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Forty years ago, author William Gibson brought the world a cyberpunk novel called Neuromancer – and an adaptation of that story has been trudging its way through development hell pretty much ever since. Versions of a feature film adaptation have passed through the hands of directors like music video maker Chris Cunningham, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob‘s Chuck Russell, Torque‘s Joseph Kahn, Cube‘s Vincenzo Natali, and Deadpool‘s Tim Miller. An adaptation of Neuromancer is currently moving forward as a 10-episode series that’s set up at Apple TV+, and Deadline reports that Dane DeHaan of Oppenheimer and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has signed on to play a character named Peter Riviera.

In the source material, Peter Riviera was “a thief and sadist who can project holographic images.” Which sounds like a great character for Dane DeHaan to play.

We’ve...

Forty years ago, author William Gibson brought the world a cyberpunk novel called Neuromancer – and an adaptation of that story has been trudging its way through development hell pretty much ever since. Versions of a feature film adaptation have passed through the hands of directors like music video maker Chris Cunningham, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob‘s Chuck Russell, Torque‘s Joseph Kahn, Cube‘s Vincenzo Natali, and Deadpool‘s Tim Miller. An adaptation of Neuromancer is currently moving forward as a 10-episode series that’s set up at Apple TV+, and Variety reports that Peter Sarsgaard of Garden State and The Batman has signed on to play a character named John Ashpool.

In the source material, John Ashpool was a character who wakes up delusional and paranoid after a thirty-year cryogenic sleep.

We’ve previously heard that BAFTA Award-nominee Callum Turner of Masters...

Forty years ago, author William Gibson brought the world a cyberpunk novel called Neuromancer – and an adaptation of that story has been trudging its way through development hell pretty much ever since. Versions of a feature film adaptation have passed through the hands of directors like music video maker Chris Cunningham, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob‘s Chuck Russell, Torque‘s Joseph Kahn, Cube‘s Vincenzo Natali, and Deadpool‘s Tim Miller. An adaptation of Neuromancer is currently moving forward as a 10-episode series that’s set up at Apple TV+, and Variety reports that Clémence Poésy of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and Tenet has signed on to play a character named Marie-France Tessier.

We’ve previously heard that BAFTA Award-nominee Callum Turner of Masters of the Air and The Boys in the Boat will be playing the lead character, Henry Dorsett Case,...

Forty years ago, author William Gibson brought the world a cyberpunk novel called Neuromancer – and an adaptation of that story has been trudging its way through development hell pretty much ever since. Versions of a feature film adaptation have passed through the hands of directors like music video maker Chris Cunningham, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob‘s Chuck Russell, Torque‘s Joseph Kahn, Cube‘s Vincenzo Natali, and Deadpool‘s Tim Miller. An adaptation of Neuromancer is currently moving forward as a 10-episode series that’s set up at Apple TV+, and we’ve previously heard that BAFTA Award-nominee Callum Turner of Masters of the Air and The Boys in the Boat will be playing the lead character, Henry Dorsett Case, while Briana Middleton of Sharper and The Tender Bar takes on the role of Case’s partner Molly, “a razor-girl assassin with mirrored eyes.

“Alien: Romulus,” out now in theaters, is a surprise late-summer hit and proof positive that the “Alien” franchise is far from over.

And the new movie, plus the upcoming FX series “Alien: Earth,” have us wanting to look back at the series – the highs, the lows and the what-were-they-thinkings. Below is the definitive ranking of every “Alien” movie.

Chest-bursters and face-huggers are, of course, welcome.

20th Century 9. “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem” (2007)

The poster for “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem” is stylized as “Avp R,” which emphasizes the fact that the movie was actually rated R, unlike the earlier PG-13-rated “Alien vs. Predator.” And, in that sense, the movie delivers the goods – there’s a ton of splatter in this installment.

A direct sequel to the earlier extraterrestrial team-up movie, “Avp R” is set in a small Colorado town, where a predator/alien hybrid from the end of the previous movie is on a bloodthirsty rampage.

Richard Hunter’s feature “Foul Evil Deeds” is one of the more European of British first features, taking its inspiration from continental art house names rather than the more usual luminaries of U.K. social realism such as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh.

It consists of interwoven stories of everyday wickedness, from the careless to the horrific: “The influences are people like Ulrich Seidel and Michael Haneke being a huge one, Roy Andersson being a big one, and peripherally looking at all of those,” Hunter told Variety.

