News

The Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced the world premiere of Bulk, the long-rumoured new feature from British director Ben Wheatley, as the launch title for its 2025 Midnight Madness strand.

The film, produced in secret by Andy Starke through Rook Films and financed by Film4, will open the late-night programme when the festival returns from 14 to 20 August. Details on the film remain tightly under wraps, with both the festival and the filmmakers remaining deliberately vague about the plot.

What has been confirmed is that Bulk marks a return to the psychedelic, genre-bending work that first brought Wheatley international acclaim. Titles such as Kill List, Sightseers, and A Field in England established his reputation for unsettling, often experimental storytelling, and Bulk is reportedly in a similar vein, albeit with a twist of genre chaos. In Wheatley’s own words, the film features “car chases, gun fights, sci-fi and romance,” all distilled...

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Fight or Flight is an action comedy film directed by James Madigan from a screenplay co-written by Brooks McLaren and D.J. Cotrona. The 2025 film follows Lucas Reyes, a disavowed Secret Service agent hiding in Bangkok. He is given a chance to get his life back when he is tasked with boarding a plane to San Francisco and capturing a wanted criminal known as “the Ghost,” but he soon finds himself fighting against multiple assassins who are also there to get to the Ghost. Fight or Flight stars Josh Hartnett, Charithra Chandran, Marko Zaror, and Katee Sackhoff. So, if you loved the brutal action, likable actors, and an entertaining story in Fight or Flight, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Bullet Train Credit – Sony Pictures

Bullet Train is an action comedy film directed by David Leitch...

Ben Wheatley’s new film Bulk will premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. More on the secret project below.

This year’s Edinburgh Film Festival will take place in August and programme info is starting to trickle in.

The festival includes a Midnight Madness strand which tends to focus on horror, thriller and sci-fi movies and their opening night film is, excitingly, Ben Wheatley’s new film, Bulk. It’s especially exciting because no one knew he was making it.

Bulk was filmed in secret and is described as “return to the thrillingly free-spirited filmmaker’s homegrown, kaleidoscopic works like In The Earth and A Field In England,” according to Deadline.

There’s no info on what the film is about or who stars in it, but that only adds to the intrigue. The Festival’s director Paul Ridd described Wheatley’s latest as “truly unique film that took...

Exclusive: The 2025 edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s (Eiff) Midnight Madness strand will open with the world premiere screening of Bulk, a new secretly shot feature from Ben Wheatley.

Produced by Andy Starke of Rook Films and financed by Film4, Bulk is described as a “return to the thrillingly free-spirited filmmaker’s homegrown, kaleidoscopic works like In The Earth and A Field in England.” Executive producers for Film4 are Ollie Madden and David Kimbangi.

“I’m very excited and proud to be premiering Bulk at Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness,” Wheatley said in a statement. “This is a midnight film through and through. Car chases, gun fights, sci-fi, and romance. Thanks to Edinburgh for having us. It’s going to be a wild night.”

We know very little about the film’s plot or who stars, but Eiff CEO and Festival Director Paul Ridd described Bulk...

Panic Fest 2025 has come to a close but you know we couldn’t say goodbye without taking the time to check out a new Canadian Found Footage flick set on Halloween night! The mysterious Cops inspired creeper The Lost Episode is a showcase for true independent creativity and a brilliant twist on an already perfect subgenre (and I’m not only saying that because it was shot in my hometown…but surely my love for this lo-fi creeper was a teensy bit tainted by countless Leo Pointing at my television).

IMDb says The Lost Episode is directed by Nick Wernham from a screenplay by “Abbadon Night” but it’s way more fun to suspend your disbelief and thank the real people responsible for unearthing this buried footage: The Dark Web. And to the filmmakers’ credit, The Lost Episode goes the extra step that few Found Footage movies can, completely scrubbing...

Lara Croft’s long-awaited Tomb Raider TV series looks to have hit the buffers at Amazon, and won’t be happening, reports suggest.

It’s been two years since Amazon’s buyout of MGM ended any chance of a second Tomb Raider film featuring Alicia Vikander seeing the light of day. That project was in the works since 2019, first with Ben Wheatley in place to direct, then Misha Green. Ulitmately though, when Amazon got its hands on the iconic adventurer, it cancelled the project and began developing a live action TV show instead.

Now, a new report suggests that with the exit of Jennifer Salke as Amazon Studios’ chief, the Tomb Raider show has been scrapped too. The project is said to have been one that Salke was personally overseeing and yet, according to Puck's Matthew Belloni, there’s still no completed scripts for the project.

Bear in mind,...

While the Glasgow Film Festival wrapped a few weeks ago with more than 33,000 people in attendance at the 12-day event, the festival’s industry program saw a big boost in attendance this year, with numbers up 15% year-on-year.

