Mads Mikkelsen & Armie Hammer to lead Billion Dollar Spy

After dipping their toes into the spy world with Casino Royale and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mads Mikkelsen and Armie Hammer are returning to the world of covert deception as they’ve signed on to star in the cold War thriller The Billion Dollar Spy, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

RELATED: Jennifer Lopez & Armie Hammer to Lead Lionsgate’s Shotgun Wedding

Based on a true story, the film centers on Brad Reid (Hammer), a new face at the CIA’s Moscow station as he is approached by Soviet engineer Adolf Tolkachev (Mikkelsen) and chooses to ignore the advice from his bosses that he’s a KGB “dangle” and develops a unique bond and friendship with the Russian, who seemingly only hopes to help his family escape the Soviet Union’s corruption.

The film is set to be directed by Amma Asante (A United Kingdom, The Handmaid’s Tale) with script coming from Benjamin August (Class Rank, Remember) from heavily-detailed research by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David E. Hoffman, who drew upon previously classified CIA documents and interviews to compile the story. The film will be developed and produced by Walden Media alongside Oscar and Golden Globe winner Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) and Greg Lessans via Weed Road Pictures, while Walden Media’s President and CEO Frank Smith and Executive Vice President of Development and Production Naia Cucukov will executive produce.

“We are incredibly excited to take on this cold war thriller, a departure from Walden’s usual cannon, to bring this mysterious world to life,” Smith said in a statement. “We are honoured to work with talents Mads Mikkelsen and Armie Hammer with Amma Asante at the helm, on a story that showcases how one person can change the world.”

RELATED: Mads Mikkelsen Joins Alexander Payne’s Next Project at Netflix

HanWay films has also joined the project to handle its international sales and distribution and will introduce the project at the forthcoming virtual American Film Market, while CAA Media Finance and Endeavor Content will oversee the U.S. sale.

“August has brilliantly mined Hoffman’s detailed account of the Billion Dollar Spy and delivered a screenplay that will thrill all the fans of analog spycraft,” HanWay Films managing director Gabrielle Stewart said in a statement. “At the same time we are going to inhabit the contrasting personal lives of our two spies: the personal challenges and the impact their world changing activities have on their marriages, their families and their own psyches. Asante’s imprint is right here, and along with her very talented actors, she has the opportunity to give us a completely fresh and multi-layered perspective on the Cold War thriller.”

An early 2021 production start date for The Billion Dollar Spy is being eyed in Eastern Europe.

(Photo Credits: Getty Images)

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CS Interview: Beck & Woods on Haunt Collector’s Edition, Quibi & 65!

ComingSoon.net had the chance to speak with filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods about the Haunt Collector’s Edition two-disc set available now on Blu-ray from Ronin Flix in partnership with Momentum Pictures. The co-writers of A Quiet Place also briefly discussed their experience collaborating on Quibi’s 50 States of Fright with Sam Raimi as well as their upcoming project 65 starring Adam Driver. You can check out the interview below, along with more details about the Collector’s Edition as well as the Blu-ray covers in the gallery, and order your copy of the Haunt Collector’s Edition here!

RELATED: CS Guide to the Best New Horror Movies & TV Shows to Stream This Halloween!

In Haunt, a group of friends encounter an “extreme” haunted house on Halloween that promises to feed on their darkest fears. The night turns deadly as they come to the horrifying realization that some nightmares are very real.

Directed and written by Beck and Woods, the 2019 horror movie stars Katie Stevens, Will Brittain, Lauryn Alisa McClain, and Andrew Lewis Caldwell, and was produced by Eli Roth.

The commemorative two-disc set will treat fans to the Original CD Soundtrack by tomandandy, four 16” x 20” movie poster reproductions, a 16” x 20” reproduction of the haunt map, six enamel pins featuring the eerie costume masks worn by the villains in the film, four 2” x 3 ½” replica VHS box-style magnets, and over five hours of special features including a new To Escape the Haunt: The Making of Haunt featurette. A single-disc version will also be available.

Special Features Include:

• NEW To Escape the Haunt: The Making of Haunt featurette including interviews with writers/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, actors Katie Stevens, Will Brittain, Andrew Lewis Caldwell, Lauryn Alisa McClain, Schuyler Helford, Justin Marxen, Chaney Morrow, Special Makeup Effects artist Chris Bridges, and co-composer Andy Milburn (tomandandy)
• NEW Audio Commentary with actors Justin Marxen (Clown), Chaney Morrow (Ghost), and Damian Maffei (Devil)
• Audio Commentary with writers/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, Behind the Haunt, The Sound of Haunt, Deleted Scenes with an introduction by Scott and Bryan
• Popcorn Frights Q & A with Scott, Bryan, and some of the cast
• Egyptian Theatre Premiere Q & A with Scott and Bryan, moderated by Eli Roth
• Short Film: The Sleepover – Scott and Bryan’s first film
• Director’s Diary
• Theatrical Trailer

RELATED: ComingSoon’s 2020 Halloween Gift Guide Video!

