NBCUniversal’s CEO Jeff Shell recently made comments about the success of Trolls: World Tour’s digital release due to coronavirus theater closures. The movie has apparently done well enough that the company is now looking at releasing more films to homes first during the quarantines but also continuing the strategy when theaters open back up. AMC and Regal didn’t take this news well and have said all movies released by NBCUniversal will not be carried in their theaters if this goes through. Shell has backtracked it a little with some confusing semantics, but I think home streaming options are going to become a must as this pandemic drags on into the summer and likely the fall.
Speaking of streaming, here are some interesting films you can watch at home during May.
May 1st
Deerskin – from the bizarre mind of Quentin Dupieux (Rubber, Wrong).
The Infiltrators – a documentary about Dreamers who self-deported in order to get inside a detention center and expose the truth to the world.
May 8
Spaceship Earth – a doc that chronicles the scientists and researchers who lived inside Biosphere 2 and the wild events that transpired there.
May 15
Scoob! – a reboot of the classic cartoon character Scooby-Doo that purports to jumpstart a Hanna-Barbera cinematic universe.
May 22
The Trip to Greece – the conclusion to Steve Coogan & Rob Brydon’s series of docu-fiction road trip comedies
Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse, The Witch) is already hard at work on his next picture, The Northman. He’s co-writing with Icelandic novelist Sjón. The story is set in the 10th century and centers on a Nordic prince on a mission of revenge for the murder of his father. It looks like Eggers’ previous collaborators Willem Dafoe and Anya Taylor-Joy will be returning for this one. Eggers is always a filmmaker with a unique and hypnotic vision so I suspect we are in for more of the same with The Northman.
I really enjoyed the NoSleep series The Left-Right Game when it was first being published on Reddit in 2017. It’s a well written, atmospheric horror story that builds the tension and places its characters in a truly terrifying world. I discovered a podcast has been developed that adapts the tale and stars Tessa Thompson (Thor: Ragnarok) as the lead protagonist. Not only that, but Thompson is producing an Amazon Prime series based on the story. I hope they are really smart about designing the world because this could be some fantastic horror television.
HBO dropped the trailer for Jordan Peele’s adaptation of the novel Lovecraft Country. If I’m being honest this looks better than the book, taking those ideas and fleshing them out more.
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