It’s welcome news for Samantha Andie Bennett, who heads up the Gff Industry Focus section and its talent development labs as she and her team work to position the strand into a significant event on the festival calendar that can attract delegates from around the UK and beyond while, crucially, creating a pipeline to support new local talent.

“We’ve been trying to find a formula and see what works and we’ve been trialling things for the last few years but this year, it just feels like we found the right mix,” she tells Deadline. We’ve been building our network and the new venue – The Social Hub in Glasgow – has...

Late last year, we got word that The Mummy is set to rise from its tomb once again, with director Lee Cronin taking the helm of a new movie from Blumhouse/Atomic Monster. Now, as production gets underway, the studio has announced that the project has found its lead.

Jack Reynor is set to star, though we don't have any details on his role.

Reynor's other credits include Lenny Abrahamson's What Richard Did, for which he won the Itfa Award for Best Actor; John Carney's Sing Street, for which he won the Itfa Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as Carney’s Flora and Son; Ben Wheatley's Free Fire and Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit. In 2015, he won the Sundance Film Festival’s Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting for his performance in Gerard Barrett’s film Glassland. Upcoming projects include the second season of Prime Video...

Exclusive: Lee Cronin’s The Mummy has cast Jack Reynor as the Atomic Monster/Blumhouse production for New Line is set to begin filming in Ireland and Spain. Cronin’s Doppelgängers banner is also producing. I’m told Reynor is not getting wrapped up in the title role.

The film, which is still keeping its logline under wraps, is written and directed by Cronin, and marks the first collaboration for the recently combined companies, helmed by James Wan and Jason Blum, with Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group. Pic will be released on April 17, 2026.

Reynor is an award-winning Irish-American actor who recently starred in Netflix’s 2024 hit limited series, The Perfect Couple. His previous feature credits include Ari Aster’s Midsommar, The Russo Brothers’ Cherry; Lenny Abrahamson’s What Richard Did, for which he won the IFTA Award for Best Actor; John Carney’s Sing Street,...

He was there in Tarantino’s top 20 list, he was there among Scorsese’s favorites, but the world and the Academy took many years to catch up. It was the world’s loss, and now that awards are finally being showered, it’s the privilege of the awards themselves. He’s done all sorts, and he has never taken a step wrong yet in building his carefully chosen but wonderfully constructed worlds. Film by film, he moves on to new, unbelievable heights, but his past always reassures us that something is always coming.

Now that Bong Joon-Ho is ever more widely known around the globe, how shall we rank his movies? Let us count the films, all seven of them.

8. Okja (2017)

Bong Joon-Ho’s sixth film, co-written with Jon Ronson and featuring an eclectic cast of actors including Paul Dano and Tilda Swinton, is potentially the most surprising element in his filmography.

More than once throughout his 50-year career, British writer J.G. Ballard's writing turned out to be eerily prescient. From the more straight sci-fi of his early-60s work to the surreal and often controversial satires of the '70s, Ballard had an uncanny knack for turning humanity's worst tendencies into art. His works have been adapted to film by directors as disparate as David Cronenberg and Steven Spielberg, a testament to the range of his talents. One of his most celebrated works, 1975's High-Rise, received its own film treatment back in 2015, courtesy of eclectic filmmaker Ben Wheatley, the director behind such acclaimed indie fare as Kill List, A Field in England, and Free Fire.

Following the residents of a state-of-the-art high-rise apartment building that quickly devolves into chaos when the amenities break down, Ballard's novel chillingly satirizes the ways that the upper classes cannibalize each other when their imagined social order begins to crumble.

Channel 4 viewers will have one less TV show to look forward to as the channel has officially canceled Generation Z, the comedy horror series created by Ben Wheatley (Meg 2). Like Wheatley's most recognized works, the series blends horror and satire, examining topics like Brexit while addressing the challenges faced by teenagers today. Widely deemed as an odd, The Walking Dead spin-off, Generation Z's unfortunate fate is, sadly, no true reflection of its quality. The series drew plaudits from audiences, with many praising the writing, gore and its brilliant infusion of British humor. However, while many did love it, Channel 4 explains that it failed to "win over everyone."...

Back in 2019, it was announced that Ben Wheatley would be writing, directing, and executive producing Generation Z, a “hilarious, frightening, and political” series that would consist of six hour-long episodes that would “mix flesh-eating zombies into a story that satirizes how Brexit has divided the UK.” That project didn’t make it into production when it was originally supposed to because of the pandemic shutdown… but after making Meg 2: The Trench (you can read our review at This Link and check out our interview with the filmmaker Here), Wheatley circled back around to Generation Z. The show started airing on Channel 4 last October… and now, it has been confirmed that it will not get a second season.

