on 35mm this Saturday.

Roxy Cinema

Roger Corman’s A Bucket of Blood and Dunston Checks In both play on 35mm this Saturday; The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Runner screen on Sunday.

Anthology Film Archives

Med Hondo’s West Indies has encore showings.

Well, look at that, we’re up to my lucky number thirteenth Archie’s House of Horrors. And I can’t imagine a better title to celebrate that milestone than Archie Comics: Judgment Day. After all, who doesn’t love talking about the end of the world?

It’s no mystery why apocalyptic settings are, ironically, a fertile playground for horror stories. The stories basically write themselves, as whether we consciously admit it or not, we’re always consumed by the fear of the end of the world. We’re constantly reminded of the doomsday clock and its hands shifting ever closer to midnight. Every day the world throws a new curveball at us and gives us stark reminders that life on planet Earth is not infinite.

That’s why, perhaps, there’s some fun in creating fiction about the end of the world. It gives us the control to...

"They blew up Congress! Haha!" Do you remember this one? Or do you remember not going to see this one? Back in '96, one of the hotly anticipated movies of the year was Tim Burton's wacky sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! He'd just directed Ed Wood before and everyone was waiting to see him take that zaniness and make his own alien comedy, opening in December before the holidays. But perhaps he went a bit too zany? Because this one bombed and most people hated it. The film is a parody of other sci-fi B movies. Earth is invaded by Martians with unbeatable ghastly weapons and a cruel sense of humor. Produced & directed by Tim Burton, but not written by him. Starring Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, and Danny DeVito, among others. The filmmakers hired Ilm to create the...

After releasing a 6-foot tall Martian Warrior animatronic last year, Spirit Halloween is back this year with another brand new item for fans of the Mars Attacks trading cards/movie.

Straight from the cult-classic Mars Attacks, and now up for grabs this week, the officially licensed Atomic Ray Gun prop features functioning fog, intergalactic lights and sound!

The Atomic Ray Gun also comes with a black-light-activated collectible poster.

Spirit Halloween previews, “The Martians have returned to cause complete mayhem this Halloween! Did we mention they’re armed? Prepare yourself for the Martian invasion this Halloween by strapping yourself up with this officially licensed Mars Attacks Atomic Ray Gun. This atomic ray gun prop is just like the one the Martians use to vaporize any humans that get in their way of global destruction. You’ll be equipped to survive any Martian attack once you get your hands on it for yourself.

Following a gala closing night celebration featuring Steve Buscemi and his film “The Listener,” the 2024 Sarasota Film Festival has announced its awards — with several prominent indies taking the top prizes. This 26th edition of the Florida festival celebrating independent film gave the Narrative Feature Jury Prize to Josh Margolin’s Sundance breakout “Thelma,” starring June Squibb and the late Richard Roundtree. “Sugarcane” won the Documentary Feature Jury Prize.

Speaking for the narrative feature jury, filmmaker Alex Hedison, in awarding the prize to “Thelma,” said the group found the movie to celebrate “what Hollywood cinema so infrequently does: age. The extraordinary performances by June Squib and Richard Roundtree are at the center of ‘Thelma,’ surrounded by an excellent supporting cast who serve as a surrogate for the audience in reminding them of the significance of living their best lives with the kind of action and adventure life affords us if we...

Reese Witherspoon is returning to produce a television adaptation of Legally Blonde for Amazon Prime Video. Here are the details:

According to Variety, a TV series set in the world of Legally Blonde is in development at Amazon Prime Video. Witherspoon will produce the television series through her Hello Sunshine production company, though it hasn’t yet been confirmed if she will also reprise her role.

Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, who previously created and wrote for Gossip Girl and The Oc, are attached to write the series.

With Amazon eager to exploit the titles in the MGM back catalogue it now owns, the aim is to make Legally Blonde into a multi-show franchise, with a second potential spin-off also in its early stages.

Podcast: Mars Attacks! (1996) and Legally Blonde (2001)

The original 2001 film starred Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods, a sorority queen who follows her ex boyfriend to law school to win him back,...

In a career on stage, screen and television that has endured for more than 50 years, writer, actor and comedian Martin Short got his start in a 1972 Canadian production of the stage musical “Godspell” in a cast that included Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Victor Garber, Dave Thomas and Gilda Radner, all of whom would work with Short on subsequent projects in the years to come.

Short’s first exposure to American audiences was as a member of the Second City troupe in the sketch show, “Sctv Network 90,” which aired on NBC from 1981-83 and earned Short his first Emmy for writing. There he created such signature Short characters as Ed Grimley and Jiminy Glick. He went on to be cast in Season 10 of “Saturday Night Live” (1985-86) along with Billy Crystal, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest. Short then began his starring roles in films with 1986’s “¡Three Amigos!” alongside Steve Martin...

