Be Amazed by the Maze Runner!
The only thing more amazing from the fact there actually is a new Maze Runner movie is that it landed in first place of last weekend’s box office. Maze Runner: The Death Cure is the last installment in a movie trilogy based on James Dashner’s young adult novels set in a dystopian future in which good-looking teenagers battle overly elaborate schemes of a sinister corporation. Produced for $62 million, Maze Runner: The Death Cure grossed over $24 million in its opening weekend, reports Box Office Mojo.
After spending four weekends at the top of the weekend box office, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle finally dropped to the second place by earning a bit over $16 million. In the third place is Hostiles, a western film that, after six weeks in cinemas, suddenly jumped to the third place (From 23rd!) by earning over $10 million last weekend alone. In the fourth place is the musical The Greatest Showman with $9.5 million. In the fifth place is Steven Spielberg’s political thriller The Post that grossed a bit over $9 million.
The Watchmen Pilot Has a Director
According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO’s Watchmen pilot has a director. Nicole Kassell is a TV veteran who previously worked on shows such as The Americans, Rectify, Claws, and American Crime. Additionally, Kassell will also serve as one of the show’s executive producers.
Last June HBO announced its plans for a TV show based on the cult 1986 graphic novel The Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. While Zack Snyder already turned it into a superhero blockbuster back in 2009, HBO executives felt there’s plenty of material left to mine in the dark, violent world of the alternate 1980s where the original story takes place. In September, HBO executives hired Damon Lindelof to serve as the show’s producer and head writer. Kassell previously worked with Lindelof on his critically acclaimed show The Leftovers. Their collaboration here gives some cause for optimism in spite of Lindelof’s less-than-stellar record as a screenwriter on films such as Cowboys and Aliens, Prometheus, Star Trek Into Darkness and Tomorrowland.
Mike Flanagan to Film a Sequel To The Shining
AV Club reports that the horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan was hired by the Warner Bros studio to direct a movie adaptation of Doctor Sleep – Stephen King’s 2013 sequel to his 1977 seminal horror novel The Shining. Doctor Sleep follows Danny Torrance, a kid from the first novel who, decades after the terrifying events at the Overlook Hotel, is a depressed ex-alcoholic faced not only with his worst fears but with supernatural evil as well.
Flanagan made a number of horror movies such as Hush, Oculus, and Absentia. Last September, Netflix released the psychological horror film Gerald’s Game – Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s 1992 novel. Praised by the critics, Gerald’s Game caught the attention of the executives at Warner Bros who just released their own Stephen King movie It only to see it earn over $700 million at the global box office. Currently, Flanagan is also working on a Netflix TV show based on Shirley Jackson’s classic horror novel The Haunting of Hill House.