Deadline broke the news that Generation Z has been axed because, while the network was “understood to have had high hopes for the show and it was touted at the Edinburgh TV Festival,...

Channel 4 has axed Ben Wheately’s zombie comedy horror Generation Z after one season.

The network is understood to have had high hopes for the show and it was touted at the Edinburgh TV Festival, but it garnered middling reviews and failed to break out.

Starring British heavyweights like Sue Johnston and Robert Lindsay and produced by The Forge, the comedy horror started with an army truck overturning outside a care home in the fictional town of Dambury. The subsequent chemical leak seems to turn the old residents into zombies, who attack younger people from the town. Intended as something of a rumination on modern times, Channel 4 had described Generation Z as “about intergenerational justice and community breakdown that boldly satirizes a world where truth is stranger than fiction, exploring not just the political fault lines in our society but also the very real issues facing teenagers today.”

Channel...

Continuing to prove that retirement is not just overrated but a real impediment to an artist’s best work, in “Black Bag,” Steven Soderbergh dashes off a sleek little genre exercise. It’s a doodle really, at a stage in his career when he’s clearly just having fun, yet it proves to be one of his smartest and sexiest films yet. Heading up an impeccable cast are Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, who play George Woodhouse and Kathryn St. Jean, a Nick and Nora-like pair of spies so deeply, foolishly in love that they find it inconceivable that the mole in the British intelligence agency for which they both work could well be their spouse.

Most successful marriages are built on trust. Once that much is established, then there’s room — if not a psychological need — for both parties to maintain a sort of secret garden where they can keep a few things private.

The psychological horror By the Throat is gearing up for its world premiere at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest Glasgow on 7th March 2025, bringing an unsettling tale of grief, manipulation, and dark forces to audiences. Directed by David Luke Rees, the film features Sex Education’s Patricia Allison in a role that sees her entangled in a terrifying scheme, alongside Jeany Spark (Rings of Power), Rupert Young (Bridgerton), and Matthew Cottle (The Responder).

At its core, By the Throat is a horror-thriller built on psychological tension rather than overt spectacle. The film follows Lizzy (Allison), a young woman hired to care for Amy Cummings (Spark), a grieving mother struggling after the tragic death of her daughter. Left alone in a secluded countryside home while her husband Alex (Young) is away, Amy’s grief has spiralled into something far more dangerous. Lizzy soon realises she has stepped into an environment where reality is slipping,...

"Tonight I hope to capture how I feel without it sounding like words." Anti-Worlds Releasing has unveiled the official trailer for The Extraordinary Miss Flower, a performance piece feature that is "part film, part theatre, part fever dream." It's playing at both the Dublin Film Festival & Glasgow Film Festival soon, then opens in UK cinemas this May. A Distiller Studios Production with Anti-Worlds & Phantoscopic, the film is backed by Distiller Music, and was shot at the Distillery II studio near Bristol. The story uncovers Geraldine Flower's collection of love letters, suggesting a potential double life as a spy. The Extraordinary Miss Flower is a spellbinding performance film bringing to life the remarkable story of the extraordinary Geraldine Flower and the discovery of a suitcase of letters sent to her in the 60s and 70s that also inspired acclaimed Icelandic singer / songwriter Emilíana Torrini to return to the studio and create new music.

BFI Distribution has acquired UK-Ireland rights to Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s feature The Extraordinary Miss Flower.

The distributor is planning a May 2025 theatrical release for the title, after its screenings at Dublin International Film Festival on February 28 and Glasgow Film Festival on March 1 and 2.

Described by the BFI as a ‘biographical performance film’, The Extraordinary Miss Flower depicts the story of Geraldine Flower and the discovery of a suitcase of love letters sent to her in the 60s and 70s, that inspired Icelandic singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini to record a new album.

The film consists of performances by Torrini and her band,...

Occult horror is a broad umbrella that deals with the esoteric, witchcraft, mysticism, alchemy, spiritualism, cults, magic, and supernatural beliefs beyond mainstream religion and science. That pursuit of arcane knowledge yields no shortage of nightmarish terror here in the world of horror cinema, whether through violent cultists or demonic forces from another plane.

This week’s streaming picks are dedicated to occult horror movies that unsettle with haunting depictions of secret societies, sects, and supernatural terror. Here’s where to stream them.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

A Dark Song – AMC+, Shudder

Sophia Howard (Catherine Walker) contracts an acerbic, callous occultist, Joseph Solomon (Steven Oram), to help her enact the Abramelin Operation, a grueling 18-month dark magic ritual to meet with a guardian angel and receive a granted wish. As daunting as the spell can be, Sophia risks their work, lives, and souls by harboring a hidden agenda.

