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Joe Eszterhas, the legendary screenwriter of “Basic Instinct,” the 1992 thriller that defined femme serial killers in film and made an icon of Sharon Stone, has closed a $4 million deal to write a reboot for Scott Stuber’s United Artists banner and Amazon MGM Studios, TheWrap has exclusively learned.

The deal is the biggest spec script sale of the year so far, and commits Amazon to a $2 million payout against a potential $4 million to Eszterhas if the movie is made.

“To those who question what an 80-year-old man is doing writing a sexy, erotic thriller: the rumors of my cinematic impotence are exaggerated and ageist,” Esztherhas said in a statement to TheWrap. “I call my writing partner the Twisted Little Man and he lives somewhere deep inside me. He was born 29 and he will die 29 and he tells me he is ‘sky high up’ to write this piece and provide viewers...

You were wrong if you thought summer is all sunshine and rainbows. This July, turn your fear into guaranteed goosebumps with a collection of horror movies packed with jaw-dropping twists and mind-bending experiences. Fawesome brings to you, from psychological nightmares to supernatural jump scares, seven horror gems that will take you through twisted timelines, blood-driven alleyways, and reckoning ghost forms. What’s best? They are all free from any subscriptions or paywalls.

Whether you find yourself awake tonight or dreaming of dreadful creatures, July on Fawesome has a scream-worthy list of horror movies that can petrify even the bravest horror fans. These unapologetic, blood-rushed, mayhem of sadistic creatures can slaughter your serenity. The best part is you can stream them for free without hitting paywalls and endless notifications!

These seven mind-bending horror films will fill your nights with ghastly nightmares and dark thoughts.

The Haunting (dir. Jan de Bont)

Starring: Liam Neeson,...

Exclusive: Following Jurassic World Rebirth‘s $322 million-plus global opening weekend, Sony has hired writers Kaz Firpo and Ryan Firpo to adapt Eruption, the No. 1 New York Times bestseller from Michael Crichton and James Patterson.

At the same time, we understand that the project, which Sony won in a competitive auction last summer in a major deal, is now an open directing assignment with Free Solo filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi having exited.

Eruption, which Crichton started writing before his death in 2008 and which was completed by Patterson, follows a history-making volcano explosion that is about to wipe away the big island of Hawaii. However, a secret held for decades by the U.S. military is far more terrifying than any volcano. The two blockbuster authors have combined worldwide sales of more than 700 million books.

Eruption is being produced by Sherri Crichton, Patterson, and Shane Salerno and The Story Factory.

In the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Starship Mine", the U.S.S. Enterprise has to undergo a massive, shipwide maintenance routine that requires every single living being -- including the plants -- to be cleared off the ship. It seems that, in its many merry adventures, the Enterprise has taken on a great deal of toxic particles that need to be cleared from the ship's systems. The best way to do this is to run a slow-moving wall of concentrated baryon particles through the entire starship. The field is lethal to organic materials, so everyone has to get off the Enterprise immediately. It's the sci-fi equivalent of getting one's house tented for termites. 

This leaves the Enterprise's senior staff in the care of one Commander Calvin Hutchinson (David Spielberg), who aims to pass the time with an extended reception on the planet below. A chatterbox of the highest order,...

Gerard Butler kicked off 2025 by starring in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, but one action film from the star that’s more than 20 years old has resurfaced on streaming charts. Butler stars alongside Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life, the 2003 sequel to the 2001 film, which follows Lara Croft (Jolie), an explorer who sets out to prevent Pandora’s box from falling into the wrong hands. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - Cradle of Life is currently streaming for free on Pluto TV, and it’s one of the most popular movies on the platform in America, sitting at #5 at the time of writing. The film earned dual “rotten” scores of 24% from critics and 44% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and it grossed $160 million at the box office against a $95 million budget.

After Simon West directed Angelina Jolie’s first Tomb Raider movie with a script from a host of names,...

