It’s not every day a trailer features an interview with the director, but it’s not every day the film’s director is the biggest selling point of a movie. James Wan is at the helm of the upcoming horror film Malignant, and he’s the guy who first brought us Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring. Each of those started as original horror films and then quickly became major franchises. The thought with Malignant seems to be “This is the next one,” and putting Wan front and center sells that.

Malignant stars Annabelle Wallis (The Mummy, Annabelle) as Madison, a woman who has violent visions that are somehow tied to her childhood imaginary friend, Gabriel. And really, we don’t know much more than that, which is exciting, because there has to be more—which you get a glimpse of, as well as some commentary provided by Wan, in this latest and probably final trailer.

Using Wan to promote this film is a smart move. He’s a proven commodity, not just in horror, but in other genres as well (he also did Furious 7 and Aquaman, and is currently working on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.) When people see the name “James Wan” it has become synonymous with originality in horror and scope in Blockbusters. Malignant could have a bit of both, as evidenced by the second half of this trailer which has a lot of very effective overhead shots, complicated camera moves and quick glimpses of a powerful, evil presence.

What I like most about Wan’s horror films, besides the scares and gore, are that each one sets the stage for a much larger world. In Saw, that was Jigsaw. In Insidious, that was the Further. And in The Conjuring, it’s just the nature of the Warrens’ work as paranormal investigators. Each film offers a contained, satisfying story with loads to explore in the future if possible. Watching the Malignant trailer I’d venture to guess that’s the case here too, but I can’t exactly tell what about it is bigger than the story itself. I’m excited to find out and I won’t have to wait long: Malignant opens next week, September 10, both in theaters and on HBO Max, where it’ll live for a month.

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Fans of Joe Johnston’s 1991 Disney film The Rocketeer have been waiting 30 years for this news: a new, live-action Rocketeer film is officially in the works. It’s called The Return of the Rockeeter and it’s being developed for Disney+.

According to Deadline, David Oyelowo (Selma, Star Wars Rebels) is among the producers and may star in the project, which “will have an all-new creative directive … focusing on a retired Tuskegee airman who takes up the mantle of the Rocketeer.” That sounds like a reboot-sequel if you ask me.

Ed Ricourt (Now You See Me, Wayward Pines) wrote the screenplay which is being produced under the banner Yoruba Saxon, a company run by David and Jessica Oyelowo. It signed a first-look deal with Disney earlier this summer after David Oyelowo’s directorial debut, The Water Man, was released.

The Rockeeter originally starred Bill Campbell as a stunt pilot named Cliff who happens upon an experimental jet pack in the late 1930s. A jet pack that a group of Nazis are also after, as they believe it’ll help them take over the world. And so the film becomes a very exciting, period superhero film with Cliff eventually defeating the Nazis. It co-starred Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton, and Paul Sorvino, and is on Disney+ now. If you haven’t seen it, or haven’t seen it in a while, it’s still truly excellent.

Watching it even now, the film feels like a franchise starter. So Disney was surely disappointed when, upon release, it failed to gross even $50 million in the U.S. Since then, the film has always has a very passionate legion of fans, many of whom are filmmakers and actors themselves, so there have been blips or rumors of Rocketeer projects over the years (there was even a short-lived animated kids series). This one, however, is by far the most promising one yet, and fans have Disney+ and the Oyelowos to thank.

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WORCESTER, Mass. – Multiple Blockbuster films will be shot in Worcester starting this summer, including “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” sources said. 

Sources say the much-anticipated sequel to the 2018 Disney hit “Black Panther” will film scenes in Worcester over the next few months, including at Worcester Police Department headquarters.

Edgar Luna, the city of Worcester’s Economic Development Office business development manager, would not name “Black Panther” as the movie being filmed in Worcester, but said, “We are lucky to have a major Disney production filming here in the next couple of months. It was a movie that was extremely successful in 2018. We are pleased they have selected us.”

“The previous movie was filmed in Georgia and Korea,” Luna added. “Now they’re coming here.” 

“Black Panther” was filmed in Georgia and South Korea. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 2018 and ranks among movie-review site Rotten Tomatoes’ top-five movies of all time. 

Luna says the film’s technical department is in the city this week, scouting and inspecting filming locations.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the majority of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” will be filmed in Atlanta starting next month. 

The star of the first “Black Panther,” Chadwick Boseman, died of cancer last August at the age of 43. Boseman’s death delayed filming of the sequel and pushed back the film’s expected release date to July 8, 2022, according to multiple reports.

The city’s Cultural Development Office oversees all movies filmed in Worcester. Eleven films between last December and this September will be filmed in Worcester, Luna said.

“Worcester is a beautiful city. We can compete with anyone. (Movie studios) like that we are clean and friendly and we have everything,” Luna said. “We help them select sites. Because we are smaller, we are able to close streets that others can’t.”

Luna says each movie that comes to the city utilizes local resources, including leasing office, retail and residential spaces, uses local business, hires extras and security, and most importantly, “… they spend a lot of money.”

Luna said scenes of other movies will soon be shot on Main Street, the Worcester Common, the Worcester Regional Airport, and local bars and restaurants.

Worcester is no stranger to summer Blockbusters being filmed in the city. In 2019, Ryan Reynolds’ “Free Guy” was filmed in downtown Worcester. The movie is being released on August 13. 

