A Chasing After Wind

Posted by JimmyO

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The first time I saw Oldboy, directed by filmmaker Park Chan-wook, I was in awe. From his brilliant work in the Vengeance trilogy to his latest, No Other Choice, he is one of the most original voices in cinema today. In the film, Lee Byung-hun portrays a man just trying to get by. When he loses his job due to layoffs, the desperate man decides to take serious measures to procure employment. Chan-wook’s latest is an excellent dark comedy that once again proves why the director of Lady Vengeance never takes the obvious route

Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with both Park Chan-wook and Lee Hyung-hun. First up, it was a thrilling opportunity to chat with such a visionary. With a translator, the two of us discussed his darkly funny new feature. He was engaging and thoughtful, and it was exciting to speak with him for the first time regarding his work.

Afterwards, I spoke with his lead actor, Lee Byung-hun, and the man was incredibly charming. He discussed working with his brilliant director and the nature of the material. The actor explores an intriguing tightrope that he must walk, and he makes this character all the more compelling for it.

Park Chan-wook’s latest, No Other Choice, is currently in theatres and is well worth the price of admission.

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Posted by Cody Hamman

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About five years ago, it was announced that Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers would be producing a series adaptation of the Stephen King and Peter Straub novel The Talisman (pick up a copy HERE) – and when they launched a production company called Upside Down Pictures three years ago, one of the projects on the Upside Down slate was indeed that series adaptation of The Talisman. Given the fact that the Duffers have been busy guiding Stranger Things to its upcoming finale, it hasn’t been a surprise that they haven’t been able to get their King / Straub adaptation into production yet… but now, they have confirmed that it’s not happening at all.

Development Hell

The Talisman was first published near the end of 1984, and Steven Spielberg has been trying to crack an adaptation ever since. He secured the rights quickly, but one of the first snags it hit was that Spielberg got distracted by making Empire of the Sun – and that movie came out back in 1987. In the early ’90s, screenwriter Richard LaGravenese, who had just been nominated for an Academy award for writing The Fisher King, was hired to write a feature adaptation. In 2000, Mick Garris was going to turn the story into a four-hour ABC mini-series. Then the plan switched back to turning it into a feature. Ehren Kruger wrote a draft. Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro worked on the script. Vadim Perelman was going to direct the film. Then Edward Zwick was going to direct the film. In the mid-2000s, it was set up as a six-hour mini-series at TNT, but then it was decided that it would be too expensive. The plan switched back to making it a feature. Josh Boone wrote a fresh draft of the script in 2017.

Then the Duffer Brothers got involved and started developing the material into a Netflix series. The plan was for the Duffers to executive produce alongside Spielberg, who would be executive producing via Amblin Television. Curtis Gwinn, a writer and executive producer on Stranger Things, was set to serve as showrunner. But, like all previous attempts to bring The Talisman to the screen, this set-up fell apart.

Duffers No Longer Involved

During an interview with CBR, the Duffers revealed that they are no longer involved with The Talisman. Ross Duffer said, “Sadly, Talisman is no longer at Netflix, so we’re not involved.” Matt added, “I think it was probably naive of us to think we could break The Talisman.“

Ross went on to say, “When I interned, when I was really, you know, back in college at Kennedy Marshall, I remember reading, I think it was a movie script for Talisman. So it’s been in development forever, so I’m sorry that we were not the ones to break the curse.“

When Mick Garris heard the sad news, he posted on Facebook, “Man, what is it with the poor luck of The Talisman on its way to a film or TV adaptation? I wrote a four-hour miniseries I was going to direct for Amblin and ABC way back when. Richard LaGravenese had already written an aborted feature version. Ron Howard was going to movies that branched into a TV series. Now the Duffer Brothers version is history. I don’t know how many other attempts were made–or will be made–but I wish this amazing story well.” Garris added that his script for The Talisman is one of his favorites, but we’ll probably never see it.

The Book

The Talisman tells of a 12-year old boy named Jack Sawyer who sets off on an epic road-trip quest in order to save his dying mother’s life. He is in search of the Talisman, a powerful relic that can not only heal his mother but, as he learns, save the world. Sawyer’s journey criss-crosses two realities: the America we know and its dangerous, fantasy-world twin, The Territories.