In a career on stage, screen and television that has endured for more than 50 years, writer, actor and comedian Martin Short got his start in a 1972 Canadian production of the stage musical “Godspell” in a cast that included Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Victor Garber, Dave Thomas and Gilda Radner, all of whom would work with Short on subsequent projects in the years to come.

Short’s first exposure to American audiences was as a member of the Second City troupe in the sketch show, “Sctv Network 90,” which aired on NBC from 1981-83 and earned Short his first Emmy for writing. There he created such signature Short characters as Ed Grimley and Jiminy Glick. He went on to be cast in Season 10 of “Saturday Night Live” (1985-86) along with Billy Crystal, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest. Short then began his starring roles in films with 1986’s “¡Three Amigos!” alongside Steve Martin...

Fortnite is one of the most successful Battle Royale games of all time. It became so popular because Epic Games set out to make a mind-blowing game that is constantly changing. Over the years, its community has increased to unsurmountable levels. Eventually, Fortnite also reached a bunch of nations in a very modified manner.

This means Epic Games was adhering to its rules. The most prominent among these versions was Fortnite China, a game that ran for around three years and was closed by Epic Games in 2021. But during that short run, it became one of the most unusual versions of Fortnite, so much so that some fans would be blown away hearing their rules.

Fortnite China had some of the most unusual set of rules Fortnite China artwork

China is pretty strict with its rules; they like it when things are done the way they want. A number of...

An upcoming Steam exclusive, Bears in Space is set to release on 22nd March 2024. The first look of the game suggests an eerie cross between Fortnite and High on Life with a tinge of Mars Attacks! added for good measure.

The game, which is set in a retro-futuristic setting in Space, lets players turn into a bear as they take on an army of robots with an extravagant arsenal.

If you are a fan of Fps over-the-top shooters with an added element of fantasy and adventure, Bears in Space definitely worth checking out.

High on Life’s Aliens Meet Fortnite’s Fps Gameplay

Bears in Space is unlike any other game released in 2024. The brainchild of 3 friends, the game was conceived 7 years ago. As the name suggests, the friends came up with the idea of a bear going into Space to fight an arm of robotlike aliens in this futuristic shooter with ample retro elements.

Stating that Tim Burton loves B-movie horror is a little like saying the grass is green and the sky is blue. The director has spent his entire career paying homage to classic Hammer horror pictures and low-budget genre fare, from his blood-drenched, practically black-and-white "Sleepy Hollow" and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" adaptations to his gleefully bizarre alien invasion flick "Mars Attacks!" and his biopic about the grandaddy of cult camp cinema, "Ed Wood." Seeing as his 1988 hit "Beetlejuice" draws inspiration from many of those same influences, it's only fitting that his long-awaited sequel, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," tipped its hat to them directly with its alternate title.

An earlier iteration of the movie, titled "Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian," entered development in the '90s and would've very much embodied what audiences expected from Burton in that decade (which is to say its screenplay was strikingly unruly and more than a little horny). "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,...

The 1990s were full of top-notch science fiction films that won over critics and set the box office on fire -- after all, we're talking about a decade that produced "Independence Day" (which beat "Mars Attacks!" to theaters), "The Matrix" (albeit with some complex behind-the-scenes activity), "The Fifth Element" (ripping off Plato to great effect) and the list goes on and on. But not every sci-fi release can be a winner, and the decade also had its fair share of stinkers. Whether they were derivative of other (better) films, hacked to pieces as a result of studio interference, or let down by the limitations of 1990s technology, there are endless reasons why an ambitious science-fiction project might crash and burn.

However, many of these ambitious but panned sci-fi movies are often not without their redeeming factors, and despite their negative reception -- especially on Rotten Tomatoes -- you can often...

Sarah Jessica Parker is no stranger to starring in romantic comedies. Despite her experience, however, the veteran confided that she could still get jitters every once in a while when doing a feature. This 2011 comedy had the actor especially rattled.

Sarah Jessica Parker and Pierce Brosnan starred in ‘I Don’t Know How She Does It’ Sarah Jessica Parker | Kristina Nikishina/Epsilon/Getty Images

I Don’t Know How She Does It was a 2011 rom-com where Parker played an overworked mother and wife working a high-paying job. Brosnan starred opposite of her in the feature playing a successful businessman and a potential love interest. In an interview with Movie Fanatic, Parker revealed there was a lot that attracted her to the project.

“I think specifically, there’s a few themes in the movie,” she said. “The fact they were very grown up in a way because they were about people who are...

Fresh off directing Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which is headed to theaters in September, Deadline reports that Tim Burton is attached to direct a new take on Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) will be writing the screenplay for the Warner Bros. project.

The original Attack of the 50 Foot Woman was directed by Nathan Hertz and released in 1958. The low-budget movie was remade by HBO in 1993, with Daryl Hannah in the title role.

Allison Hayes starred in the original as a socialite who grows to giant size because of an alien encounter and an aborted murder attempt. She then goes after her cheating husband.