What's the difference between folk horror and cosmic horror? Those two particular subgenres of horror films are a bit of a conundrum — they have arguably the oldest roots of all forms of horror, but they're relatively new when it comes to their definitions. In layman's terms, cosmic horror tends to refer to the type of fear elicited by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the idea that there are natural, ancient, and eternal forces on Earth and in the universe that are beyond human comprehension. Folk horror typically involves mythology, folklore, and religions that are specific to a certain region or culture. You can see from those loose definitions how one could easily be confused for the other, as well as how both are complimentary enough to co-exist in the same film. Several recent cosmic horror films (like Ben Wheatley's "In the Earth") have elements of folk horror, and some...

A tradition stretching back to genre pioneers like 1973’s pagan freakout The Wicker Man, British folk horror can be bonkers (Alex Garland’s Men), hypnotically abstract (Mark Jenkin’s Enys Men) or disorienting (Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth). What it ideally shouldn’t be is boring. Bryn Chainey’s Rabbit Trap has a creepy sense of dread, striking images of invasive nature and an intriguing baseline about the otherworldly properties of sound, making it a somewhat promising debut feature. “With your eyes you enter the world, with your ears the world enters you,” says one of the characters. Which would mean something if the muddled story were coherent enough to achieve any kind of psychological penetration.

The lesson here might be read as: Don’t go poking around ancient woodlands with recording devices, and whatever you do, don’t go mixing what you find into grating avant-garde “music” and...

Benjamin Booker is back with another new song, “Same Kind of Lonely,” from his forthcoming first album in seven years, Lower, out early next year.

“Same Kind of Lonely” is balanced deftly between the serene and the unsettling, with fuzz-bomb guitars rushing beneath the tender hush of Booker’s voice. Then the song’s bridge is abruptly interrupted by a burst of gunfire and screaming, which Booker recently told Rolling Stone, he sampled from video of a school shooting.

Booker said he included the audio because those random moments of horror “happen in our lives,...

Experience Spirited Away in All of Its Magical Beauty on the Big Screen This Christmas on Boxing Day Re-release

London, 10 December 2024 – Elysian Film Group and Anonymous Content are thrilled to unveil the official trailer and poster for the highly anticipated UK and Roi re-release of Hayao Miyazaki’s Academy Award®-winning animated masterpiece, Spirited Away. Longtime fans and new viewers of Studio Ghibli alike can experience the fantastical film on the big screen once again on 26th December 2024.

The Standard call it “Awe-inspiring”, and Financial Times wanted to award it “Six stars out of five” for a treasure that lives and breathes on the big screen. To experience Spirited Away back in the cinema since its 2003 release means all audiences will once again get to have that “magical experience” (Empire).

Winner of the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature, Spirited Away is a “must see masterpiece” (Digital Spy) that follows...

Action movie superstar Jason Statham has thrown down with all manner of bad guys over the years. From terrorists to assassins to gangsters to The Rock and Vin Diesel, there is nothing that The Stath seemingly cannot handle. But what if the gruff martial artist were to come up against a threat from a kaiju? Well, that question was finally answered in the 2018 science fiction action outing The Meg, which is all ready to make a splash on a new streaming home from tomorrow.

Directed by Jon Turteltaub from a screenplay by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, The Meg is loosely based on the 1997 novel by Steve Alten. Led by Jason Statham, the rest of the cast includes Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis, all of whom find themselves as potential chum when a a 75-foot-long megalodon escapes from the depths of the...

Ben Wheatley, the British indie filmmaker, somewhat rests on the periphery of the British film industry. Neither a social realist nor a James Bond action filmmaker, Wheatley seems more a forerunner of films like that from Robert Eggers. Wheatley, alongside his wife and screenwriter Amy Jump, has made a selection of diverse films, consistently inverting and manipulating genre tropes and playing with audience expectations. In some way or another, all of Wheatley’s work focus on varying oddball and sociopathic central characters who find honesty and loyalty hard to come by. While mixing scares, gore, and trippy action, Ben Wheatley deftly imbues each film with a dark comedy, underlying each situation with a satire and wit that has become a staple throughout his work.

Wheatley started his career as an internet phenomenon whereby his film, Cunning Stunt, was one of the first videos to ever go viral. After a hundred...

When Sam Riley first got the script for John Cranko, he saw the title page, with its big black print, and thought: ‘An action movie! Finally, someone has seen my action potential!” Then he googled John Cranko. It wasn’t quite what he expected. Not an action here but “a chain-smoking gay choreographer” who transformed the world of ballet.