In 2001, King and Straub reteamed for the sequel Black House, which found an adult Jack Sawyer working for the LAPD and travelling to Wisconsin to bring down a serial killer called The Fisherman. There have been rumblings of a third book in the series for a decade now… and even though Straub passed away in 2022, King is sticking with the plan to finish the Jack Sawyer trilogy. A year ago, he said he was writing the third book in the series – and we’ll probably get to read that book before a film or TV series adaptation of The Talisman gets made.

Are you sad to hear that the Duffer Brothers won’t be making The Talisman for Netflix after all? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

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Posted by Chris Bumbray

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Growing Up With Chevy Chase — and the Cloud Over His Legacy

I kind of avoid writing about Chevy Chase as much as I can. Like many children of the eighties, I grew up loving the guy, with his classics like Fletch, Three Amigos, and the Vacation series getting replayed over and over in my household. Yet, as far back as I can remember, I always knew there was also a bit of a cloud over his legacy, as in the mid-nineties, when his contemporaries were celebrated and seemed chummy enough, Chase seemed more or less forgotten or ignored. Part of it is due to a long series of flop movies and his disastrous TV talk show, but there was more to it than that—and I remember around the time of his infamous roast that the common consensus seemed to be that Chase wasn’t the nicest guy in the world (to put it mildly).

A New CNN Documentary Gives Chase the Floor

Yet, there are two sides to every story, and Chase is finally getting the chance to set the record straight with CNN’s much-anticipated new documentary, I’m Chevy Chase, and You’re Not, which airs on the news channel on New Year’s Day. It comes from director Marina Zenovich, who is no stranger to challenging subjects, having made acclaimed documentaries on Lance Armstrong and Roman Polanski. She also has some legit comedy cred, having made the excellent Robin Williams doc, Come Inside My Mind, and Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic.

“I’d Never Done an Interview Where Someone Was So Rude to Me”

In a new sit-down with Variety, Zenovich admits the prickly Chase was a challenging interview subject, remembering that when she admitted to Chase that she had a hard time figuring him out, he told her it’s because she’s not bright enough. “I’d never done an interview where someone was so rude to me,” Zenovich told Variety. Yet, she was also relieved because it allowed her to confront him, in an honest way, about his reputation for being a jerk. “I was so worried going into that first interview with him about how I was going to say to him, like, ‘Everyone thinks you’re an asshole.’ I thought if I did, he would throw me out of his house. So the minute he said that to me, I had a way in.”

Who Participated — and Who Declined

In her interview with Variety, Zenovich admits she had a hard time getting people willing to be interviewed about Chase. While some big names are interviewed, including Ryan Reynolds and co-stars Dan Aykroyd, Martin Short, Goldie Hawn, and Beverly D’Angelo, as well as his former SNL boss Lorne Michaels, many others turned her down. Among them: Steve Martin and Chase’s former Groundlings colleague Christopher Guest. She also says no one from the cast of Community, which Chase was infamously fired from after using the N-word, wanted to talk to her, including showrunner Dan Harmon. The only one willing to go on camera was Community director Jay Chandrasekhar (of Broken Lizard).

Does Chevy Chase’s Legacy Still Hold Up?

I’m definitely curious to see this documentary, and I’ll be watching (and reviewing it) once it airs on CNN. What do you think—does Chase’s legacy hold up despite what people say about him? Is it high time he’s allowed to set the record straight himself? Let us know in the comments.

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Posted by Cody Hamman

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Nearly three years have gone by since it was announced that Atomic Monster, the production company headed up by genre regular James Wan, would be teaming with Amazon Studios to produce a psychological thriller series based on the best-selling novel 56 Days, by Catherine Ryan Howard (pick up a copy HERE). Now, we finally know when we’re going to have the chance to watch the show, as it has been revealed that the series will premiere on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. Along with that announcement comes the unveiling of some promotional artwork, which can be seen at the bottom of this article.