ComingSoon.net: I was just thinking like, with COVID and everything, was that challenging in the sense that did you guys just say we’re going to do all our work over Zoom? At what point were you like, oh screw it, we need to be in a room together? How’s it been working for you?

Scott Beck: Yeah, I mean, the last few months, like everybody’s life has just been such a fascinating, unexpected experience. And so, so much of our work, in general, became Zoom and became meetings. The first week the pandemic hit in LA, we were pitching a movie and on Monday it was in person, by Friday it was all virtual. And you know, luckily for writing, that’s bee’s knees, but when you start moving into pre-production for a movie, it gets a little more difficult and we’re in prep right now and we’re on the ground in Louisiana now socially distancing with multitudes of other people. But for this new Blu-ray for Haunt that was really fascinating because everybody was kind of spread across the country. Nobody was leaving their house and it just recontextualized how you put together a Blu-ray, how you put together special features. And it was a challenge, but a fun challenge I think everybody was willing to figure out and find a way to, you know, put forth the most amount of effort and hopefully pack this disc with a lot of goodies.

CS: Yeah, I’m looking at it right now. There’s a magnet. There are these beautiful pins that you had designed. There’s some posters. And there’s the map. Now is this map actually something that you guys put together in pre-pro or is this just done for the package?

Bryan Woods: It’s the in-picture map that our production designer Austin Gorg hand drew it originally. It basically reflects what the villain of the movie would’ve used to kind of draw their plans of how the different haunted houses would fuse together. And even though when we’re filming, all the stunts are kind of broken up into pieces, the haunted house didn’t actually connect in terms of like, it being a set. But each set was designed in a way that could actually connect and be put together as a haunted house and actually work. So the fun of including the map is just to show that, one day, it would be fun to actually put this up and do a real haunted house with the haunts from Haunt.

CS: Yeah, and it’s always fun to get to talk to people sort of after the fact. The movie came out last year and I’m just wondering what kind of audience feedback did you guys get? Have you been able to connect with fans and people who saw the film?

Beck: It’s incredibly surreal to take a look back a year later. When the movie came out, it was funny, it came out on Friday the 13th, but it was still a fairly limited release with the theatrical release and very much a word of mouth film. And now we’re seeing people this Halloween creating their own masks inspired by Haunt, their own costumes. The film got a release in Japan, where they created this haunted house of sorts based on all the rooms in the film. And so, we just kind of sit back and I think our jaws are kind of like wide open at how the film has kind of gathered this cult following. And all that does is it makes us think of when we were in high school and discovering some of our favorite films to this very day, whether it’s something like Fight Club or Donnie Darko and movies that didn’t ultimately find a gathering from the get-go, but it kind of trickles through the bloodstream of people who are fans of the genre or people who are fans of the film. We just feel very, very fortunate that the movie has been praised the way it has.

Woods: And we’re not comparing our movie in any way to those, those are masterpieces, but I think Scott mentioned those because they’re such great DVD discs. We’re just such diehard fans of like, physical media. Even if a movie we don’t like comes out with a cool set and there’s some thought put into the features, we’re the first ones to snatch it up and devour it. We’re just fans of that kind of medium and a company like Ronin Flix took on Haunt, it’s just exciting that they have as much passion as we do about physical media for movies. It’s like the souvenir of the movie you can buy or collect a DVD for something, so it’s really fun for us to put together this set.

CS: Yeah. I mean, you’re preaching to the choir here because I write a weekly Blu-ray column, and I definitely still collect physical media. And yeah, it’s hard to explain to some people. I remember there was recently in an episode of Queer Eye where they were in this guy’s house and they were doing a makeover on him or whatever and they saw he had a shelf full of DVDs. And they’re like, ugh, hasn’t he heard of streaming? And I was like, number one, f*ck you. Number two, yeah. Physical media, yeah, it takes up space and all this stuff, but it’s like, if you’re a fan of how a movie looks and sounds, it’s never going to look and sound better than playing from a disc.

