Movies
Watchman Star Joins Cast of Hammer’s ‘The Resident’
It was revealed to B-D today that Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) has been cast to star opposite two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank in the suspense/thriller The Resident for Hammer Films. Antti J. Jokinen is directing the film from a script he co-wrote with Robert Orr (“Savior”) and re-written by Erin Cressida Wilson (“Secretary,” “Fur”). Beyond the break you can check out a long synopsis for the film, which begins shooting soon.
“The Resident” is inspired by the fact that every year, millions of single women in America move into apartments for the first time. They do not know who lived in the apartment before them, they do not know their landlords, and they don’t bother to change the locks. This is the story of one such woman, a pretty, young doctor Juliet Dermer (Swank), who is settling into a new life and a new loft in Brooklyn when mysterious occurrences lead her to suspect that she is not alone in her home. Her fears quickly become all too real, and in a chilling revelation she discovers that her seemingly charming, young landlord, Max (Morgan), has developed a dangerous obsession with her. A terrifying game of cat and mouse ensues as Juliet fights to free herself from Max’s sinister intentions.
Exclusive Film Distribution is handling worldwide sales and distribution for the film.
Hammer is producing the film for parent company Exclusive Media Group (EMG), the global filmed entertainment group combining Hammer and L.A. based Spitfire Pictures, backed by strategic Investment Group Cyrte Investments. The announcement was made by EMG’s Co-CEO’s Simon Oakes and Nigel Sinclair.
It’s been eight years since Ari Aster came onto the scene and helped usher in a new wave of horror with Hereditary, one of the rare horror movies from the past ten years that still seems to come up in conversation every single week. And it’s back in the conversation this week, with Ari Aster revealing at an event that he’s already written a prequel to Hereditary!
Ari Aster was on hand at the American Cinematheque for Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair last week, a Los Angeles festival that screened all of Aster’s movies to date. The website Gold Derby reports that Aster revealed the Hereditary prequel script during a Q&A at the event, and you can watch the full Q&A conversation below for confirmation on the website’s report.
“I wrote a prequel to this,” Aster told the crowd, referring to Hereditary. “It never feels like the right time to do it. It’s a prequel, not a sequel so I don’t know where this goes.”
Would a potential Hereditary prequel dig deeper into the mythology of demon king Paimon? Unfortunately, Aster provides no further details on his prequel approach at this time.
Aster said of Hereditary during the same Q&A, “I was just trying to make a really good horror movie.” I think most horror fans would agree that he more than accomplished that goal, and the past eight years have proven that Hereditary is an enduring classic of its generation.
We celebrated the fifth anniversary of Hereditary here on BD back in 2023.
Ron Breton wrote, “Hereditary offers a similar emotional resonance to this new generation of horror – my generation of horror– as movie-goers in the seventies when they first saw Exorcist. Much like Aster’s film, we see the incomprehensible evil wear the face of a young girl; the victim of a raw deal she had no say in, as it tears a family to its core. Sure, both films offer so many terrifying visuals that can make the hair stand up on anyone’s neck – but it also depicts intense relationships and emotions that are tangible. Real. Familiar.”
“In that familiarity lies the uncanny, ready to rear its ugly head and force us to confront thoughts and horrors laying dormant and clawing at our psyche,” Breton continued his 5th anniversary celebration of Hereditary. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s been five or fifty years. These horrors are always there, as we become pawns in its horrible, hopeless machine.”
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro star in Hereditary. In the film, “A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.”
That’s putting it mildly, eh?!
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