Creative Team and Source Material

Lisa Zwerling and Karyn Usher, who were behind the Starz drama The Rook, wrote the adaptation and serve as executive producers alongside Sandrine Gros d’Aillon, Wan, and Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear and Rob Hackett. Danielle Bozzone oversees the series for Atomic Monster. Howard is a co-executive producer. The first two episodes of the adaptation were directed by Alethea Jones, whose credits include episodes of Evil, Shining Vale, Mrs. Davis, and Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.

Written by Howard during the pandemic lockdown in Dublin back in 2020, the book 56 Days is set during that very same lockdown. It tells the story of an intense, erotic romance that turns deadly. It follows two young professionals, striking out on their own in a new city, who are entangled quickly in a charged relationship that leads to a powerful intimacy that is soon cracked open by their secrets … and to murder. Here’s the book description: No one even knew they were together. Now one of them is dead. 56 DAYS AGO: Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin and start dating the same week COVID-19 reaches Irish shores. 35 DAYS AGO: When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests they move in together. Ciara sees a unique opportunity for a relationship to flourish without the scrutiny of family and friends. Oliver sees a chance to hide who — and what — he really is. TODAY: Detectives arrive at Oliver’s apartment to discover a decomposing body inside. Can they determine what really happened, or has lockdown created an opportunity for someone to commit the perfect crime?

Series Adaptation

The TV series (which was once going by the title Obsession, but has since reverted to the 56 Days title) is not set during the pandemic lockdown, but it does follow Oliver and Ciara, who, after meeting randomly in a supermarket, fall for each other fast, and dangerously hard. Fifty-six days later, homicide investigators arrive at Oliver’s apartment to find an unidentified body—brutally murdered and intentionally decomposed. Did he kill her? Did she kill him? Intercutting between an intense single day in the present investigation and the twisted trajectory of the young lovers’ affair in the past, the series is both a unique crime story and a riveting, sexy, psychological thriller.

Dove Cameron, Avan Jogia, Karla Souza, and Dorian Missick star. As Prime Video puts it, “56 Days features a star-studded ensemble cast led by Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia as Ciara Wyse and Oliver Kennedy, showcasing the chemistry and building tension that drive this toxic love affair. Rounding out the ensemble are Karla Souza as detective Lee Reardon and Dorian Missick as detective Karl Connolly, who anchor the present-day investigation with gripping performances that keep audiences on the edge of their seats.“

Will you be watching 56 Days when it premieres on Prime Video in February? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Posted by Cody Hamman

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The What Happened to This Horror Movie episode on Damien: The Omen II was written by Jaime Vasquez:

Following The Exorcist, creepy kids and demonic entities were box-office gold, and The Omen stood out as one of the best of its kind. The spooky flick about a wealthy couple unknowingly adopting the Antichrist became one of the biggest hits of 1976, both critically and commercially, even winning an Oscar for Best Score. But sequels weren’t as easily greenlit back then as they are today. In fact, they were often seen as lowbrow cash-ins. Despite that stigma, and despite losing its original writer and director, Damien: The Omen II still got the go-ahead. So how did the movie fare without its original creators? Why did it have two directors, and what caused the first to walk off set? Why does Lance Henriksen look back on the experience as miserable? And which actor insisted on performing their own stunt in one of the film’s most gruesome death scenes? We’re taking the stairs instead of the elevator, keeping an eye out for evil-eyed ravens, as we find out what happened to Damien: The Omen II.

Building the Sequel Without the Original Team

Screenwriter Stanley Mann already had an impressive résumé, including The Collector… no, not that Collector. This 1965 psychological horror-thriller, directed by William Wyler, followed a man whose obsession with a woman spirals dangerously out of control. The film earned several Academy Award nominations, including Best Screenplay for Mann and co-writer John Kohn.

Mann continued working steadily in film and television before teaming up with writer-director Mike Hodges for the follow-up to The Omen. Hodges was still relatively new to Hollywood, but he’d already made waves with the gritty revenge classic Get Carter, starring Michael Caine (basically young Alfred Pennyworth doing things Batman never would.)