Halle Berry Passed On A Career-Making Role Sandra Bullock Took(Photo Credit –Instagram/Wikimedia)

Before Sandra Bullock became Speed’s accidental action hero, Halle Berry had already said no to the ride of her life. In a resurfaced confession during John Wick 3 promotions with Keanu Reeves, Berry admitted she passed on the now-iconic 1994 action flick. Why? Because the bus didn’t even leave the parking lot in the script draft she saw.

“I stupidly said no,” Berry told Et. “But in my defense, when I read the script, the bus didn’t leave the parking lot… Then I see the movie and I’m like, arrrrghh.”

That “arrrrghh” pretty much says it all.

From Bus to Bulletstorm: Berry Finally Gets Her Action Hero Moment with Keanu Reeves

Directed by Jan de Bont, Speed would go on to gross $350 million worldwide and launch Bullock into superstardom. Paired with Keanu Reeves’ LAPD hero Jack Traven,...

The best-selling author of all time, as of this writing, remains William Shakespeare, a little-known British playwright from Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, who lived from April 23, 1564 to April 23, 1616. He wrote some obscure plays that you've probably never heard of. Stuff like "Cardenio," "The Two Noble Kinsmen," and "Edward III." He's not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries Ben Jonson, Philip Henslowe, or John Fletcher. 

But I kid the Bard. There isn't a student in the English-speaking world who wasn't forced through at least four or five Shakespeare plays in high school. Raise your hand if you still remember a Shakespearean soliloquy you were required to memorize for your 10th-grade English class. 

After Shakespeare, some of the best-selling authors of all time include Agatha Christie, Danielle Steele, Harold Robbins, J.K. Rowling, Eiichiro Oda (the author of the "One Piece" manga), and Jackie Collins. No doubt you've explored some of these authors in your spare time at airports.

Keanu Reeves has always kept stuff low-key, but when it comes to Sandra Bullock, our guy just can’t seem to hide his soft spot. After years of fans rooting for this duo, Reeves is back with an update that’s turning up the heat. He wasn’t kidding when he said he adored her this time – his actions are doing all the talking.

Whether it’s a reunion in the works or something a little more heart-fluttery, Reeves’ latest reveal’s sparked a fresh wave of buzz. Looks like the Reeves-Bullock saga might just be getting a brand-new chapter.

Keanu Reeves just made his Sandra Bullock comeback dream real Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in Speed | Credits: 20th Century Studios

Keanu Reeves means it when he says he’s been waiting to reunite with Sandra Bullock. And now, it’s officially happening.

Reeves confirmed that after years of searching,...

It’s shocking that it took over forty years for an American Godzilla movie to be produced… but when one arrived, many were left wishing it had taken longer. The movie didn’t even deliver the Godzilla we were familiar with. The iconic monster was completely re-designed – and not for the better. So the film immediately earned a bad reputation. And now, we’re going to dig into What Happened to Godzilla ‘98.

American distributors bought the rights to show kaiju movies made by Japan’s Toho Studios in the States and Hanna-Barbera made a Godzilla cartoon, but studios took their time deciding to make their own live-action Godzilla movie. Hollywood had their first chance in 1983. Toho gave director Steve Miner, fresh off of making two Friday the 13th sequels, permission to shop around his own Godzilla project. It was to be a 3-D movie set in the San Francisco area during the Cold War.

In the 1970s, disaster films grew popular in Hollywood and Japan. Hence, Toei Company president Shigeru Okada was eager to capitalize on this trend. Filmmaker Junya Sato and producer Sunao Sakagami developed an idea for a thriller involving the bullet train, known in Japan as the Shinkansen, drawing influence from a screenplay written by Akira Kurosawa titled “Runaway Train” and the American TV movie “The Doomsday Flight.” Collaborating on the script with Sato was fellow screenwriter Ryunosuke Ono, as the creative partnership between these three men transformed this idea into something more absorbing. Thus, this led to “The Bullet Train,” natively known as “The Shinkansen’s Big Explosion.”

Released in 1975, “The Bullet Train” received positive reviews and achieved even greater success overseas, especially in the United States and France. Additional acclaim arose in the years that followed, becoming one of the most influential Japanese films of all time and influencing...

