Movies
Dead or Alive, Shawnee Smith Returns Fifth ‘Saw’ Film
One of the big secrets in all of Lionsgate’s SAW films is who will be returning. With the fifth entry just around the corner (October 24), star Shawnee Smith chats about her return to the franchise, along with her toplining role in Sony’s The Grudge 3. Read on for the skinny.
During an interview with Popwrap, Shawnee Smith confirms rumors that she is in fact SAW V, even though she never stepped a foot in the studio.
“That’s what I hear,” referring to the fact she’s been told she’s back in Lionsgate’s SAW V. “I’m not sure how they keep resurrecting me, but somehow! If I’m in SAW V, it’s something I’d already filmed, but I have no idea. This is horror, you’re more valuable dead than alive.”
Shawnee also chats a bit about her role in THE GRUDGE 3, where she reveals her surprise that a minimal amount of CGI was used.
“I figured they’d CGI her in!,” she tells Popwrap. “I didn’t know they were going to paint her up and have her chase me around a hospital for hours. It was not cool. Meanwhile the girl who plays Kayako is an absolute doll and I ended up becoming good friends with her. I wasn’t expecting that.”
GRUDGE 3 was directed by Toby Wilkins and follows a young Japanese woman who holds a secret to ending the curse of the Grudge. She travels to a haunted Chicago apartment building where she encounters a family battling to survive the ghosts. Together they confront the ghost of Kayako to save their souls from their impending tragic fate.
SAW V arrives in theaters October 24th. THE GRUDGE 3 is still looking for a DVD date.
Movies
Christopher Landon to Helm Feature Adaptation of Grady Hendrix’s ‘The Final Girl Support Group’
A new feature adaptation of author Grady Hendrix‘s slasher book The Final Girl Support Group is now on the way from Paramount Pictures, and Deadline reports that it’s found its director in Christopher Landon (Drop, Happy Death Day).
The two previously collaborated on My Best Friend’s Exorcism.
In The Final Girl Support Group, “Lynette is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece.”
“But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.”
I wrote in my novel review for BD, “Hendrix puts his characters through the absolute wringer. It’s a bloody, vicious voyage for the flawed heroine, both physically and emotionally. In terms of action and horror, Support Group delivers breakneck pacing and thrills.”
Five years ago, Andy Muschietti & Barbara Muschietti (Mama, It, It Chapter Two) were attached to produce a planned series adaptation for HBO Max alongside Charlize Theron. While Theron is no longer producing, the Muschiettis remain on board under their Double Dream label.
Paramount Pictures is also developing Hendrix’s sci-fi novella, BadAsstronauts.
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