Riley — known for his breakout performance as Joy Division singer Ian Curtis in Anton Corbijn’s Control (2007) as well as turns alongside Helen Mirren and Andrea Riseborough in Rowan Joffe’s gothic take on Brighton Rock (2010) and across Lilly James in Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca (2020) — had never even been to the ballet. But he asked his wife, Downfall and Rush star Alexandra Maria Lara, to read the script. “She told me, ‘this one you’re gonna do. This is definitely a job to do’….this is the sort of role that comes along,...

While Nobody 2 was recently confirmed to be wrapped, Bob Odenkirk continues his action career with the upcoming film, Normal. The movie is written by John Wick and Nobody screenwriter Derek Kolstad, and Ben Wheatley takes up the directing duties with this one. Now, Variety is reporting that Happy Days and Barry star Henry Winkler is set to join the cast along with 300 and Game of Thrones star Lena Headey. It is yet to be announced on what roles that they will be playing.

The film finds Odenkirk playing Ulysses, a lawman “who is thrust into the temporary role of the sheriff for the small sleepy town Normal after the previous one’s untimely death. When the town’s bank is robbed by an out-of-town couple, Ulysses arrives on the scene to find that the town is hiding much more sinister deep-seated secrets under its surface and everyone – from...

Game of Thrones' Lena Headey and Barry's Henry Winkler have joined the cast of Bob Odenkirk's upcoming action movie Normal. Odenkirk was previously confirmed to be reuniting with Nobody screenwriter Derek Kolstad for the project, which will be directed by Meg 2: The Trench's Ben Wheatley. The story features Odenkirk playing a stand-in sheriff named Ulysses in the Minnesota town of Normal, where Ulysses uncovers a shocking discovery following a local bank robbery. Filming has already wrapped on Odenkirk's other upcoming action movie, Nobody 2.

As per Variety, Headey will be playing the local bartender while Winkler plays the mayor of Normal. The movie's production in Winnipeg, Canada began in October and is scheduled to continue through December, with the project being produced by the same team who worked on Nobody and Nobody 2. Ryan Allen, Billy MacLellan, Brendan Fletcher, Peter Shinkoda and Jess McLeod have also joined the cast in supporting roles.

There will be no "shame" here. Lena Headey, known for her unforgettable role as Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones, is joining forces with Better Call Sauls Bob Odenkirk for Normal, an upcoming action thriller directed by Ben Wheatley, as per an exclusive report by Variety. Headey will also be joined by the Fonz himself, Henry Winkler, in what must be one of the most unlikely trios to headline an action film in some time. The film is also being put together by the producing team responsible for the 2021 surprise hit Nobody, which starred Odenkirk in an unforgettable, action-heavy role, and for which he recently wrapped shooting the sequel and the action comes from a screenplay penned by Derek Kolstad, the mind behind John Wick.

Henry Winkler and Lena Headey have joined Bob Odenkirk in the upcoming action movie “Normal,” from the producing team behind the 2021 hit “Nobody.”

In “Normal,” Odenkirk plays Ulysses, who is appointed substitute sheriff in the tiny Minnesota town of Normal, populated by friendly Midwesterners. When the local bank is sacked, Ulysses “unknowingly uncovers something far more explosive than a simple bank robbery,” per the logline.

Winkler, star of “Happy Days” and “Barry,” will play the mayor of Normal, while “Game of Thrones” and “300” favorite Headey is the local bartender, Moira.

“Normal” is directed by Ben Wheatley from a screenplay written by “John Wick” creator Derek Kolstad, who shares a story credit with Odenkirk. Producers are Marc Provissiero (“Nobody,” “No Hard Feelings”), Odenkirk and Kolstad, who all recently wrapped “Nobody 2.”

Principal photography on “Normal” began Oct. 21 and will continue in Winnipeg, Canada, through December. Rounding out the cast are Ryan Allen,...

We've a double guest doozy of an episode in store for you on the Pilot TV Podcast this week, folks. First up, British director extraordinaire Ben Wheatley drops by to talk about his satirical black comedy Generation Z, which made its debut on Channel 4 on the weekend, with our very own Boyd Hilton [24:58 — 42:50 approx]. Then, British actor extraordinaire Richard E. Grant joins us on the show to talk about Armando Iannucci and Sam Mendes' Sky superhero satire series The Franchise, which we reviewed on the pod last week, once again with the venerable Mr Hilton [1:04:24 — 1:20:35 approx].

Back in the pod booth, there’s talk of hanging out at Robbie Williams’ house, getting the bejesus scared out of us by Sean Harris, broken penises, interviews derailed by football, and an awful lot of *checks notes* zomzies. Elsewhere, this week's listener question sees us fan casting Warner Bros. new Harry Potter show, whilst...

Jason Statham is one of the biggest and most recognizable action stars of our time. In 2018, the actor blended what he knew best and fought a 75-foot-long shark in The Meg, which was a major success and is soon heading to streaming.