Other major films with scenes shot in Worcester include “American Hustle,” “Honest Thief,” and Netflix’s upcoming “Don’t Look Up.” AppleTV+ series “Defending Jacob” was filmed in Worcester in 2019. 

Thanks to films like Hereditary and Midsommar, one tends to be wary when studio A24’s name pops up. So you can’t blame those who watched the first trailer for Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Lamb for assuming horrific things were about to invade our minds. But now, the director is trying to tell us that’s not the case, which just makes us even more suspicious.

Lamb—directed by Jóhannsson and written by him and Sjón—is inspired by Icelandic folklore and stars Prometheus actress Noomi Rapace. For the record, here’s the official synopsis: “A childless couple in rural Iceland make an alarming discovery one day in their sheep barn. They soon face the consequences of defying the will of nature, in this dark and atmospheric folktale, the striking debut feature from director Valdimar Jóhannsson.” Why would we expect horror from that? *nervous laughter*

Lamb made its debut at Cannes but also just screened at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival so a good number of folks have seen it by now to judge. Speaking with Variety, Jóhannsson had this to say: “What’s interesting is that now, everyone says ‘Lamb’ is a horror movie. It’s not! I am a little surprised by that, because it was never my plan. To me, it’s an arthouse film.” An arthouse film it may well be, but a lamb/human hybrid child plus someone willing to do a violence on those who might want to take it away sure sounds scary to me. At least the director is aware audiences may not know how to react at all to this bizarre scenario: “When ‘Lamb’ was screened in Cannes, people started to laugh even before the joke was out. I realized they just didn’t know how to react. Maybe they have never seen anything like this before? So yes, you can laugh, you can cry or you can just be silent,” he told Variety.

For his part, Jóhannsson seemed thankful nothing has been spoiled so far. “I remember some [viewers] were just saying you should know as little as possible before seeing the film and I think that it’s true.” Lamb—which stars Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, and Ingvar Sigurðsson—is set for an October 8 release in theaters. No word yet on its streaming or VOD debut.

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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday evaded a question on the Afghanistan conflict and went on to blame the ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for no resumption of bilateral talks between India and Pakistan.

Responding to a question that ‘can talks and terror go hand in hand’,  he said, “We want to talk to India but the ideology of RSS is coming in the between.”

Taliban terrorists have taken control of one of the main border crossings with Pakistan, replacing the Afghan government’s flag with their own. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has issued a statement that the “fighters have captured an important border town called Wesh.” The crossing is the second most important on the border with Pakistan and a major source of revenue for the Afghan government. 

Khan is leading a high level Pakistani delegation to Uzbekistan for a two-day trip.

Ties between India and Pakistan nosedived after a terror attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in 2016 by terror groups based in the neighbouring country. Subsequent attacks on an Indian Army camp in Uri further deteriorated the relationship. Since then, India has not been having bilateral talks with Pakistan saying talks and terror cannot go hand-in-hand.

The relationship further dipped after India’s warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp deep inside Pakistan on February 26, 2019, in response to the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed. The ties hit rock bottom after India announced withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir’s special powers and bifurcating the state into two union territories in August 2019. Since then, Pakistan has been unsuccessfully trying to rally international support against India on the Kashmir issue.

India has been maintaining that the onus is on Pakistan to create an environment free of terror and hostility.

READ MORE: Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui killed in Afghanistan’s Kandahar

READ MORE: ‘Consequences to be unbelievably bad’: George Bush criticizes Afghanistan withdrawal

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For the second year in a row, the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the game for the annual Sidewalk Film Festival, taking place this weekend in Birmingham.

Last summer, because of COVID-19, Sidewalk moved from its traditional home on the streets and among venues across several blocks of downtown Birmingham to a drive-in complex in Leeds.

This weekend’s 23rd annual festival has filmgoers back downtown. But with the delta variant raging and COVID-19 infections rising again, festival officials have put in place strict protocols for attendees that include wearing masks and showing proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours prior to entry.

“We thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to adapt to the many circumstances of this year’s festival that are beyond our control,” festival officials said in a post this week on the festival website.

The festival actually kicked off Monday, Aug. 23, with limited evening showings of “spotlight” films at the Sidewalk Film Center, located in the restored Pizitz building on Second Avenue North. Spotlight films continue through Aug. 26.

The full weekend lineup of Sidewalk films launches with the traditional opening night film at 7 Friday, Aug. 27, at the Alabama Theatre on Third Avenue North. This year’s opening night feature is the acclaimed documentary “Television Event,” about the making and impact of a 1983 made-for-television movie, “The Day After” – a fictional account of a nuclear attack and its effect on a small, Kansas town – that drew an enormous nationwide audience.

As in past years, Sidewalk’s weekend lineup includes dozens of independent feature-length and short films, including comedies and horror films, musicals and classics, animation, documentaries and films with Alabama themes. Special “ScreenTalks” and panel discussions with filmmakers round out the weekend’s offerings.

“We are beyond excited to be back downtown for Sidewalk 2021,” festival Creative Director Rachel Morgan said in a post on the festival website. “We believe that we’ve crafted a balanced lineup filled with the best, recent, theatre-worthy indie films spanning all genres, along with the occasional throwback and special event.”

Alabama Power is a sponsor of the Sidewalk Film Festival.

To see the full Sidewalk lineup, including links to movie trailers, click here. To view details of the COVID-19 protocols for the festival, click here. Festivalgoers are strongly advised to read the protocols and the requirements carefully before coming to the festival.

For ticket information, click here.