“The early Ruben Östlund as well. The Britishness, inherently, obviously comes out through me.”

Hunter arrived at filmmaking from advertising. “I did documentary at university, and that led into music videos, and from there into commercials. And there I found my wet place in that world. I looked to the people that had done that transition like Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham and Spike Jonze,...

Forty years ago, author William Gibson brought the world a cyberpunk novel called Neuromancer – and an adaptation of that story has been trudging its way through development hell pretty much ever since. Versions of a feature film adaptation have passed through the hands of directors like music video maker Chris Cunningham, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob‘s Chuck Russell, Torque‘s Joseph Kahn, Cube‘s Vincenzo Natali, and Deadpool‘s Tim Miller. An adaptation of Neuromancer is currently moving forward as a 10-episode series that’s set up at Apple TV+, and we’ve previously heard that BAFTA Award-nominee Callum Turner of Masters of the Air and The Boys in the Boat will be playing the lead character, Henry Dorsett Case. Now Deadline reports that Briana Middleton of Sharper and The Tender Bar is taking on the role of Case’s partner Molly,...

Forty years ago, author William Gibson brought the world a cyberpunk novel called Neuromancer – and an adaptation of that story has been trudging its way through development hell pretty much ever since. Versions of a feature film adaptation have passed through the hands of director like music video maker Chris Cunningham, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob‘s Chuck Russell, Torque‘s Joseph Kahn, Cube‘s Vincenzo Natali, and Deadpool‘s Tim Miller. While these projects were being put together (and while they fell apart), Neuromancer fans always wondered who would end up playing the lead character, Henry Dorsett Case. Hayden Christensen was rumored to be the top contender when Kahn was going to direct (with Liv Tyler rumored to co-star). Liam Neeson and Mark Wahlberg were said to be in the running for Natali’s version, although it wasn’t said who they might be playing.

I honestly never expected Steven Spielberg in a Criterion Channel series––certainly not one that pairs him with Kogonada, anime, and Johnny Mnemonic––but so’s the power of artificial intelligence. Perhaps his greatest film (at this point I don’t need to tell you the title) plays with After Yang, Ghost in the Shell, and pre-Matrix Keanu in July’s aptly titled “AI” boasting also Spike Jonze’s Her, Carpenter’s Dark Star, and Computer Chess. Much more analog is a British Noir collection obviously carrying the likes of Odd Man Out, Night and the City, and The Small Back Room, further filled by Joseph Losey’s Time Without Pity and Basil Dearden’s It Always Rains on Sunday. (No two ways about it: these movies have great titles.) An Elvis retrospective brings six features, and the consensus best (Don Siegel’s Flaming Star) comes September 1.

While Isabella Rossellini...

Returning to our pages for her fourth appearance is Director Hannah Jacobs who shares with us her BAFTA nominated animation Your Mountain is Waiting, a short film produced by production company Strange Beast about embracing your instincts and facing the uncertainties of life head on. Jacobs tells her story with a subtle, gorgeous fluidity as her protagonist Martha, who is wrestling with her sense of intuition, smoothly drifts from quiet and introspective moments into vast surreal dreamscapes. Her visual style has a hand-drawn and illustrative sensibility too which gives its cast of characters, which is mostly made up of a wonderful variety of animals, a comforting comic feel. Dn spoke with Jacobs, in the run up to the BAFTA awards ceremony, to discuss her journey into animation as a practice, the introspective nature of her narrative, and the importance of colour as tool to establish mood.

What first brought you...

Zach Churchill · Surrender Musician: Zach Churchill: Vocals, guitar; Tom Rasulo: Drums; Chris Cunningham: Bass; and Ross Sellers: Lead Guitar Single: ‘Surrender;’ Release Date: July 15, 2022; Producer: Tom Rasulo Some of the most spellbinding, relatable songs are those that inspire thought-provoking self-inquiry into how a person can overcome their sense of hopelessness through positive […]

The post Zach Churchill’s Surrender Single Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli, based in Los Angeles, brings dark humor – and body horror – to Cannes’ Un Certain Regard with “Sick of Myself.” The film was acquired by Memento International.

Signe and Thomas (“Ninjababy” breakout Kristine Kujath Thorp and Eirik Sæther) are an attractive young couple in Oslo. They also happen to bring out the worst in each other. When his career starts to take off, Signe tries to get some attention as well – by making herself sick.