Beck: Exactly. I mean, there’s also an extension of the art form, there’s the art form where you pop in a disc and you’re actually watching the DVD, but I think there’s also the art form in terms of the aesthetics of what’s on the disc. And again going back first to the Fight Club DVD, that was something where automatically you hold it in your hand, but it feels like it’s built with care and precision. And I think that’s always what draws us back to putting our 2,000 Blu-rays and DVDs that we own and putting that on a shelf. There’s just something really beautiful about that and it’s fun to place it at that culture, and that’s something that certainly in designing these discs. We’re just putting ourselves in the shoes of anybody who will need to spend money on a Blu-ray, you want something that feels special and unique. That was always our hope and goal.

CS: Yeah. And sort of speaking to the ephemeral nature of streaming, we just had Quibi fall apart. And I was wondering if you guys had any sort of perspective about your experience with that streamer?

Woods: Well, I mean, we’re sorry to hear the news just because they were creating a lot of content and empowering artists. Like, our experience with Quibi doing 50 States of Fright was an incredible experience. We had a lot of freedom to tell our story. We got to work with Sam Raimi, who we’re now working with on our feature film that we’re doing right now. And so, that was an incredible opportunity for us to work with Sam and create something that, in that case, we did an episode of 50 States of Fright that’s based on our home state of Iowa. I don’t know, it was an amazing opportunity for us, it was an amazing opportunity for a lot of artists to get new stories out there in a new form. So on some level, the news is disappointing, but obviously, a lot of challenges, both with the pandemic, but also conceptually in whatever else.

Beck: I think ultimately, our hope is for certain shows, to use 50 States of Fright as an example, is that there could be a second life for them, you know, whether it’s Netflix or more of the specialty platforms like Shudder that gears towards the horror genre, that there’s a way to continue something like that. Also, when you have a show called 50 States of Fright it feels like a disappointment if you don’t deliver for all 50 episodes of what that premise promises. So we’re still rooting from afar for things like that.

CS: So, I love Adam Driver, love his work, but what drew you to him specifically for this new thing, 65, that you’re directing for Sam Raimi?

Woods: Well, our first taste of Adam was the TV show Girls. And his role on that, we love that series, in general, it’s one of our favorites and we’re big Lena Dunham fans here. But, in particular, his role and his performance on that show was so explosive. It was just like, who is this guy? It was hard to comprehend- you never knew what he was going to do next. He kind of constantly surprised us throughout that series, and that was very exciting.

But then, he went and he tried to capture that same magic and turn it into a career. In other words, the choices he made as an actor in terms of what roles Adam took on in something he would work with, it was like that big energy of like, wow, I don’t know he’s gonna do next. What is this guy? And the fact that even last year, jumping from his incredible performance in a Star Wars movie of all things, and then an intimate character in something like Marriage Story and kind of turning in our favorite two performances of that year, we’ve just always been blown away by his work. It just speaks for itself. I don’t really know if I can articulate why this works so much and it just seems pretty obvious once you watch it.

CS: Yeah. How is the scale of 65 different than what you were doing on Haunt?

Beck: Well, that’s a fascinating jump because we can’t really say much about it other than it’s a much bigger canvas movie. I mean, obviously, it’s a studio film versus Haunt, which was an independent film. But I think what’s kind of a binding feature is there’s always a mystery box element that we’re always intrigued by. The promise that there’s going to be something in it for audiences to really dig into, but there’s going to be much more that meets the eye. And part of the joy of creating a film like 65, similar to like when before A Quiet Place was even known by anybody else, was there’s a mystery behind it. And to that, as moviegoers, we love that. We love when you watch a teaser and it does only tease you and it doesn’t give you much more than that, but it gives you enough of a hook.

So this whole film is kind of designed with maintaining that experience as much as possible. But certainly, on a canvas, it’s a big canvas movie. We just feel very fortunate to be able to get it up and running in production in this time where not many movies really get made, especially original movies.

CS: No, absolutely not. And one of the reasons I loved talking to you guys is how dedicated you are to making sure your career doesn’t go down the path of doing IPs and sequels and stuff. But in terms of sequels, did you guys get to see A Quiet Place 2?

Woods: It’s kind of funny. We were taking this project, 65 out, as Scott said earlier, I think, the week that happened, basically, the week of the pandemic. And we were at Paramount. And we were talking about the sequel and there was a screening coming up for us and the movie was like, I think it was two weeks out from release. And on a Wednesday it was like, talking to everyone at Paramount and everybody was kind of like tracking, saying, “We think we’re gonna be okay, and we’re not really sure, but we’re on track.” And then a day later, they pulled it from release. And so anyway, that’s a long-winded way of saying we actually didn’t get to see it. It was like quarantine after that. But we heard it’s good. We heard from a lot of the collaborators on it that, you know, everyone’s very excited about that.

