I Heart Fantasia

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My beloved Fantasia Film Festival out of Montreal has announced that 2020's edition, running from August 20th through September 2nd, will be, by necessity given you know the world and whatnot, going exclusively online for this year's edition. That comes with one big caveat for yours truly and I imagine a lot of you reading this, too -- it's only going to be available across Canada. So if you were thinking about heading Due North and becoming Mr. or Mrs. Justin Trudeau now's the time (actually 2016 was the time) for this fest will prove a sweet bonus to all that. (Swoon.) Anyway since MNPP does have some Canadian readers and I live for what Fantasia does every year I will share some of their first announcement of titles -- it's, per usual, kicking ass. Especially...

... since they're premiering the new flick from Neil Marshall! The director of The Descent has mostly been doing TV like Game of Thrones as of late, and since we are one hundred percent pretending last year's Hellboy movie, which I couldn't even finish, never happened, this one, called The Reckoning, marks his triumphant return to Cinema... or so we hope. Even better it's about The Plague! The Black Plague, to be specific. I posted about it back when it was announced last year -- it's about an accused witch (Charlotte Kirk) becoming a witch witch, and co-stars Joe Anderson, an actor I like very much and find severely under-used.

Other highlights -- the second film from Japanese director Shinichiro Ueda following up his wonderful worldwide zombie sensation One Cut of the Dead (reviewed here), called Special Actors; a horror movie about fracking (!!) called Unearth that stars Buffy's Marc Blucas and (drum-roll please) Adrienne Barbeau; a documentary about Tiny Tim (the terrifying ukulele-strumming singer, not the Dickens character); a haunted house flick from Germany called Sleep that stars Toni Erdmann's great Sandra Hüller; a junkie-nurse thriller called 12 Hour Shift that stars our beloved Angela Bettis... point being I recommend you check out the entire list here! This is only the first wave of titles and I already wanna see like a dozen things. I Heart Fantasia -- every year it feels beamed straight outta my brain. See all of our coverage from previous years at this link.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Crazies (2010)

Russell: Is he dead?
David: Well if he is he won't mind waiting.

A happy 10 to this way better than it deserved to be remake of George Romero's original 1973 film from director Breck Eisner -- I should sit down and re-watch the both of them before I make this proclamation officially but I think I actually prefer the remake in this case? I said that in my review at the time and presumably I knew what I was talking about. (Although assuming that is often a stretch.) Maybe I put it to a vote?

panel management

Out of the Ruins, a Reckoning

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Carter Smith's 2008 horror flick The Ruins has been on my brain a lot lately, and I've been meaning to carve out the time for a re-watch -- the film is super cheap on blu-ray not to mention streaming on Amazon so I really don't have an excuse not to! Every time I see Jonathan Tucker or Jena Malone or the real (eventual) subject of today's post the actor Joe Anderson, seen above, I think of this film and how it got, pardon the pun given the film's nature, under my skin. 

Anyway The Ruins aside I did indeed read Joe Anderson's name this morning and it's for something we want to will into being, hence being here yammering about it -- director Neil Marshall, fresh off the steaming pile of his flop Hellboy remake... and listen, Hellboy flopped for a reason....

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There are theoretically worse movies that have been made and that I have sat through, but the problem with Hellboy is I love too many people involved with making it, it's too embarrassing, it makes you cringe, you have to avert your eyes like your bff just puked on his date

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 10, 2019

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Not that crap doesn't often succeed (look at this past weekend's big winner for proof of that sad hard fact) but I think it's best that everybody just forget that movie happened. Anyway Neil is working on a new movie, and given the strength of his not-Hellboy track record -- The Descent, Dog Soldiers, Doomsday, some smashingly good episodes of Game of Thrones -- I want him to make another damned movie! So let's talk about it.

It's called The Reckoning and it's set during "the witch hunts and the great plague in England in 1665" and it's about a woman accused of witchcraft by a spurned man who actually begins to dally with the devil. Joe Anderson's role sounds small (I don't want to spoil it but that link above does if you need to know) but he got me thinking about The Ruins and yadda yadda here we are. Let Neil Marshall make another movie, please!
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Good Morning, James McAvoy

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Even though I only thought Split was a moderate success at what it was doing it does still boast a fantastic performance from James McAvoy, and so ever since watching it a couple weeks ago I've been on a bit of a James McAvoy mental kick, which you all have seen the fruit of here and here. We're also pretty excited about this too:

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I've been thinking about the news that James McAvoy apparently wears a black mesh tank top in Atomic Blonde a lot lately. Too much, maybe.