“I definitely recognize the pettiness, the competitiveness, all of these things. I have experienced mini-versions of these arguments and these feelings,” says Borgli, also behind 2017 curio “Drib” combining fact and fiction, and an energy drink campaign.

“I wanted them to be watchable, not likeable. Also, I find it much funnier when the characters in the movie are not in on the joke. When they are stuck inside all this drama the audience...

Exclusive: Gia Sandhu (The Mysterious Benedict Society) has signed on to executive produce and star in Alterations, the first feature from writer-director Sean Wainsteim.

In the film, a woman and a non-verbal girl serving as live-in caregivers are invited to stay in a house where their every desire is fulfilled, as long as they mend mysterious clothing for fairytale creatures.

Sandhu will play Leila, the woman traveling with rebellious 12-year-old Nadia and a suitcase of her belongings, who is desperate for a safe place to call home. When she finds a situation that seems too good to be true, she’s willing to ignore some… odd occurrences and make the best of things. As she starts to uncover her role in a larger narrative, Leila is forced to balance her time with Nadia with explorations into her own power, creativity and ability to change.

Rosemary Dunsmore, John Stocker and Shazdeh Kapadia...

A busking musician whose guitar was smashed by a passerby received a surprise this week when he was given a new guitar purchased for him by Jack White.

Matt Grant, a 26-year-old busker in Edinburgh, Scotland, started a GoFundMe page earlier this week after his instrument was destroyed by a drunk woman he encountered on the street.

“Often I don’t rise to people coming up and talking nonsense but this lady was pushing it too far. She was in my face swearing and shouting at me. I told her...

U.K. broadcasters ITV and Channel 4 win International Emmys; Sundance Now buys Stan’s “The Night Caller”; Zdf wraps factual series; GoQuest takes Czech drama “Rats”; UKTV joins Creative Diversity Network; and “Chef In Your Year” format bows in Chile.

“Undercover: Inside China’s Digital Gulag” by the U.K.’s Hardcash Productions and ITV, has won the International Emmy for current affairs, adding to the BAFTA current affairs TV award that it has already won. The documentary, directed by Robin Barnwell, for ITV’s ‘Exposure’ strand, goes undercover inside China’s Xinjiang region to provide insight into how its government is holding a million or more Muslims in detention camps without trial.

“Hong Kong Year of Living Dangerously” by the U.K.’s Channel 4 News and ITN, has won the International Emmy for news. The series of reports from Hong Kong, which spanned seven days, revealed how in 2019, Hong Kong surprised itself,...

No cinematographer speaks to television’s visual storytelling aspirations quite like James Hawkinson, and the best example is his work on “Hannibal,” the 2013 NBC crime procedural that was resurrected this month when Netflix made all three seasons available for streaming. Hawkinson’s cinematography helped elevate the network show into one of the most visually exciting series ever produced for any platform. Director David Slade, Hawkinson’s long-time collaborator, asked him to join the shoot. By then, creator Bryan Fuller and his staff had written five episodes that tried to toe the tricky line between Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter novels and the structured storytelling of a network investigative procedural. “I remember leaving the edit session where we’d seen the first cut [of the pilot] and I was like, ‘We’re doing the wrong show,” said Fuller in an interview with IndieWire. “When I saw David Slade and Jim Hawkinson’s work, and really...

IndyCar analyst and former racer Paul Tracy is currently under investigation by NBC after he allegedly made offensive comments about immigrants on Facebook comparing them to rapists.

In an exchange on Facebook, Indianapolis resident Chris Cunningham, who shares mutual friends with Tracy on the social media platform, told the IndyStar that after he told Tracy he invited immigrants to a party, the former racer said that they were going to listen to him play the “mini guitar” and then “they are going to rape your wife.”

Cunningham’s wife took screenshots of the conversation and tagged IndyCar Series and NBCSports, where he works as a sports analyst. The Tracy account then blocked Cunningham on Facebook. Tracy then started to post fake accounts impersonating him on Twitter. That said, the Facebook account Cunningham was communicating with may not have been the real Tracy. However, Tracy’s verified Twitter account blocked Cunningham’s wife.

Exclusive: Jules Daly, who spent 17 of her 28 years at Rsa Films as president of the film, TV and commercials production company started by Ridley and Tony Scott, is transitioning into an independent producing deal with sister company Scott Free Productions. Daly launches her own banner, Big Red Films, with seven feature film projects.