The Meg will swim to Prime Video on November 22. The sci-fi action film is loosely based on Steve Alten's 1997 novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, and had Jon Turteltaub as director from a screenplay by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber. The movie premiered on Aug. 10, 2018, and was a major commercial success despite its mixed reviews. Other titles joining The Meg on Prime Video in November are Body Snatchers, Gone Baby Gone, Cold Mountain, and the two Carrie adaptations.

Related November 26 Will Be a Frustrating Day for Jason Statham Fans

Jason Statham action movie fans may be a bit frustrated on November 26.

The Meg had...

On Monday 28 October 2024, Channel 4 broadcasts Generation Z!

Season 1 Episode 2 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Generation Z” promises to deliver a thrilling mix of horror and humor. Titled “Gory Zombie-Horror Satire,” this episode will air on Channel 4 and is sure to keep fans on the edge of their seats.

In this episode, Charlie and Kelly find themselves in a challenging situation as they have to take care of Kelly’s nan. The dynamic between the characters is expected to bring both tension and laughter, showcasing their attempts to manage the chaos that comes with a zombie apocalypse, especially when it involves family.

Meanwhile, Steff embarks on a dangerous side quest with Finn. This subplot is likely to introduce new challenges and unexpected twists, as they navigate a world filled with zombies. Their adventure could reveal more about their characters and test their friendship in this chaotic environment.

On another front,...

They’re not your usual zombies in Generation Z. When a strange substance spills near a care home, the elderly residents who breathe it in don’t sicken—they rejuvenate. But with this new vitality comes an unexpected craving. Director Ben Wheatley takes familiar fears about aging and twists them into something truly chilling.

We’re quickly introduced to the conflict at the heart of the story. Sue Johnston leads the infected seniors thirsting for human flesh. Meanwhile, young people try to understand this bizarre outbreak and protect their families from the rampaging pack. Wheatley establishes the tense dynamics between generations that will unfold over the episodes.

Viewers may recognize Wheatley’s style from his past cult hits like Kill List, blending comic touches with creeping unease. He’s skilled at using genre thrills to examine real societal issues. Generation Z continues this tradition by mirroring concerns around care of the elderly,...

The 2018 film adaptation of Square Enixs adventure video game Tomb Raider has received a brand-new streaming update for next month. In the reboot movie, Oscar winner Alicia Vikander took on the role of Lara Croft, following in the footsteps of Angelina Jolie, who originally portrayed the iconic character in the 2001 and 2003 versions of Tomb Raider.

Starting on Friday, Nov. 1, Warner Bros. Pictures Tomb Raider reboot will officially be available to stream for free on Tubi. The film was based on the 2013 version of the video game, which served as the tenth installment of the hit action game franchise. The story centers around Lara Crofts perilous quest to find her archaeologist father, who has been missing for seven years. During its theatrical run, the film garnered mixed reviews from critics, but it has a cult following, with some fans labeling the film among the best video game adaptations. Like 2001s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie,...

And now for something completely different… The Extraordinary Miss Flower, a new biographical filmic experience from British artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, known for their Nick Cave film 20,000 Days on Earth, is set for its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival (Lff) on Saturday. The event’s 68th edition, which opened with Steve McQueen’s Saoirse Ronan-starring Blitz, wraps on Sunday.

Miss Flower is very different from many of the other offerings of the Lff. “When Geraldine Flower passed away, her family uncovered a secret cache of letters containing declarations of love from suitors around the globe, hinting at the possibility of a life of espionage,” reads its synopsis. “Taking inspiration, Icelandic singer-songwriter Emilíana Torrini recorded an album that forms the spine of this filmic fever dream. The songs and images bring these amorous words and the beguiling Miss Flower thrillingly back to life.”

On their website,...

Kill List Ben Wheatley returns to the small screen this month with Channel 4 zombie comedy series, Generation Z. Here’s a trailer:

Kill List director Ben Wheatley is about to television with this autumn’s Generation Z, which Wheatley has written and directed for Channel 4.

According to the British Comedy Guide, the series is a horror satire which pits a group of small-town teenagers (the gen-z of the title) against a horde of toxin-infected, rabid pensioners. It’s a little bit like Rabid Grannies, then, but with a distinctly political, post-austerity, post hope-for-the-future spin.

As the synopsis points out, it’s about “the increasingly stark divisions between generations,” and depicts “a modern Britain at war with itself. Sounds good!

The cast is itself a platter of multi-generational comedy talent. Elder states-people of telly Sue Johnston (The Royle Family), Anita Dobson (EastEnders) and Robert Lindsay (Citizen Smith) are joined by...

