News

Fred Ward, iconic character actor and star of films like “The Right Stuff,” “Tremors,” “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins,” “Miami Blues,” and “Henry & June,” has died. He passed away on Sunday, May 8, as confirmed by his representatives. The Golden Globe winner was also known for starring in Robert Altman films like “The Player” and “Short Cuts.”

Fred Ward is survived by his wife of 27 years, Marie-France Ward, and his son, Django Ward.

On screens since the early 1970s after serving in the U.S. Air Force and stints as an order cook, boxer, and a lumberjack in Alaska, Ward was known for his versatility in both comic and dramatic roles. He could play author Henry Miller in “Henry & June,” the world’s first Nc-17 movie, or a dirt bike rider in “Timerider: The Aventure of Lyle Swann.” But his first major role came in Clint Eastwood’s 1979 “Escape from Alcatraz...

Rob Cohen, the man behind The Fast and the Furious, xXx and Alex Cross, has been tapped to direct a remake of Road House for MGM, EW confirmed Monday.

The 1989 original starred Patrick Swayze as a bouncer at a bar in Missouri. Rowdy Harrington directed the cult classic, which also featured Kelly Lynch, Ben Gazzara, and a particularly memorable Sam Elliott as the ever-quotable mentor Wade Garrett. Despite mixed reviews, Road House went on to gross more than $30 million domestically.

According to The Wrap, Michael Stokes (The Beacon, Exit Speed) is penning the script for the remake, but very few...

Yes, there's a remake of the 80s favorite Road House on the way, and Patrick Swayze is probably roundhouse kicking in his grave. The Wrap reports that MGM is remaking the film which followed Swayze as a tough bar bouncer with a mysterious past who spruces up a gross bar in Missouri and also falls for a local bar patron (Kelly Lynch). It's not clear how this remake will handle the story, but Joel Silver will produce the film and now The Fast and the Furious and xXx director Rob Cohen has been hired to helm the remake, so this likely won't be a small film. The real test will be who can fill Swayze's bad ass shoes. Michael Stokes is writing the film, and since he's done everything from children's programming like "Babar" to lesser known films like Exit Speed, we're not sure what to expect. Though with someone like Cohen on board,...

Previously titled The Beacon, Take 2 Releasing will distribute a Haunting at the Beacon on DVD September 13th. This is a tale of a mother's (Teri Polo) woe, as a deceased child looks for supernatural revenge! This film was shot at the famed Rogers Hotel in Texas and director Michael Stokes became frightened on set by "sightings of strange orbs and even the sounds of children laughing and crying." Haunting at the Beacon also stars Michael Ironside, Davis Rees Snell and Elaine Hendrix.

Fans of film might recognize director Stokes from his writing on the horror feature The Marsh (2006) starring Forest Whitaker, or the high-octane thriller Exit Speed (2008). Haunting at the Beacon is Stokes directorial debut and this latest feature stays true to Stokes trend to write, almost exclusively, restricted rated horror features. Get your haunted disc below and re-visit the ghostly trailer inside.

The synopsis for Haunting at the Beacon:...

It’s the start of another week, so you know what that means – more DVD and Blu-ray releases!. So here’s the rundown of what’s available to buy from today, August 15th 2011.

Picks Of The Week

Source Code (DVD/Blu-ray)

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) awakens on a speeding commuter train with no idea how he got there. Seeking refuge in the bathroom, he’s shocked to see another man’s reflection in the mirror. Suddenly a massive explosion rips through the train. Almost instantly, Colter is transported to a high-tech isolation unit where he discovers he is on a high-priority mission to identify a bomber who destroyed a train just hours earlier and who plans to kill thousands more with a much larger explosion in the heart of Chicago. A top-secret program, named ‘source code’, allows Colter to exist briefly as another man in the parallel reality of the doomed commuter train.

The Motion Picture Sound Editors (Mpse) have announced their nominees for the 2010 Golden Reel Awards which recognizes excellence in sound and music editing.

Sci-fi and action films normally dominate technical awards so it's no surprise that "Avatar" and "Star Trek" each received 3 nominations. "2012" even got 2 nominations.

Winners will be announced on Feb. 20 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. Steven Spielberg will receive the 2010 Mpse Filmmaker Recipient, while Larry Singer will be the Career Achievement Recipient.

Here are the nominees of the 2010 Golden Reel Awards in all categories:

Feature Film Nominees

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Music, Dialogue and Adr Animation in a Feature Film

9

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Coraline

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Monsters vs. Aliens

The Princess and the Frog

Up

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and Adr in a Foreign Feature Film

An Education

The Baader Meinhof Complex

Coco avant Chanel

District 9...

"Avatar" and "Star Trek," with three noms each, lead the list of nominations for the Motion Picture Sound Editors' 2010 Golden Reel Awards.

The awards will be handed out at ceremonies on Feb. 20 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.

Steven Spielberg will be honored at the event as 2010 Mpse Filmmaker Recipient, while the Career Achievement Recipient will be Larry Singer.

The Golden Reel Awards spotlight the art of sound editing, music editing and sound design in film, TV and video.

In the category of sound editing, music in a feature film, the nominees are "2012," "(500) Days of Summer," "An Education," "Avatar," "It's Complicated," "Star Trek," "Sherlock Holmes" and "The Informant!."