Deadline notes, “Burton has delivered reimagined ’50s sci-fi movies before for a mass audience, that being 1996’s Mars Attacks (which was based on the Topps trading cards).”

Tim Burton is producing Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman for Warner Bros. with Andrew Mittman and Tommy Harper.

Exclusive: In the wake Barbie racking up eight Oscar nominations including Best Picture and becoming Warner Bros’ highest grossing movie of all-time at $1.44 billion, here’s another female power event project that’s in the works under the Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy administration.

We understand that Tim Burton is attached to direct Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman, a reimagined telling of the 1958 Warner Bros. movie classic, which Primetime Emmy nominee Gillian Flynn is writing.

The original sci-fi cult classic made for a reported $88K starred Allison Hayes as a wealthy heiress whose close encounter with an alien triggers her to grow into a giantess, complicating her marriage which is already in turmoil no thanks to her philandering husband.

Burton has delivered reimagined ’50s sci-fi movies before for a mass audience, that being 1996’s Mars Attacks (which was actually based on the Topps trading cars) and featured an ensemble cast of Jack Nicholson,...

Exciting things are happening on Live with Kelly and Mark lately. Every day seems to come with another new announcement for fans.

The other day, Kelly and Mark announced that Live will host the famous After the Oscars show on March 11, 2024, from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles.

Fans had just enough time to get over that move’s excitement and decide if a trip to LA was within the budget to sit in some of the same seats celebrities sat in the night before. Maybe some stardust will rub off on the audience.

This time, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos were eager to share that the show is teaming up with a new theater, the BleauLive Theater, for four shows over two days.

This is coming up even quicker than the After the Oscars Party show. It is February 26-27, and the audience can get tickets to the show if they want.

Julian Senior, the veteran Warner Bros. marketing and publicity executive in Europe who enjoyed close relationships with filmmakers including Oscar winners Stanley Kubrick, Clint Eastwood, David Puttnam and Neil Jordan, has died. He was 85.

Senior died Jan. 1 of pneumonia and heart failure in a hospital near his home in Borehamwood, England, Conor Nolan, his friend and onetime Warner Bros. colleague, told The Hollywood Reporter.

A native of South Africa, Senior joined Warner Bros. in 1970 after an eight-year run at MGM, where he was an advertising and publicity consultant in its European Regional Office, and he stuck with the studio through 2000.

At the start, Senior helped mastermind the advertising and publicity campaign for the landmark Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange (1971), and he also worked with the famed director on The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999).

“He taught me how publicity, advertising and marketing operates,” Senior once said of Kubrick.

Actor Pierce Brosnan has been cited in Wyoming for allegedly walking in thermal areas of Yellowstone National Park. Court documents reveal that the citations were listed as petty offenses and included traveling by foot in prohibited areas and violating closures and use limits.

Brosnan, 70, has been ordered to appear at the Yellowstone Justice Center on January 23.

Yellowstone National Park is renowned for its hydrothermal features, such as hot springs, geysers and mud pots, and the park’s official website advises visitors to stay on designated boardwalks and trails in thermal areas due to the potential dangers. Hot springs, in particular, have caused more injuries and fatalities in Yellowstone than any other natural feature.

Yellowstone National Park spans approximately 2.2 million acres and boasts over 10,000 hydrothermal features. The park provides extensive guidelines and warnings to ensure visitor safety and emphasizes the risks associated with hot springs. Some thermal pools within the park...

When Annette Bening likes a project, she jumps in. That’s what happened with Netflix’s festival hit “Nyad,” based on the story of 60-ish cranky competitive swimmer Diana Nyad and her refusal to abandon her dream. When she signed on to star in Nyad’s story of swimming 110 miles in open ocean from Cuba to Florida, Bening wasn’t thinking about the details of what playing the title character would entail. She just wanted to play the part.

Over the course of her three-decade career, which has yielded four Oscar nominations, Bening’s dramatic and comedic roles have run the gamut from con artist, Machiavellian schemer, and gangster’s moll to angsty suburban housewife. But she’s never been identified as a physically athletic actress.

“I’ve always been an athletic person in my personal life,” she said over Zoom. “I’m an exercise person since I was 20.” In “Open Range,...

We take CGI for granted these days. It seems the only time we notice it is when something is wrong. If you get into acting in 2023, you know that there is a strong likelihood that you'll be working in front of a screen, imagining characters that aren't there and scenery that you can't really see. It's a very specific skill, trying to make people believe that you, too, can see what the audience is seeing. When "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace" (1999) was filming, however, star Natalie Portman, who played Padmé Amidala, hadn't had much experience with it at all.

This amount of work in front of a blue screen added a lot of issues that she hadn't dealt with in the industry before. To be fair, "The Phantom Menace" had a lot more CGI than most films at the time. Whether you believe that was to the...