Based on the J.G. Ballard novel of the same name, High-Rise is a film that takes a unique and dystopian look at society. Directed by Ben Wheatley, the film is set in a 40-floor high-rise tower block in 1975, where the wealthy residents live on the top floors, and the poor live beneath them. With everything they need in the building, the residents rarely leave and become isolated from the outside world, living in a social bubble of their own making. The building begins to malfunction, slowly at first, before everything descends into anarchic chaos. The film, as a whole, depicts a volatile analogy of the class system and societal breakdown. Even though the book was written in 1975 and the film was made in 2015, the story remains as relevant as ever.

Time Travel! Alternate Dimensions! Sex! Murder! Wardrobes! These are the elements of Yannis Veslemes’ psychologically Lovecraftian mind-bender She Loved Blossoms More. A pure late-night slice of madness like Tilman Singer’s Luz (2018) or Ben Wheatley’s In The Earth (2021), She Loved Blossoms More lives on a plane of existence where logic is elusive. A movie that’s best enjoyed late, late at night. It lives in those moments just before falling asleep where reality is slowly peeled away to reveal an ethereal otherworld that can be molded like a piece of clay into any hideous shape you desire.

Using an antique wardrobe as a conduit for their experiments, three brothers attempt to bring their mother back from the dead. Or, at the very least, bring her to their present from a time in her past when she was still alive. The experiments have not been going well but they know...

It’s been four decades since The Terminator first blasted onto the big screen – seemingly from the future – and propelled writer-director James Cameron to the big time. Now, for its landmark anniversary, Empire celebrates cinema’s greatest cyborg in the November 2024 issue, featuring a major new candid Cameron interview, and much more.

The issue doesn’t hit shelves until Thursday 26 September – order online here – but in the meantime here’s a sneak peek inside its pages.

The Terminator At 40

For 40 years now, The Terminator has been unstoppable. Empire celebrates cinema's ultimate cyborg in a huge new James Cameron interview – talking the franchise’s ongoing legacy; Cameron’s most prominent thematic preoccupations; his changing relationship with the original film; and what the Terminator’s future holds.

Plus, producer Gale Anne Hurd writes exclusively for Empire, remembering the casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and how he boosted The Terminator to iconic status.

Paddington In Peru...

Five years ago, it was announced that Ben Wheatley would be writing, directing, and executive producing Generation Z, a “hilarious, frightening, and political” series that would consist of six hour-long episodes that would “mix flesh-eating zombies into a story that satirizes how Brexit has divided the UK.” That project didn’t make it into production when it was originally supposed to because of the pandemic shutdown… but after making Meg 2: The Trench (you can read our review at This Link and check out our interview with the filmmaker Here), Wheatley circled back around to Generation Z. The show is now ready to start airing on Channel 4 in October, and in anticipation of the premiere, Empire has unveiled two new images. One can be seen above, and the other can be found at the bottom of this article.

The show is described as “a coming-of-age parable for our very...

Its almost spooky season of the year and some zombies are welcome. Channel 4 is bringing a new series by Ben Wheatley, who puts his own gory spin on the genre, and it sounds hilarious. The six-part horror-comedy aims to combine satire and humor with blood and guts. Empire Magazine has unveiled a new look at the series, and it's not for the faint hearted.

Ben Wheatley is no stranger to shock and gore (try watching Kill List or In The Earth without wincing), societal satire (High-Rise), genre thrills (Free Fire), and sly humour (basically all of his films – even the bleakest ones). And his next project looks set to combine all of those facets – get ready for Generation Z, a flesh-eating horror-comedy series in which the old are quite literally eating the young. All six episodes of the Channel 4 series are written and directed by Wheatley, taking an initial horror pitch from George Faber and spinning it into a gory tale of generational divide.

For Wheatley, it’s a series set to sit alongside one of his most beloved works – the darkly funny, often shocking, definitively British caravan-dwelling killer romp Sightseers. “I was thinking a lot about my own films, because they tentatively fit together,” he tells Empire on set. “Tonally, [tt29540551 autoGeneration Z...

Alice Lowe’s second film as director is time travel comedy Timestalker, and the trailer for it has now landed.

Alice Lowe is not only a brilliant actor, but she’s also been behind the camera on some of the most esoteric, original British films of the last few years. From co-writing the screenplay of Sightseers with co-star Steve Oram, which was directed by Ben Wheatley and released in 2012, to her terrific 2016 directorial debut Prevenge, which she also wrote and starred as a pregnant woman who believes her unborn baby is telling her to murder all the men involved in her husband’s death.

Her next film is even more ambitious. Timestalker is a science fiction comedy romance, with a dash of time travel thrown into the mix. The synopsis reads as follows:

From the creative team behind Prevenge comes… Timestalker, a romantic comedy about the eternal humiliation that is the search for love,...