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Awkwafina & Sandra Oh to lead untitled Netflix comedy

As the two are coming off of Golden Globe wins, Awkwafina (The Farewell, Crazy Rich Asians) and Sandra Oh (Killing Eve, Over the Moon) are teaming up to lead an untitled Netflix comedy in which the two will play sisters.

RELATED: Shelly: Amazon Studios Acquires Awkwafina & Karen Gillan Action Comedy

The official logline for the project reads as follows:

A lonely recluse’s life is upended when her train wreck of a sister vows to mend their relationship by helping her fulfill her lifelong dream: to be a contestant on her favorite game show.

Though no director is currently attached to the feature, the script for the film is penned by Jen D’Angelo, who recently wrote the script for Disney+’s upcoming Hocus Pocus sequel while also having worked on Hulu’s Solar Opposites, Comedy Central’s The Millers and as co-executive producer on the upcoming NBC series The Young Rock starring Dwayne Johnson (Jumanji: The Next Level) and chronicling his early life.

In addition to starring, Awkwafina and Oh. will produce the project alongside Jessica Elbaum and Will Ferrell for Gloria Sanchez Productions, Itay Reiss and Maggie Haskins from Artists First and D’Angelo.

RELATED: Sandra Oh To Lead Sam Raimi-Produced Horror Umma

Oh recently landed her 12th Emmy nomination for her work as lead actress and co-executive producer on the hit BBC black comedy series Killing Eve and recently worked with Netflix for the animated fantasy musical adventure Over the Moon, which has received generally positive reviews from critics since its premiere on October 23.

Awkwafina is just coming off of her Golden Globe victory for her lead role in the acclaimed dramedy The Farewell and was also most recently seen in Jumanji: The Next Level and Comedy Central’s Awkwafina is Nora From Queens, which was renewed for a second season.

(Photo Credit: Michael Kovac/WireImage)

The post Awkwafina & Sandra Oh to Lead Untitled Netflix Comedy appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Michael Myers returns in new Halloween Kills teaser!

As part of the production studio’s virtual event BlumFest, Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures has revealed a new teaser for the highly-anticipated Halloween Kills showing Michael Myers’ bloody return to the screen! The teaser can be viewed below!

RELATED: John Carpenter Calls Halloween Kills ‘The Quintessential Slasher Film’

Next Halloween Kills. #HalloweenMovie pic.twitter.com/uBVpPnczxu

— Blumhouse (@blumhouse) October 29, 2020

In the upcoming sequel, Haddonfield Memorial Hospital will be returning to the new canon with Anthony Michael Hall set to play Tommy Doyle, who first appeared as a child in the original Halloween movie as one of the kids Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) was babysitting. The adult version of the character was previously played by Paul Rudd in The Curse of Michael Myers, the sixth movie of the original storyline. The new universe avoids those sequels, however, as the 2018 movie picks up the narrative after the 1978 film.

Buy the original Halloween film here!

Nancy Stephens’ Nurse Marion is also set to return for Kills with Robert Longstreet as Lonnie Elam (the young bully in the original film) and Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace, reprising her role from the 1978 original. It was also previously announced that Halloween filmmaker and composer John Carpenter will be composing the score for both Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends.

John Carpenter will be providing the music for both sequels. David Gordon Green returns direct and co-wrote the script with Danny McBride (The Righteous Gemstones) and Scott Teems. Halloween Ends will be released on Friday, October 14, 2022, which Green will also direct and co-write, this time with Danny McBride, Paul Brad Logan, and Chris Bernier.

RELATED: New Halloween Kills Teaser Released by John Carpenter!

Both films are based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill and will be produced by Malek Akkad, Jason Blum, and Bill Block. Carpenter, McBride, Green executive produce alongside star Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ryan Freimann.

Released to critical acclaim and huge box office success, 2018’s Halloween brought in over $250 million at the worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing slasher film of all time.

The sequel hits theaters October 15, 2021.

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Marc Forster tapped to helm Lionsgate’s White Bird: A Wonder Story

After producing the acclaimed 2017 adaptation of R.J. Palacio’s 2012 children’s novel, Lionsgate has announced it is developing an adaptation of the companion graphic novel White Bird: A Wonder Story and has tapped Golden Globe nominee Marc Forster (Christopher Robin) to direct the project.

