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‘Black Christmas’ Screenwriter, April Wolfe, Defends PG-13 Rating

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Black Christmas

Yesterday, news came that the new version of Black Christmas would be rated PG-13, and predictably, the internet got mad largely in part to a pervasive and ever-growing argument that anything less than an R-rating on a horror film makes it bad or “not real horror.”

You gotta love those gatekeepers, right?

After a while, April Wolfe, the new film’s screenwriter took to Twitter herself to explain the process for the film.

Unfortunately, the use of the phrase “test screenings” sent the people already upset about the film’s rating over the edge.

Irish YouTuber Dino Reacts popped in with the following:

Here’s the thing. EVERYTHING released by a studio undergoes test-screenings nowadays. That’s just part of the process. Yes, it can be a pain, but it can also be a refining process for a filmmaker and studio to help them create the best possible version of their film.

It’s also healthy to remember in a situation like this that almost all films, and especially the horror genre, have been made for target audiences. In the case of horror, that has generally meant young men in their teens to early 20s which is why, as Wolfe pointed out later in the Twitter thread, T&A has almost seemed mandatory in genre filmmaking.

“The new Black Christmas movie coming out is rated PG-13??? Did NOT see that coming,” Twitter user @TeaWithJT posted, “I wish these movie studios would stop pandering to the teen generation. Like c’mon. Give me blood and gore! I thought they were going to go all out with this! Disappointed..”

For the generation that grew up on horror films in the 80s, and that would include myself, the toughest pill to swallow often seems to be that we are no longer that target audience. When we were teens they made horror movies for us, but now there are new teens with new ideas about the world and so the films are written, made, and edited with them in mind.

Wolfe spent quite a lot of time defending her film on Twitter yesterday. Fortunately she was not the only one. Phil Nobile, Jr., Editor-in-Chief of Fangoria, got in the game.

Twitter use Chris Bumbray offered this point of view.

And this is something else to remember.

The original and previous remake of Black Christmas were both R-rated.

This Twitter battle will probably go on for days, but Black Christmas 2019 will hit theaters December 13, 2019. Will you be watching?

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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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Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed

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The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.

Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.

The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.

Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”

Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.

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