Rsa, which is approaching 50 years in business with tons of commercials including Scott’s famed 1984 Apple spot, will now be run by company veteran David Mitchell. Mitchell has produced high-profile commercials with Jake Scott and many other directors including Michael Mann, Jordan Scott, Terence Neale, Samuel Bayer, Chris Cunningham and Ridley and Tony Scott. He has been elevated to Rsa managing director.

While much of running Rsa consisted of managing thousands of commercials shot by emerging director clients in locales all over the world, Daly also produced films that included the Joe Carnahan-directed The Grey, The...

Yorkshireman-cum-Australian Filmmaker Julian Butler (of Smile Orange infamy) talks to host Stuart Wright about five of his favourite British horror films for the ongoing podcast series “5 Great British Horror Films”. Butler’s pick include:

The Devil Rides Out (1968) Paul Sykes: At Large (1990) Drillbit/Bad Karma (1992) Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (1993) Come To Daddy (Chris Cunningham video for Aphex Twin) (1997)

Julian Butler also plugs Holy Terrors – the portmanteau film he co-directed with Mark Goodall.

To buy the DVD email holyterrors@btinternet.com or search for ‘Holy Terrors DVD’ on eBay. There’s a book tie in available from Tartus Press (limited edition of 200) tartaruspress.com/machen-holy-terrors.html

To find out more about Arthur Machen visit the website of The Friends of Arthur Machen: www.arthurmachen.org.uk...

For a certain music fan, the '90s are defined by the collaborations between knob twiddler Aphex Twin and director Chris Cunningham. The pair delivered two of the most iconic videos of the decade with "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker," while Cunningham also directed the beautiful video for Bjork's "All Is Full Of Love" (which reportedly features some of the work he did for Stanley Kubrick on "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" during his brief association with the project, and obviously before Steven Spielberg became involved). But where has Cunningham been lately? He's been doing commercials and music videos here and there, while also being loosely affiliated with various big screen projects that never seem to pan out. But it seems he has one in the can...he's just not going to release it. In a feature for Groove, the electronic artist took questions from other musicians, and Gernot Bronsert of Moderat asked,...

Just when you thought we'd backed off on the nightmare-inducing spider stories, we stumbled across Molt, one of the freakiest arachnid videos ever posted, courtesy of Vimeo user “Bipolar Spider.” The clip description sounds innocent enough (even if you're not so comfortable around our eight-legged friends), because it's something that anyone who's owned a pet tarantula has witnessed: the process of “molting,” which allows an arachnid – a Chilean rose tarantula, in this case – to grow larger by shedding its exoskeleton. But when the process is accompanied by music and dialog from director Chris Cunningham's twisted experimental film Rubber Johnny, it instantly becomes the music video from hell. Okay, that's enough setup... I'm freaking myself out here.

Now that you're in the mood, why not read about a family chased out of their home by an army of spiders hiding in a bunch of bananas?...

Tiff’s Midnight Madness program turned 25 this year, and for two and half decades, the hardworking programers have gathered some of the strangest, most terrifying, wild, intriguing and downright entertaining films from around the world. From dark comedies to Japanese gore-fests and indie horror gems, the Midnight Madness program hasn’t lost its edge as one the leading showcases of genre cinema. In its 25-year history, Midnight Madness has introduced adventurous late-night moviegoers to such cult faves as Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. But what separates Midnight Madness from, say, Montreal’s three and half week long genre festival Fantasia, is that Tiff selects only ten films to make the cut. In other words, these programmers don’t mess around. Last week I decided that I would post reviews of my personal favourite films that screened in past years. And just like the Tiff programmers,...

Let's talk a little about horror--particularly first-person horror.

Outlast is the first project from Red Barrels, the Montreal-based studio made up of Ubisoft vets. The trailer for the game made its debut last week via a teaser trailer, and today, they'll be releasing a full trailer for the survival horror project set inside of a very haunted asylum. I spoke with designer Philippe Morin, who's credits include Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune about the genesis of Outlast and getting survival horror right in an era where most games in the genre have traded in frantic gun battles for sustained scares.

First, a little history: Red Barrels got its start back in 2011, Morin and and a handful of Ubisoft vets left that company. Casting about for their first project, Morin says they started making a list of the kinds of games they wanted...