RELATED: Lionsgate Lands Victoria Mahoney to Helm Shadow Force

Based on Palacio’s 2019 graphic novel, the story centers on Julian Albans, the 11-year-old bully who left Beecher Prep, who is still waiting for the insight of how kindness has the power to save lives when he is visited by his Grandmère from Paris and is transformed by her remarkable story of compassion and courage. Grandmère’s fairy-tale life before the war abruptly changes as the Nazis occupy France, and the outcast classmate who she once shunned becomes her savior and best friend.

Click here to purchase Palacio’s 2017 graphic novel!

The script for the adaptation is being penned by Mark Bomback (The Art of Racing in the Rain, War for the Planet of the Apes), with the film set to be produced by Mandeville Films’ David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman, who produced the original film, alongside Palacio, with Renée Wolfe attached to executive produce with Alex Young.

“Wonder connected with audiences who responded to its message of kindness and empathy, of looking past the surface to the person underneath,” Nathan Kahane, President of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said in a statement. “Now more than ever, we need stories that champion compassion for others, and R.J. Palacio’s graphic novel White Bird builds on those themes. To direct the adaptation, Marc Forster brings not only mastery of his craft but a tender heart and gentle vision for a story of people finding connections between each other even in the most trying situations.”

RELATED: Jennifer Lopez & Armie Hammer to Lead Lionsgate’s Shotgun Wedding

Wonder, directed by author-turned-filmmaker Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), starred Owen Wilson (Loki), Julia Roberts (Homecoming) and Jacob Tremblay (The Little Mermaid) and received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and was a box office hit for the studio, grossing over $305 million at the global box office on a $20 million budget.

(Photo Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

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Next four installments in Amazon’s Welcome to the Blumhouse unveiled

After debuting the first four installments of the partnership between the indie production powerhouse and streaming platform, the next four films in Amazon Prime Video’s Welcome to the Blumhouse collection set to premiere in 2021 have been unveiled!

RELATED: CS Video: Madison Iseman & Sydney Sweeney on Blumhouse’s Nocturne

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Fifth Insidious film on the way with Patrick Wilson directing in debut!

After word circled from the star and franchise lead Lin Shaye (The Call) through this year, it’s now been confirmed that a fifth installment in the Leigh Whannell-created Insidious horror franchise is on the way with Patrick Wilson (Aquaman) both reprising his role as Josh Lambert as well as making his directorial debut!

RELATED: Exclusive: Lin Shaye Talks Status of Insidious Franchise & Possible Return

Just announced at #BlumFest2020: Josh and Dalton Lambert are back! @patrickwilson73 and @tysimpkinsactor return for #Insidious5, coming in 2022. The film will mark Patrick Wilson’s directorial debut. @sonypictures @InsidiousMovie pic.twitter.com/O97Euww01k

— Blumhouse (@blumhouse) October 29, 2020

“From the directing side, if you told me a few years ago, ‘Do you want your directorial debut to be a horror movie?’ I’d have said, ‘No, it’s not me,’” Wilson expressed during the film’s panel. “A lot of that is out of fear, because I’ve been sitting next to James Wan for a long time now and what I realized was that if I found the right story to tell, it didn’t matter which genre. When this opportunity presented itself, thanks to Jason, Leigh, James and everyone else involved, I realized this is the exact debut that I want to make as a director, the exact people that I want to make it with and the exact story. We rarely get the opportunity to come back 10 years later, especially if you think about the lore of Insidious and this family, specifically me and Tye, our characters being hypnotized, what does that do to a family after 10 years, how often do you get to come back, even as actors, and unpack that, so the director side of me said, ‘Hang on, this is a fantastic idea, I would love to jump at this,’ because if there’s one thing James told me, it was ‘Find a story that you want to tell,’ and when Leigh had presented this idea, I thought the bones of it I latched on to.”

Announced as part of Blumhouse Productions’ special digital event BlumFest, it was confirmed that Wilson will return alongside on-screen son Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins, Jurassic World) and will see the story pick up a decade after the events of their last outing, Chapter 2, with Dalton heading off to college and coming to grips with his astral projection abilities as well as growing up. For the first time in the franchise, the script will not be penned by creator/star Whannell but instead by Scott Teems (Halloween Kills) on a story from The Invisible Man writer/director, with Jason Blum also revealing a planned 2022 theatrical release for the film.

RELATED: BlumFest: Blumhouse Sets First Halloween Virtual Event this Thursday!