The Twister: Caught in the Storm (1996), directed by Jan de Bont, plunges viewers into the heart of tornado country with an adrenaline-charged mix of disaster spectacle and human drama. As a high-octane thriller, its logline is simple: a veteran storm-chaser (Bill Paxton) and a fearless meteorologist (Helen Hunt) race against spiraling twisters to deploy revolutionary data-gathering probes.

Set against the vast plains of the rural American Midwest during peak tornado season, the film stakes are personal and scientific—lives hang in the balance even as a breakthrough in weather prediction looms.

The director’s eye for scale captures both the sweeping grandeur of swirling skies and the intimate moments of fear etched on characters’ faces. Viewers are invited to witness raw nature in motion while tracking relationships frayed and reforged under extraordinary duress.

For global audiences accustomed to Bollywood’s vivid tableaux or India’s parallel cinema focus on social realism,...

Author Shirley Jackson was a unique trailblazer in American fiction, crafting horror stories that weave supernatural elements with stories about grief, trauma, and mental illness. Over her lifetime she published six novels and more than 200 short stories, along with two memoirs, but surprisingly there have been only five film and television adaptations of her work. Plenty of others have been inspired by Jackson, of course, but only four films and one TV series actually seek to adapt her work in some way, to varying degrees of success.

There's something to appreciate in each of these works because the source material is so rich, but some Shirley Jackson adaptations are far better than others. So, let's take a look at them from worst to best, starting with the earliest adaptation: the 1957 Hugo Haas noir film "Lizzie."

Read more: The 5 Best Movies Inspired By Twilight Zone Episodes, Ranked

Lizzie (1957)

The earliest of...

Tornadoes can be terrifying, but that doesn't stop people from watching a movie about them. In real life, there are courageous storm chasers who start their potentially dangerous journey with one mission: to look a storm in its eye, or rather, get up close and personal to study it or admire its scary beauty. While when this happens in real life, fear takes over those at home getting alerts and warnings from meteorologists to take cover, movies like Twistersare entertainingly whirling up the charts. According to Flix Patrol, the 2024 film is among the top movies to watch on Prime Video.

It hasn't left the top ten on the chart and is currently staying in the top three. Twisters is a sequel to Twister (1996), which starred Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. The Glen Powell-led production follows a clashing group of storm chasers who investigate a tornado outbreak in Oklahoma.

Shinji Higuchi’s action thriller Bullet Train Explosion debuted on Netflix on April 23 with something of a bang, with the movie enthusiastically embraced by viewers and climbing as high as No. 2 in the streamer’s global non-English films list. The movie was another win for Netflix Japan, and notably a breakout feature for the region after it had scored international and critical successes with series such as Alice in Borderland, First Love, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House and The Boyfriend.

A sequel to Junya Sato’s 1975 classic The Bullet Train — a film that inspired Jan de Bont’s 1994 blockbuster Speed — Bullet Train Explosion updates the action to the present day and similarly sees an unseen villain claim (and also prove) that they have placed a bomb on a Tokyo-bound Shinkansen train, that is set to explode if the train drops below 100 km/h in speed.

Ready for an all-new dinosaur adventure? Cinema’s toothiest troublemakers are returning in Jurassic World Rebirth, set to evolve the blockbuster saga with fresh characters, creatures and more. You can read all about it in Empire’s summer 2025 issue, going on set with Gareth Edwards and his cast – order yours now here.

You won’t find a copy on newsstands until Thursday 8 May, but here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside the issue.

Jurassic World Rebirth

A new era of Jurassic begins. Empire joins Godzilla and Rogue One director Gareth Edwards on set of his dinosaur adventure, speaking to Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey and more as the series evolves its DNA once more.

M3GAN 2.0

Time for an upgrade. M3GAN was a horror smash – and the sequel is upping the ante in every way, going cultier, campier, and cranking up the action. Empire speaks to director Gerard Johnstone,...

The Story: A mad Ira bomber (Tommy Lee Jones) escapes prison and travels to Boston, where he stalks his former protégé (Jeff Bridges) who now has a new identity and is a member of the police bomb squad.