Music video directors making features are pretty hit and miss. For every David Fincher, Spike Jonze, or even Michael Bay, there’s a dozen or so video directors who never quite seem to make the leap (we’re still waiting on the masterful Chris Cunningham to make his feature debut, hey Chris!). However, it looks as if a regular Lady Gaga and Beyonce music video director, Stephan Zlotescu, will be trying next, only he’s already caught the attention of a major studio. Warner Bros. has snapped up “True Skin” (via The Wrap), which is a science fiction short that sent Hollywood studios and producers into a bidding war when it debuted online two weeks ago, with WB coming out on top. Zlotescu, will also be helming the feature-length version of the film – which centers on a near-future world where humans undergo procedures to improve their bodies by having doctors...

Alien 3 isn't David Fincher's best work, but it's still fun to see some behind the scenes footage of what went in to creating the special effects for the movie. The video below gives us a look at the creation of a baby Alien they called the Bambi Burster. This movie was made about 20 years ago, so practical effects were the way to go. I actually kind of wish they would use more practical effects in movies these days. it would have been so cool working on stuff like this for the movies!

Here's the note that came along with the video,

For Fincher's Alien 3, we created the "Bambi Burster". Though cut from the film, this video shows a test of the unfinished rod puppet. Crowded around it are Adi co-founder and multi-Oscar nominee Alec Gillis, future Weta dignitary Gino Acevedo, future Oscar winners Dave Elsey and Mark Coulier,...

Joss Whedon is about to have a very good week. The writer/director/producer has, until recently, been best known for his work on television: he turned his poorly-received screenwriting debut "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" into one of the most beloved cult series of all times (which itself got a long-running spin-off, "Angel"), and followed it up with the short-lived but passionately followed sci-fi Western "Firefly," a show that lasted a single season, but managed to get its own cinematic sequel, "Serenity," which marked Whedon's big-screen directorial debut.

Until now, "Serenity" has been the director's best-known entry into the movies, but that's all about to change. He wrote and produced the inspired, raucous horror flick "The Cabin In The Woods," which hits theaters on Friday, and tonight sees the world premiere of "The Avengers," the Marvel superhero team-up movie that is one of the most keenly anticipated films of the year,...

Royal Festival Hall, London

That was a penis. No, wait, maybe it's labia and a tongue. The Milky Way! Actually, hang on, perhaps that's real … milk? Chris Cunningham's images leave before you get a handle on the anatomy. Anyone who has seen his videos for musicians such as Aphex Twin sniggered at the announcement before the gig, which warned those expecting family entertainment to "run away". Cue a bulging close-up of a foreskin being rolled back, and a bloody, stylised punch-up between a nude couple; ironically buried in the hammering music was Donna Summer's I Feel Love.

It's thrilling and technically remarkable. While some film-makers devise a separate role for sight and sound, Cunningham obsesses over "Mickey mousing" every beat to perfection, creating a synaesthetic episode. And, like David Cronenberg, he meshes body and machine: Grace Jones becomes a real slave to the rhythm as her stomach twitches taut,...

Cult video-maker Chris Cunningham unveils his ambitious live show to Sean O'Hagan

Chris Cunningham is almost 40 but he looks uncannily like a teenager. He is tall and stick-thin, with the unhealthy pallor of a bedroom recluse. In the squat-like sitting room of his Georgian house in north London, the curtains remain closed against the midday glare. "There's something about the light that comes into this room," he says, hesitantly, "It's just too bright."

So we sit in semi-darkness and talk about, among other things the other-worldly brilliance of Bartók, Blade Runner, Debussy, Vangelis, Varèse, William Gibson, Pavement, early Depeche Mode, mid-period Pink Floyd and, of course, Kraftwerk.

Chris Cunningham is a very contemporary kind of pop artist, an almost invisible presence whose influence on the mainstream is virally pervasive. The frenetic, wildly inventive videos he made for Aphex Twin ("Windowlicker", "Come to Daddy") and Björk ("All Is Full of Love...

In the last week I've had two "what's going on with Chris Cunningham?" conversations. The insanely talented director was the subject of one of Palm's "Director Label" disks and released his Rubber Johnny short in 2005, but hasn't been heard from much since. This spot for Gucci featuring Cunningham's own Donna Summers "I Feel Love" remix is only 30 seconds long, but it's pretty beautiful and serves, I guess, as our Cunningham fix of the moment. (Note: the clip on the Gucci site is shorter and of better quality than the clip below. I recommend watching it first.) After viewing the clip you can read more about the video here at Dazed Digital. An excerpt: Cunningham's film, starring Australian model Abbey Lee, captures the seductive...