The first film hit theaters in April 2011 and was a major success, earning generally positive reviews from critics and audiences and scaring up just under $100 million at the box office. Its success not only helped revive Wan’s and writer Leigh Whannell’s careers but also helped Blumhouse Productions continue their rise to its current mammoth status of box office champion.

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New to Stream: Magnolia Selects’ November 2020 Lineup

Magnolia Selects has unveiled its full list of titles set to debut on the streaming service in November, including the Hayden Christensen-starring horror thriller Vanishing on 7th Street, the acclaimed 2013 film debut of Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge and Tom Hardy-starring crime biopic Bronson! You can check out the full list below!

RELATED: CS Guide to the Best New Horror Movies & TV Shows to Stream This Halloween!

Available 11/3

Alan Partridge

The Extra Man

Chocolate (Sub)

First Monday In May

Page One

Tickled

Ukraine Is Not A Brothel

Available 11/11

I Give It A Year

The Yankles

At The Gate Of The Ghost

George A. Romero’s Survival Of The Dead

Bronson

Nymphomaniac Volume I – Extended Director’s Cut

Nymphomaniac Volume Ii – Extended Director’s Cut

RELATED: BritBox Unveils What’s Coming to the Streamer in November 2020

Available 11/17

Kill Me Three Times

2 Days In New York

Big Bad Wolves

Beyond The Black Rainbow

Timecrimes

Life Itself

Available 11/24

I Melt With You

Playback

Vanishing On 7th Street

Bigger, Stronger, Faster

Magic Trip

RELATED: New to Stream: Crackle’s November 2020 Movie & TV Lineup

Magnolia Selects is a curated collection of films and television series that spans across all genres, brought to you by Magnolia Pictures. The streamer offers a free 7-day trial to new subscribers, with monthly subscriptions priced at $4.99 per month.

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CS Video: Bob Gale on His Kolchak Episode & Poltergeist Contribution

ComingSoon.net had the chance to speak 1:1 with Back to the Future writer/producer Bob Gale for the 4K Blu-ray release, out now in the US and UK. During the conversation we asked Gale about he and Robert Zemeckis’ first produced credit, the 15 episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker titled “Chopper.” First airing January 31, 1975, the story centered around Darren McGavin’s reporter Carl Kolchak investigating a headless biker, and also influenced an uncredited contribution from Gale & Zemeckis to the 1982 horror classic Poltergeist! Check out what he had to say in the video below!

Click here to purchase Kolchak: The Night Stalker Season 1, or just the episode “Chopper” individually!

Click here to order the Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy 4K boxed set!

RELATED: CS Video: Bob Gale Talks Back to the Future Auditions & More!

RELATED: CS Asks Bob Gale a Back to the Future Question He’s Never Been Asked!

Great Scott! In 1985, Director Robert Zemeckis, Executive Producer Steven Spielberg and Producer/Screenwriter Bob Gale embarked on a three-part journey through time that broke box-office records worldwide and catapulted Back to the Future into one of the most beloved trilogies in motion picture history. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment celebrates the 35th Anniversary of the groundbreaking first film with Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy available on 4K Ultra HD for the first time ever on October 20, 2020 – just in time to celebrate “Back to the Future Day” on October 21!

This collection is loaded with bonus material including a bonus disc that comes with over an hour of brand-new content such as rare audition footage from Hollywood stars Ben Stiller, Kyra Sedgwick, Jon Cryer, Billy Zane, Peter DeLuise and C. Thomas Howell, a tour of the film’s props and memorabilia hosted by co-writer/producer Bob Gale, a sneak peek at the new musical show, and a special episode of the popular YouTube Series “Could You Survive The Movies?” Join Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and a time traveling DeLorean for the adventure of a lifetime as they travel to the past, present and future, setting off a time-shattering chain reaction that disrupts the space-time continuum!

Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy will include all three movies in collectible discbook packaging plus a bonus disc including all-new bonus content. For the first time, the past, present and future collide in eye-popping Ultra HD resolution for a time-traveling celebration. New 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray deliver the highest quality picture, more colors than ever before, and immersive, multi-dimensional sound. From filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, this unforgettable 35th anniversary collection features hours of bonus features and is an unrivaled trilogy that stands the test of time making this a must-own for everyone’s movie library. All three Back to the Future films will also be available on 4K Ultra HD digitally for the first time ever and Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy will also be available on DVD.