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) March 21, 2017

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As if that movie didn't already have enough to recommend it, what with Bad Ass Charlize. (I'm surprised we haven't gotten a picture of James McAvoy in the mesh yet though. Sad face.) Anyway we'd like to wish James a happy 38 today, and we're gonna do so by sharing some gifs of him from his time of the original Shameless show. I actually forgot he was even on that show, and just ten years ago at that. How far we've come, Mr. McAvoy. Hit the jump for more...

Morning, Joe

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We missed actor Joe Anderson's birthday over the weekend (he turned 34 on Saturday) so this morning we must rectify! If we were choosing a "Moment We Fell For" Joe it would be his small (but impossibly gorgeous) role in Carter Smith's marvelously disturbing and strangely underrated film The Ruins, which we were all about back in 2008 but which doesn't get talked about too much now. But if we'd bothered to see the Beatles musical Across the Universe the year before we probably would've fallen for Joe in that because he's basically the only part of that movie that really works. Speaking of...

... as we looked Joe up this morning we stumbled upon a behind-the-scenes video of him on the set of that film working on his big number, and it's stuffed with, as you see above, Joe goodness. Watch and see!

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Joe's on a show called Outsiders right now which airs on the WGN network and which just got renewed for a third season, which surprises me since I have literally not heard of it until right this minute. Any of you seen it? It co-stars Veronica Mars' Kyle Gallner, I see. The last thing we saw Joe in was when he replaced ? as Mason Verger on Hannibal, and we liked his brief loony spin on an already loony spin. Give Joe another job, Bryan Fuller!

The Lawnmower Man

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I hope that the actor Glenn Fleshler appreciates it when I say that the sight of him sends a shudder down my spine - he's taking that reaction right to the bank anyway, so he oughta. If you watched True Detective then you know that face - he was the lawnmower man, the figure of horror floating at the edges of that show... well at least until the show revealed itself as so much humdrum in the end, anyway. Y'all know I had many many issues with that show (first and foremost the uselessness in the lead) but for a good long while there was a specter of doom hanging over the proceedings that was hypnotic and Mr. Flesher's eerie presence aided and abetted all that jazz quite fine. 

Aaaaaanyway to get to my point, Glenn Flesher's just been hired to play nurse for Mason Verger (played now by Joe Anderson, who replaced Michael Pitt) on Hannibal, which is another example of the team at Hannibal just being the best people at casting their show on the planet.

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Out With The Old (Face)

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TV Line's reporting that Michael Pitt's decided not to return to Hannibal for its third season as the eccentric psychopath (is there any other kind) Mason Verger, and that the terrific actor Joe Anderson, seen above, will be replacing him. As TV Line notes, with a fair amount of spoilage, this won't be too distracting as, well, Mason was going to look different the next time we saw him anyway after, you know, things happened. I'm actually incredibly happy about this - I thought Pitt was good on the show (I loved the Lynchian flourish he brought to the role) but I've always thought he seemed rather insufferable, while Joe's always seemed like a good guy and a tremendously underrated actor to boot. I mean clearly I don't know either of these dudes but I look I pay attention and I craft narratives in my head, and this one works out in my favor, so whatever. (Also TV Line includes a shot that Anderson posted of himself in make-up on Instagram but they don't include a link to said Instagram and I can't for the life of me find it; I'd love to follow him! Does anybody have the link?)

In related news, have y'all see any of the pictures from the set? I'm not going to link to any, you can find them if you look around and I don't want to be the one to spoil anyone, but man I can't wait for this show to be back.

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Horns in 200 Words or Less

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What is it, what is the inexplicable force, that can take actors you like, source material that's not half-bad, a horror director that's done terrific work in several tones across sub-genres, and mash them up into something unwatchably terrible? Whatever anti-magic it is, Horns has got it in oodles. I feel nasty saying so - Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, Heather Graham, Joe Anderson, these are all folks I like; Alexandre Aja gave the world the first 5/6ths of High Tension (he also gave us that last part but let's not talk about that) plus the Piranha and Hills Have Eyes remakes, both of which are far better than they've any right being. And while Joe Hill's book didn't light my ass on fire or anything it's a perfectly fine, oft-darkly-witty read. And yet this movie just lands with a wet thud, a cloud of flies, an embarrassed half-glance away by everyone involved. Dull and damp and headache-inducing at times, milling between overly obvious and purposelessly vague in equal measure, moment to moment, Horns is a poke in the eye.

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Good Morning, World

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Yesterday I linked to the trailer for Horns - Alexandre Aja's adaptation of Joe Hill's not-half-bad book - and said I wasn't going to bother watching it unless one of you guys told me Daniel Radcliffe went shirtless in it, since I already planned on seeing the movie. Well one of you, thank you Anonymous, told me just that, and sure enough I watched the trailer and it's like a shirtless-Daniel-Radcliffe-palooza up in there. Sell sell sell!

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Seeing Joe Anderson makes me happy, I love him.
Anyway natch I took a few caps, hit the jump for it...

