Movies
‘Beautiful Creatures’ Gets High School Clique Leader
TV stars Margo Martindale (“Justified”) and Zoey Deutch (pictured; “Ringer”) are in final negotiations to join the cast of Alcon Entertainment’s Beautiful Creatures, says Variety.
Richard LaGravenese is writing and directing the supernatural love story based on the first novel in Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s popular series. Alcon has film rights to all three books, hoping “Creatures” will kick off a possible franchise at Warner Bros., which will distribute.
Newcomers Jack O’Connell and Alice Englert star as Ethan and Lena, teenage lovers who uncover dark secrets about their families, their history and their town. Martindale will play Lena’s Aunt Del, who helps to protect her from the family’s dark side. Deutch will play Emily Asher, Ethan’s ex-girlfriend and the ringleader of the high school’s popular clique that conspires against Lena. Pic co-stars Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, Emmy Rossum and Project X star Thomas Mann.
Filming begins next month in and around New Orleans.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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