RELATED: CS Video: Back to the Future’s Bob Gale Remembers Designer Ron Cobb

Three premium collections will be available at select retailers for a limited time only:

BACK TO THE FUTURE 35TH ANNIVERSARY TRILOGY LIMITED EDITION GIFT SET (4K UHD): Includes exclusive levitating Hoverboard replica (Amazon Exclusive)

BACK TO THE FUTURE 35TH ANNIVERSARY TRILOGY LIMITED EDITION GIFT SET (Blu-ray): Includes exclusive levitating Hoverboard replica (Target Exclusive)

BACK TO THE FUTURE 35TH ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION TRILOGY (4K UHD): Includes three newly designed steelbooks (Best Buy Exclusive)
For more information on these exclusives, please visit the individual retailer’s stores and websites.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE ULTIMATE TRILOGY will be available on 4K Ultra HD combo pack, which includes 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, & Digital Code and on Blu-ray which includes the Blu-ray & Digital Code.

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ComingSoon Staff’s Scariest Moviegoing Experiences!

To celebrate Halloween this year, the ComingSoon staff is sharing our scariest moviegoing experiences! From being frightened in a theater or at home due to some truly terrifying movies and tricks of the imagination, haunted by movie-related pranks thanks to untrustworthy grandmothers, or scaring the hell out of our friends with a few classic horror titles, you can check out our scary stories below!

RELATED: ComingSoon’s 2020 Halloween Gift Guide Video!

MAX EVRY: THE ORPHANAGE (2007)

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Even a year or two into my being a movie journalist in New York City I realized that critics screenings were an emotional wasteland. Critics here are generally jaded, cynical, and have a “seen it all” attitude. There has been many a screening where I’m the only one in the audience laughing, and forget about getting a clap or cheer out of these mummies. On occasions where I wanted a more engaging audience experience for certain movies, I’ve intentionally skipped critics screenings because they’re so stifling. However, that all changed during the first NYC critics screening of The Orphanage on November 29, 2007, at the (now sadly shuttered) Magno Review 1 on 7th and 49th.

Riding on the name recognition of its producer Guillermo del Toro, Spanish helmer Juan Antonio Bayona’s debut feature unfolded as the tale of a woman named Laura (Belén Rueda) who attempts to reopen her former childhood orphanage as a facility for disabled children. On the night of reopening her adopted son Simón (Roger Príncep) goes missing, and thus begins a supernatural odyssey of Laura attempting to discover what happened to her child.

Every type of scare is in this movie: Slow burn dread, jump scares, creaking doors, ghostly apparitions, etc. At every one I heard/felt the crowd of been-there-done-that professional critics get audibly frightened, even whimpering at times. When they were meant to be jolted they jumped, when they were meant to be in terrified suspense they were practically hiding behind the seats in front of them, including myself. It was a miraculous occurrence, and one that was never quite duplicated in the time I’ve lived and worked here.

Bayona was firing on all cylinders when he made The Orphanage, to the point where attempts to do an English-language remake (with director Larry Fessenden) have failed because there’s simply no topping it. Even Bayona himself has never quite lived up to his promise in subsequent films, including the bloated Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. If you have never seen The Orphanage you owe it to yourself to turn off the lights and pop it on this Halloween season!

KYLIE HEMMERT: JAWS (1975)

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My scariest movie experience was more thanks to my best friend’s grandmother than it was the movie itself, which happened to be Jaws. This was during a visit to California when I was a kid, probably around six. My friend, his brother, and my family were on a trip and took a night to catch up with my friend’s grandparents, Mac and Jodi. The adults decided we should have a Jaws movie night that was going swimmingly until the hours stretched on and it was time to take a bath before bed.

Being the cheeky woman she was, Grandma Jodi thought it would be hilarious to quietly tell little, impressionable and trusting me that I needed to be careful because sharks were capable of swimming up through the bathtub drain and could eat people that way — it wasn’t just the ocean you had to be scared of. I vividly remember staring at the drain the entire time I was in the bath that night, terrified, but never telling a soul about Jodi’s “secret” until I was a little older. When I did finally share the story, it suddenly became very clear to my mom why I stopped taking baths altogether and would only shower for a long time after that.

Watching Child’s Play when I was way too young with my brother and cousins and lying awake terrified in my older cousin’s bedroom staring at her porcelain dolls waiting for them to make a move is a close runner-up — not to mention the time that same cousin and I screamed bloody murder at a poor cinema employee that unintentionally scared us while we sat alone in the dark, empty theater watching What Lies Beneath when I was 11 — but actually believing this old lady about Jaws swimming up pipes and munching on people and being petrified (for way too long) to get into a bathtub takes the cake for my scariest movie experience.