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

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... feeding the jungle fever with
Thomas Kretschmann and Joe Anderson.

I've been lax covering the new ABC television program The River which premieres tonight - hell I just remembered to put it onto my DVR yesterday, so it's not just here at MNPP that my mind's been elsewhere. The last time I mentioned it was last July, when I posted a bunch of pictures of these two of its menfolk I have long appreciated. You should recall this is the show brought to us from Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli (Steven Spielberg's slapped his name on it too, although you know he's not exactly hands on). Anyway I will be watching it! Will you?

Jungle Fever For Joe and Tom

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If once upon a time I knew that the director of the first Paranormal Activity movie was making a television program called The River that'd be starring Thomas Krestchmann and Joe Anderson, then my brains have completely abandoned me because I have forgotten it, and to forget such a thing is to commit the darkest of sins. I just randomly clicked on this report about the show at ComiCon from BD and noticed those two in the pictures and was all, WHA??? What pictures, you ask? These pictures!

So what is The River?

ABC's official synopsis: "Famed explorer Dr. Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood) went looking for magic deep in the uncharted Amazon and never returned. The shocking truth about his disappearance is out there, somewhere, just waiting to be discovered. To the millions of kids who grew up watching his nature show, Dr. Cole was a hero. To his own son, Lincoln (Joe Anderson), he was more of an enigma. Now, six months after he vanished, Lincoln is finally ready to bury the past when Dr. Cole's emergency beacon suddenly goes off. At the urging of his mother, Tess (Leslie Hope), Lincoln reluctantly joins her on a search for his father. To fund the rescue, they agree to let Dr. Cole's cagey ex-producer, Clark (Paul Blackthorne), film the mission documentary-style. The mixed crew of old friends and new acquaintances includes the sexy and resourceful Lena (Eloise Mumford), loyal mechanic Emilio (Daniel Zacapa) and lethal bodyguard Captain Kurt Brynildson (Thomas Kretschmann). "

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And I just did some research and I totally posted about this show's existence before. That's it! Close up shop! My brain's done for.

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Good Morning, World

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I have no idea what that shot of Thomas Kretschmann is from so don't ask. But I did photo-shop out a lady who was standing beside him because she was distracting me, in case you think you know the shot but are confused by the lack of lady.

Somehow I'd completely forgotten that Thomas Kretschmann is going to be in Hostel Part III. This one's got nothing to do with Eli Roth and is going direct to DVD, so who knows what to expect (actually we should know enough to expect crap, but I can be a deranged optimist sometimes). It's set in Vegas and is about a bachelor party going "horribly wrong," which well it wouldn't be a Hostel movie if everything went peachy keen now would it? It also stars pretty Kip Pardue so if it's got some homo-tension between Thomas and him we'll be just fine with whatever crap it is otherwise.


Anyway I'm not quite sure when that's out and I don't have any new information or pictures of trailers or anything from it and that isn't the point of this post. The point is that Thomas has landed a gig on an American TV show! Well a pilot, at least. It's for ABC and it's called The River, and it's not being called a horror show but it's coming from two talented horror directors - Oren Peli, who made Paranormal Activity, and Jaume Collet-Serra, who directed the House of Wax remake and Orphan. It's about a woman whose husband goes missing in the Amazon and is convinced by her son to go looking for him. Thomas isn't the missing husband (that's Bruce Greenwood) and he isn't the son obviously (that's the very pretty Joe Anderson, who you can see plenty of right here), so I guess he must be somebody this lady meets on her travels. Anyway Tom and Joe Anderson? Aryan overload!

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Gratuitous Joe Anderson

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If you'd have told me that a week after watching The Crazies the thing I'd be thinking about was the performance by a second-banana and not Timothy Olyphant in a police uniform, well I'd have thought you straight-up bonkers, I woulda. But here we are.

Over at Cinematical today there's a post in praise of Joe Anderson's performance in the George Romero remake, and I couldn't agree more. Right after I reviewed the film I gave Mr. Anderson a brief bout of photographic love, but never got around to actually writing anything about him. Well Joe is terrific in the film, taking a stock character and turning it into something special. Something surprisingly sympathetic. When he asks if he can just walk with them for awhile, it's the sort of touching sequence most horror films don't make the time for these days. Obviously that's due to the writer and director taking an open approach to what could've been worn-down genre material too, not just his performance, but Anderson definitely makes Deputy Clank (great name) much more than he could've been. As we go through the film with him and watch the situation take its toll, Anderson works the angles like a pro. It's sorta like how I felt about Jena Malone in The Ruins, a performance that I also like a lot, though I might've thought of that because Joe was in that movie too. Anyway, in honor of his work here, as well as him being so gosh-darn-pretty of course, here's a whole bunch of Joe to stare at.

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