Hodges was originally hired to direct Damien: Omen II as well, though his time behind the camera would be short-lived.

A Revolving Door of Directors

Stepping in to replace Hodges was Don Taylor, best known for Escape from the Planet of the Apes and the 1977 remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau. Taylor was actually the third person considered to direct the sequel.

First up was Richard Donner, director of the 1976 original, but Donner was already busy making Superman… the 1978 one with Christopher Reeve, not the ten or so that came later.

Keeping the Music, Losing the Writer

Producer Harvey Bernhard was determined to bring back composer Jerry Goldsmith. Fortunately, that worked out. Goldsmith, fresh off his Oscar win for The Omen, returned with an even more intense score. His blend of choral and classical elements was cranked up to eleven, giving the sequel a sense of scale and gravitas that helped it feel like a true continuation of the franchise.

Once you heard that music, you knew Damien was nearby, and that it might be time to move to another country.

Bernhard also reached out to Omen co-writer David Seltzer, but Seltzer declined, saying he had no interest in sequels. He later admitted that if he had written it, the story would’ve picked up the very next day after the original, with Damien living in the White House. While evil enough to be a politician, Damien might’ve been a bit young to run for office.

Early Story Ideas That Never Made It

One early concept involved aging Damien up to 15 and giving him a girlfriend, creating a tragic “Rosemary’s Baby meets Romeo and Juliet” dynamic. The emotional core would’ve centered on Damien struggling against his destiny.

That psychological angle survived only briefly in the final cut, before the movie pivoted into what amounts to an unofficial prequel to Final Destination.

Casting the Antichrist (Again)

William Holden was originally offered the role of Robert Thorn in the first film but turned it down because he didn’t want to star in a movie about the devil. The role went to Gregory Peck instead, and the rest is horror history. Holden later admitted he regretted passing on The Omen, so when the sequel came around, he jumped at the chance to play Richard Thorn, Robert’s brother and Damien’s new guardian. Apparently, starring in a movie about the devil was fine once the box office numbers were proven.

Harvey Spencer Stephens was too young to return as Damien, so the role went to Jonathan Scott-Taylor. Scott-Taylor cited Carrie as an influence on his performance, which makes sense, as both characters kill people without lifting a finger.

Lee Grant signed on as Aunt Ann Thorn, while Lance Henriksen appeared as Sergeant Neff, a man who encourages Damien to read the Bible… which does not go well.

Sylvia Sidney plays the doomed Aunt Marion, and Lew Ayres and Meshach Taylor round out the supporting cast. Taylor, in his debut role, also gets the movie’s most gut-wrenching death. Literally.

Creative Clashes Behind the Scenes

Mike Hodges clashed almost immediately with producer Harvey Bernhard over major creative decisions, including Damien’s age. Bernhard allegedly rewrote scenes without informing Hodges, while Hodges’ perfectionism reportedly slowed production to a crawl, right down to spending hours on details like a flag blowing in the wind.

After just three weeks, Hodges walked off the project.

Some of his footage made it into the final cut, including the factory scenes, military school sequences, and the dinner scene where Aunt Marion voices her suspicions about Damien. You know, standard family dinner conversation.

Don Taylor Takes Over

Don Taylor’s approach was reportedly far more relaxed, and most of the cast and crew warmed to him quickly. Lance Henriksen, however, did not.

Henriksen was originally meant to have a much larger role, mentoring Damien and guiding him toward the dark side. His character was basically Darth Vader without the helmet, or a male version of Mrs. Baylock from the first film. Instead, his role was cut down to the point that many fans consider it a cameo. Henriksen later said he disliked the final cut and felt the film didn’t help his career. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t return for Part III.

The Most Disturbing Death Scene

While most of the film’s deaths border on dark comedy, one stands out as genuinely upsetting. Bill Atherton’s character falls through the ice of a frozen lake while skating, pounding helplessly beneath the surface as onlookers watch in horror.

The scene was filmed in Eagle River, Wisconsin, using local kids as background skaters. Paramedics were on standby, which turned out to be wise because nobody on set really knew how to skate. Even William Holden fell during filming, and that accidental tumble made it into the movie.