The Life of Chuck features a wide-ranging cast full of familiar faces. The project is an adaptation of the Stephen King novella published as part of the 2020 collection If It Bleeds, composed of the achronological stories "Thanks, Chuck," "Buskers," and "I Contain Multitudes." The movie was written and directed by Mike Flanagan, who has previously helmed the Stephen King movie adaptations Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep and has also acquired the rights to develop a television series based on The Dark Tower as of late 2022.

Mike Flanagan is a director who has become known for having a stable of actors with whom he frequently collaborates across a variety of projects, bringing stars back to play different characters in different contexts. The upcoming The Life of Chuck sees him following this habit, as it features more than a dozen memorable stars with whom he has worked before. However, the movie, which...

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

This September, we’re celebrating Back to School Night with four midnight movies that aren’t just academically themed but also teach the lessons essential to understanding this school of cinema.

First, read the spoiler-free bait — a weird and wonderful pick from any time in film and why we think it’s worth memorializing. After you’ve watched the movie, come back for the bite — a breakdown of all the spoiler-y moments you’d want to unpack when exiting a theater.

The Bait: A Lesson in Midnight Movies from Ant Timpson

Midnight movie-goers tend to be friendly, but Ant Timpson is more popular than most.

The New Zealand filmmaker, who pulled off a small miracle when producing “The ABCs of Death,” has been around the world’s festival circuit for decades. He’s smiley,...

John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi action flick "Escape From New York" is a hugely influential dystopian cult classic that inspired everything from the "Metal Gear Solid" video games to William Gibson's seminal cyberpunk novel "Neuromancer." It's a fantastic showcase for everyone involved and went on to spawn a less-successful but cult-appreciated sequel, but making "Escape From New York" was a unique challenge for co-writer and director John Carpenter, who had a very specific vision in mind. That meant that unfortunately, some sequences ended up on the cutting room floor. One of the most famous examples is an opening sequence with a bank heist that showed Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken trying to help his fallen comrade and getting arrested in the process, but Carpenter felt that it humanized the almost inhumanly stoic Snake too much.

Some of the footage has been found and fans have gotten a peek at Snake's lost partner and the extended,...

The sequel to Bob Odenkirks 2021 action movie hit Nobody has now begun filming, and director Timo Tjahjanto has taken to social media to share our first look at the return of unlikely action hero Hutch Mansell. The filmmaker, who is best known for the gloriously brutal and bloody Indonesian action thriller The Night Comes for Us, shared several images from the set of Nobody 2, including one with Odekirk and another with producer and Deadpool 2 director David Leitch.

You can check out the first behind-the-scenes images from Nobody 2 below, with the filmmaker captioning the shots saying, Grateful is an understatement.

Released back in March last year, the first Nobody was directed by Ilya Naishuller and written by Derek Kolstad. Starring Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Aleksey Serebryakov, RZA, Christopher Lloyd and Michael Ironside, the movie transforms the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star into cinemas newest action icon.

Channel 4 wants the UK television industry to know: the dark days are over.

The 40-year-old British broadcasting institution has suffered one of the most grueling periods in its history after a dramatic ad market slump brutally exposed its business model.

Content was cut or delayed, more than 200 employees were fired, and Channel 4’s foundational relationship with UK producers was tested to breaking point.

But as the sun comes up on the 2024 Edinburgh TV Festival, Channel 4’s chief content officer Ian Katz is attempting to reassure the industry that better days lie ahead.

Hosting a dinner for talent and journalists on Tuesday night, Katz told the room that the ad market is “wheezing back into life” and the picture is “much brighter.”

The former Newsnight editor was not specific about the extent of advertising recovery, but his message is a welcome one for the UK television business.

If Channel 4 is...

Fans of dystopian thrillers and Tom Hiddleston have only a short time left to catch High-Rise on Hulu before it leaves the platform on August 31. This 2015 British film, directed by Ben Wheatley and based on J.G. Ballards 1975 novel of the same name, is a dark exploration of societal collapse within the confines of a luxury tower block.

Despite its star-studded cast and unique premise, High-Rise remains one of the most underrated films of its genre, offering a thought-provoking yet disturbing look at the breakdown of social order. Set in 1975, High-Rise follows Dr. Robert Laing, played by Tom Hiddleston, as he moves into a luxurious, self-contained high-rise building equipped with every modern convenience.

Related Tom Hiddleston Meets the Neighbors in New 'High-Rise' Clips

The tone shifts from lighthearted (and nearly naked) to downright sinister in three scenes from Ben Wheatley's satirical thriller.

The buildings architect, Anthony Royal played by Jeremy Irons,...