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Anne and Christopher Rice Announce Collaborated Sequel to Ramses the Damned

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Earlier today in a joint video on Facebook, authors Anne and Christopher Rice announced that not only had they been collaborating on a brand new novel, but that the new work is a sequel to Anne’s 1989 The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned.  The new novel, Ramses the Damned, The Passion of Cleopatra is slated for release on November 21, 2017.

In the first novel, Ramses II also called Ramses the Damned awakens in Edwardian London after his tomb is discovered by the famed archaeologist, Lawrence Stratford.  Stratford is poisoned by his alcoholic nephew, Henry, in an attempt to gain power and wealth. When Henry attempts to kill Lawrence’s daughter, Julie, in the same manner, Ramses is awakened and a terrified Henry flees in fear.

The ancient pharaoh had once learned the secret formula to the Elixir of Life and was granted immortality upon drinking it.  Over the centuries, he had counseled the great pharaohs of Egypt, and eventually met and fell in love with the beautiful Cleopatra.  As Julie instructs him in the wonders of modern London, Ramses discovers that his long lost Cleopatra’s mummy is on display in a museum.  He recreates the Elixir of Life and administers it to Egypt’s famous queen.  However, he does not use the entire vial and so Cleopatra awakes, a half formed monster, conscious of mind but psychopathic in spirit.

Ramses later rectifies his mistakes and Cleopatra abandons her schemes to murder the beautiful young Julie, though her hate for Ramses never falters.  In the end, Ramses gives Julie the Elixir of Life and promises to stay with her for all eternity.  They both think that Cleopatra has been killed in a horrific train crash, but it is revealed that she survived and vows revenge upon the ancient pharaoh.

The novel ended with a promise that the adventures of Ramses the Damned would continue, but Anne Rice said today that it never seemed to come together.  Other books were written but fans never forgot the romance and horrors of Ramses.  This marks the first time that Anne Rice has collaborated on a novel and her son, Christopher, seems the perfect choice.  The younger Rice is a gifted novelist, himself, working in several different genres.

As an added bonus, the collaborators have started a special pre-order campaign.  If you pre-order the novel and email the digital receipt of purchase to [email protected], the authors will send you a signed copy of one of the original manuscript pages after the release of the book.  They did mention that it might take several months for those pages to be sent, but that each person who sends in their receipt will get their signed page as quickly as possible.

I, for one, can hardly wait to find out just how Cleopatra’s schemes unfold in a novel that will no doubt be filled with the same intrigue, romance, and sensual dangers, that delighted readers almost 30 years ago!

Pre-orders are available on a variety of websites including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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