Lew Ayres insisted on doing his own stunt work for the drowning sequence, despite Lee Grant warning him not to. He performed everything up until the moment it became too dangerous, at which point a stunt double took over. Still, credit where it’s due: Ayres fully committed to one of the film’s most unsettling moments.

Box Office, Reception, and Legacy

Damien: Omen II hit theaters in June 1978, nearly two years after the original. Despite releasing only in the U.S. and Canada, it earned a respectable $26 million on a $6.8 million budget, easily turning a profit.

Critical reception was mixed. The film currently sits at around 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, with similar audience scores, and a 6.2/10 on IMDb. Critics praised the cinematography and noted that it was more fun than the original… which, honestly, works as a compliment to both films.

The first Omen took itself deadly seriously. The sequel leaned into gory theatrics years before gore became mainstream, making horror more fun in its own twisted way.

Influence and Final Thoughts

While the original Omen became infamous for its alleged curse, the real curse of Omen II was the behind-the-scenes tension. Hodges wanted a psychological story about identity and destiny. Bernhard wanted shock and spectacle. In the end, spectacle won.

Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris has credited the film with inspiring “The Number of the Beast” after a nightmare following a late-night viewing. It was a song and album that would define the band.

Some fans also see Omen II as a precursor to the Final Destination franchise, thanks to its elaborate, Rube Goldberg-style death scenes. Whether direct inspiration or subconscious influence, its impact is hard to ignore.

The movie’s best moments come when it lets Damien be clever instead of violent, like the infamous classroom scene where he humiliates his teacher with a flawless pop quiz performance. Unfortunately, moments like that are rare.

Ultimately, the plot boils down to this: anyone who threatens to expose Damien as the Antichrist gets taken out by ravens, trucks, frozen lakes, or elevators slicing people in half. It’s over-the-top, ridiculous, and oddly entertaining. And that, my friends, is what happened to Damien: The Omen II.

A couple of previous episodes of this show can be seen below. For more, check out the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel—and don’t forget to subscribe!

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Posted by Chris Bumbray

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In the list of all-time Christmas movies, one that always gets overlooked is Doug Liman’s Go.
Wait—how is Go a Christmas movie, you might be asking?

Well, despite not being a movie about Christmas per se, it actually all takes place over one VERY eventful Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, with the film revolving around a couple of loosely connected groups as they share a somewhat seedy holiday.

There are two grocery store clerks looking to score by selling ecstasy pills at a Christmas rave, a group of bros who head to Vegas to make trouble, two gay actors working a sting with a cop, and more. It barely made a dime in theaters, but it proved to be a great kickoff to what would later emerge as one of the greatest years in modern cinema history: 1999.

So let’s take a deep dive into Doug Liman’s cult classic.

From Swingers to Go: Doug Liman’s Indie Breakout

Flash back to the year 1996 and the release of a micro-budget comedy called Swingers. While now a hugely iconic indie hit, Swingers was made for only $250K and came from the pen of a struggling young actor named Jon Favreau.

Deciding to write his own ticket—much like other burgeoning actors of the era did, most famously Matt Damon and Ben Affleck with Good Will Hunting (although Swingers predates it by a year)—the movie also proved to be the big break for star Vince Vaughn.

While many look back at it now as one of the great Sundance success stories, it actually did not play that festival. Sure, it feels like the kind of movie that should have, but it was never even submitted, as the producers didn’t consider it a serious enough film. They were planning to release it themselves in a regional Los Angeles pattern, but a buyer’s screening late in the year caused a sensation, and Miramax bought it for $5 million.

Ironically, the film wasn’t a particularly big commercial success, earning about $4.5 million—which was good for an indie, but less than Miramax paid for it. Still, it was seen by the right people, and everyone involved got a huge boost.

Vince Vaughn became a hot leading man, landing a co-starring role in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Jon Favreau ended up being cast on Friends as a love interest for Monica and soon after showed up in Deep Impact.

How Go Came Together

As for Doug Liman, he did get a few studio offers to direct movies, but he opted to stay in the indie zone when he was approached by writer John August with the script for Go.