GRANT HERMANNS: THE CONJURING (2013) & ANNABELLE: CREATION (2017)

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As it did for many kids, it took me a while to truly get into the horror genre, with the series adaptation of Goosebumps being the most I could really handle, but as I entered my pre-teens and started to really watch more, the time finally came to have my first theater experience in the form of the Fede Álvarez-helmed reboot of the Evil Dead franchise. However, this was not my scariest moviegoing experience, as that would come just three months later in the form of James Wan’s horror magnum opus The Conjuring. To this day, I’ve seen the film probably about 100 times and nearly every jump scare, every visual, every haunting musical note from Joseph Bishara, rattles me to my core. I couldn’t sleep right for three days after seeing the film in theaters thanks to the amazingly horrific wardrobe shock given as I have a shelving system sitting across from my bed and all I could do was picture a shadow atop it.

Now I thought nothing could ever top this experience until I decided to use a rare day off from three jobs and school to catch David F. Sandberg’s Annabelle: Creation in theaters, and though the film itself may not have been as frightening as Wan’s, oh boy was going to the film a nightmare. From a nearly empty theater save one person sitting at the end of my row to my mind playing tricks on me with shadows moving around in the corners, seeing this film alone did not nearly work out as well as I had intended, especially as I stayed for the post-credits sequence with Valak/The Nun as she glided slowly towards the camera and staring out before it cut to black. With me actually being the only person in the audience at that moment, it felt like she was staring directly at me and when I say I had goosebumps, I had more than RL Stine could ever write.

MAGGIE DELA PAZ: SILENT HILL (2006)

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I may not have any scary theater experiences but I do vividly remember the one horror film that truly scared me. When I was probably around 11 years old, Silent Hill was one of the many movies that my family had a chance to rent at the only video rental store in our city. For people who aren’t familiar with director Christophe Gans’ Silent Hill, the 2006 film centers around a mother and her adopted daughter as they get trapped in a purgatory-like dimension of Silent Hill where it is being inhabited by terrifying creatures and a cruel cult.

At that time, I thought that the film wouldn’t be that scary and that I can handle whatever the film has in store for me. Unfortunately, I was so wrong. As it turns out, 11-year-old me wasn’t ready at all for a movie filled with skin ripping and body slicing. By the time the main characters have arrived at the titular town, I embarrassingly started covering my eyes with my hands, especially when the film finally introduces the giant Pyramid Head man with a large executioner sword. This film was actually the one that made me realize that I hate gory scenes. I think this was the only horror movie that made me scared to fall asleep due to fear of getting trapped in a Silent Hill-like nightmare.

What makes the film so effectively terrifying to me was its desolate atmosphere and menacing setting that gives you an unsettling preview of what hell might look like. The film’s horrifying creatures and the idea of accidentally getting trapped in an inescapable nightmare dimension are still bothering me to this day.

JEFF AMES: JOHN CARPENTER’S THE THING (1982)

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Some of my favorite horror film experiences occurred during late-night sleepovers with high school buddies during which I would subject them to classic films such as Alien or The Silence of the Lambs — movies I had seen dozens of times before — in the hopes of replicating something akin to a theater-going experience.

One such flick was John Carpenter’s The Thing, perhaps the nastiest film I had seen up until that point in my young life. Suffice to say, I was eager to see how my friends would react to the flick’s gross-out thrills and overtly nihilistic tone. Much to my surprise, the group spent more time early on poking fun at the Quaker Oats guy and the dated technology than the actual narrative. I was worried I’d made a huge mistake.

Then the dog scene happened. Nervous chuckles. As the film wore on and the proceedings became grizzlier, any and all laughter was replaced by silence. Then came the breaking point: the famous scene in which the chest of a man literally morphs into a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth that proceeds to bite the arms off another man in bloody fashion. I heard one of my friends mutter a “holy shit” under his breath. The others stared in awe as a detached head sprouted legs and walked across the floor. “You gotta be fucking kidding,” exclaims David Clennon’s Palmer, echoing everyone’s mood.

For the remainder of the film, no one said much of anything. When the film ended, there was a notable lack of exuberant conversation. More than anything, a feeling of unease lingered in the air, which, I imagine, wasn’t too far removed from audience reactions on opening night back in June of 1982.

Of all the films I forced my friends to watch, The Thing evoked the greatest silence I have ever heard. Ah, John Carpenter. You sick, brilliant bastard.

What are your scariest moviegoing experiences? Share with us in the comments below!

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