For sound editing, music in a musical feature, "Crazy Heart," "Every Little Step," "Nine" and "This Is It" all earned nominations.

  For sound editing: dialogue and Adr in a feature, the nominees are "(500) Days of Summer, "A Serious Man," "Avatar,...

Writer/director Michael Stokes and producer Sally Helppie sent along a few exclusive new photos from their chiller The Beacon, along with the poster and the news that the movie took the Best Feature Film prize at the first Paranoia Film Festival, as well as Best Actress for lead Teri Polo. The event was held this past weekend aboard the Queen Mary cruise ship in Long Beach, CA (see details here).

Polo stars in The Beacon as a woman who moves with her husband (David Rees Snell) into the titular apartment building following the death of their son, and becomes haunted by the ghost of another dead child. Elaine Hendrix, Ken Howard, genre veteran Michael Ironside and Kevin Scott Keating (first photo) also star.

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Ready to start circulating through the film fest circuit this year is The Beacon and today writer-director Michael Stokes dropped in on ShockTillYouDrop.com with a few pics to share. He also tells us the flick has just been accepted into Long Beach's Paranoia Horror Festival running March 13-15. Stokes's directorial debut (he penned and produced the actioner Exit Speed ), The Beacon was shot in Waxahachie, Texas in a building he describes as a "real-life haunted hotel." The cast includes David Rees Snell, Michael Ironside and Elaine Hendrix. Leading lady Teri Polo plays a grieving woman who begins to see the ghost of a young boy who died in her apartment complex. A mystery ensues when she tries to lock down the cause of the boy's death and attempts to save his...

Greetings Fango Fiends! It's another Sunday here in the Fangoria Dungeon and that means it's time for another look back at the past seven days of blood-soaked horror delights. It was a glorious week here at Fango, as we announced our 30th Anniversary Celebration, Previewed Issue #281, and dropped the news that Shock*N*Roll would return to Chicago. For those of you not familiar with how this works, I've taken the entire week and broken it down by category with linked headlines. Let's get started!

Fangoria Entertainment Updates:

-Fangoria Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary! Frightful Festivities Continue All Year Long

-Sneak-Peek: Fangoria #281

-Mushroomhead to perform at the Chicago Weekend Of Horrors Shock*N*Roll Spooktacular!

-Tickets for Mushroomhead's Chicago Weekend of Horrors concert On-sale Now!

-Preview: Fangoria & Robot Monster give you 6 Days of Monster Musick!

-Get a Rise out of Fangoria Radio!

-Laid To Rest panel set for 2009 La Fango con...

Producer Sally Helppie and producer/scripter Michael Stokes sent along some new pics from their violent biker/siege thriller Exit Speed, coming March 3 on DVD from Peace Arch. They also let us know about final specs for the disc.

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Directed by Scott Ziehl, the movie is set in the Texas desert, where bus passengers find themselves trapped and terrorized...

Producer Sally Helppie and writer/director Michael Stokes gave Fango an exclusive trailer and first photo from their new fright feature The Beacon; check ’em both out below. It’s the second feature from Helppie’s Texas-based Sabbatical Pictures, which previously made the Stokes-scripted violent actioner Exit Speed (coming on Peace Arch DVD March 3).

The Beacon stars Teri Polo (also soon to be seen in Joe Dante’s The Hole) and David Rees Snell as Bryn and Paul Shaw, who are trying to put their life back together following the death of their child. After they move into the Beacon Apartments, Bryn starts experiencing visions of a little boy who died there, and comes to believe that freeing his spirit will allow her to contact her own dead son through him. “I love mayhem movies like Exit Speed,” Stokes tells Fango, “but The Beacon is intentionally old-school, with a character-driven story,...

Exit Speed, the horror/action hybrid we first told you about a while back, just had its premiere screening in Dallas. Word has it that the showing went so well distributor Peace Arch has decided to give it even more theatrical play, throwing it in 13 theaters across the lower part of our country.

For those who have forgotten, Exit Speed stars Lea Thompson, Desmond Harrington, and Fred Ward. The official plot goes something like this: On Christmas Eve ten passengers board a bus traveling across Texas. Most are heading for home, family, and friends. Some are in search of new jobs. One, an Army deserter, is trying to stay a jump ahead of the Military Police. On an empty section of highway, the bus collides with a nomadic biker wired on crystal meth. When the passengers go to his aid, he opens fire on the bus. Terrified, the passengers set upon him and kill him.

Just imagine the scenario; all you want to do is kick back on a nice, quiet bus ride across the vast, dull expanse of Texas, but a gang of meth-addicted bikers just will not let you get some shut eye. What would you do?

Well, the ten strangers in Exit Speed don’t have to wait long to find out their reaction to this rather unique situation: They fight back. Trapped in the desert with nothing but crazy bikers surrounding me, I think I’d find a bit of tough guy in me, too.

Fred Ward (Tremors), Desmond Harrington (Wrong Turn), Alice Grecyzn (Shrooms) and Lea Thompson (Back to the Future) make up the rather eclectic cast of Exit Speed, a new thriller from Sabbatical Pictures & Peach Arch Entertainment. We just got word that Speed will have its North American premiere on August 26th in Dallas, TX at the Studio Movie Grill.