Initially pitched as a short film, August expanded the script to feature length. At the time, August was a rising talent known mostly as a much-in-demand script doctor—meaning he often rewrote movies but received no credit. Yet he was known around town, and the combination of him and Liman was enough to secure the movie a modest $3.5 million budget, which is unthinkable now for a film shot entirely on location in Los Angeles.

Again, Liman’s work had been seen by enough power players in Hollywood to make Go a hot project despite its low budget. Given that it centered on a bunch of characters in their twenties and was exceedingly edgy, it was a movie many young actors wanted to do to shake up their image.

The Cast: On the Brink of Fame

The biggest name in the cast when it came out was Katie Holmes, who plays Claire, a supermarket cashier left as collateral with a hunky drug dealer played by a pre-fame Timothy Olyphant, while her best friend Ronna tries to make a mint selling E to ravers.

Holmes, of course, was a huge rising star thanks to Dawson’s Creek, the hottest teen show on TV. All of the stars of that series were able to land movies, with Holmes having appeared in the teen horror flick Disturbing Behavior the year before. This role was meant to change her image—somewhat.

Yet the juiciest role in the movie was reserved for Sarah Polley. At the time, Polley wasn’t especially well known in the U.S., but she was a household name in Canada. She had starred in the long-running series Road to Avonlea and also had a standout role in Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter.

Go would remain one of her few American starring roles, as she often turned down projects to work on low-budget Canadian fare, eventually finding her greatest fame as an acclaimed director.

Risks, Representation, and ’90s Reality

Probably the most controversial segment revolved around the two gay TV actors, played by Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf. While Mohr, having acted on SNL, was likely comfortable taking on a risqué role, the movie was a huge risk for Wolf, who was starring on Party of Five at the time.

Back then, it was considered risky for straight male actors to play gay characters, lest they be identified that way. Same-sex kisses were still taboo; in Philadelphia, despite playing a gay lawyer, you never see Tom Hanks kiss Antonio Banderas on the mouth.

In today’s era, that may be hard to believe—but that was the reality. Wolf later said the script for Go was so cool that every young actor at the time wanted to be in it.

Why Go Failed in Theaters

Despite all this, Go almost didn’t happen at all, as financing fell through at the eleventh hour—apparently due to the lack of a bankable white male lead. Sony ultimately stepped in, ballooning the budget to roughly $20 million, which explains why the film looks so slick.

So why did it still fizzle when it hit theaters in April 1999?

I can speak to this firsthand. I was seventeen at the time and an avid moviegoer. I remember seeing the film heavily advertised on TV and in theaters, yet I had zero interest in seeing it. The teen TV cast turned me off completely. I was sick to death of Dawson’s Creek and Party of Five, and you would’ve had to put a gun to my head to get me into a theater to watch a movie starring their cast.

Early reviews didn’t help, with critics dismissing it as “Tarantino-lite,” a lazy insult often thrown at indie crime films of the era. Sony’s aggressive push of the soundtrack—including “Steal My Sunshine”—made it seem like just another disposable teen crime movie.

The Matrix had opened the week before and sucked up all the oxygen. The following week, Never Been Kissed opened and became a major hit. Go never had a chance.

Why Go Endures

Yet Go eventually became a cult classic. I caught it on Canada’s HBO equivalent, The Movie Network, in the winter of 2000 and was shocked by how good it was. I watched it repeatedly and quickly realized I’d missed the boat, as had many others.

It became one of the first films released on DVD in a deluxe special edition and sold extremely well. Liman emerged from the film with enough heat to land The Bourne Identity.

In hindsight, Go stands the test of time as one of the definitive ’90s movies, perfectly capturing the vibe of being a twenty-something on the make in that era. Kids were different then. Most of us didn’t care about politics—we just wanted to party and, yes, do light drugs.

With its killer soundtrack, hot cast, and relentless energy, Go previewed a cinematic wave that would crest later that year with Fight Club, Three Kings, Magnolia, and Being John Malkovich.

In many ways, Go got there first—and it deserves to be remembered as one of 1999’s true classics.

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