The Players: Director: Stephen Hopkins. Writers: John Rice, Joe Batteer, and Jay Roach. Starring: Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, Lloyd Bridges, Forest Whitaker, and Suzy Amis (Titanic). Score by Alan Silverstri (The Avengers).

The History: Blown Away was supposed to be the sleeper hit of 1994. It had all the ingredients. Tommy Lee Jones had just won the Oscar for playing U.S Marshal Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive, and this would be his first full-on bad guy part since Under Siege, which was an unlikely megahit towards the end of 1992. It also had Jeff Bridges in full-on action hero mode for the first time in his career. While Bridges is now regarded as a beloved character actor,...

Making a motion picture is hard work under the best of circumstances. It's a collaborative process that requires careful, hopefully cordial coordination between an incredibly diverse array of craftspeople: directors, actors, writers, camera operators, designers, stunt people, electricians, carpenters, animal wranglers, and occasionally muppets. The degree of difficulty gets ratcheted up when you dare to shoot in less-than-welcoming elements like the water, the jungle, or the desert.

"Jaws," "Apocalypse Now," and "Lawrence of Arabia" are three of the greatest films ever made, but they were brutally difficult to pull together. Mother Nature's fury knocked all three of these well behind schedule. Sets were wrecked, equipment was damaged beyond repair and a mechanical shark refused to operate properly. Was it worth it? For the viewer, absolutely. You watch these movies and, in between breathtaking sequences, lament that they really couldn't be made in this risk-taking fashion nowadays. But one viewing of George Hickenlooper,...

Before there were superheroes saving the world, and stopping buses with their bare hands every weekend, there was a bus that they did not come to save, and if it dropped below 50 mph, boom. That’s Speed in a nutshell. And somehow, that wild setup turned into one of the biggest action hits of the ’90s.

With Keanu Reeves playing the cool cop and Sandra Bullock as the driver, Speed raced into theaters and blew past expectations. It cost under $40 million to make and made nearly $350 million worldwide. Critics loved it, and so did the fans.

Given its runaway success, a sequel was inevitable. Speed 2: Cruise Control thus arrived with Bullock reprising her role, but Reeves opted not to return. Unfortunately, the sequel failed to replicate the original’s impact, both commercially and critically. Now there’s talk of a third film, and if both stars say yes,...

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are reuniting for a new feature film, nearly two decades after they last starred in a movie together. The duo will be back in action, but this time, they're mixing the thrill of Jan de Bont's 1994 pulse-pounding classic Speedwith a touch of romance, reigniting the chemistry they exuded on-screen throughout their (extremely) long-distance relationship in Alejandro Agresti's 2006 love story The Lake House, to star in an as-yet-untitled "propulsive" romantic thriller currently in development at Amazon MGM Studios.

The wheels are in motion on the romantic thriller, but plot details are still under wraps for now. However, the script is in safe hands with Noah Oppenheim, who wrote the 2016 historical drama Jackie and recently co-created Netflix's political thriller Zero Day, starring Robert De Niro as former U.S. president George Mullen. Oppenheim is also producing the next Reeves and Bullock team-up with Sarah Bremner via Prologue Entertainment,...

They've done thriller with a touch of romance in Jan de Bont's 1994 action classic Speed, and romance with a touch of thriller in Alejandro Agresti's 2006 supernatural weepy The Lake House, but now Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are reuniting to make an out and out romantic thriller at last. Yes, per THR's reporting, Keanu and Sandy B are teaming up for the first time in nearly two decades to make an as-yet-untitled, "propulsive" new movie together for Amazon MGM Studios.

Written by Jackie scribe and Zero Day co-creator Noah Oppenheim, Bullock and Reeves' reunion feature is, you'll be delighted to hear, shrouded in secrecy at the moment: not only is the title being withheld for now, but the plot for the movie is also being kept entirely hush-hush, too. Now, on the one hand, that means that we've got very little to go on in terms of parsing...

Pop quiz, Hot Shot! Where would a new movie starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock rank in a long list of in-demand Hollywood reunions? Before you answer, remember the duo’s outstanding chemistry in the Jan de Bont-directed action thriller Speed. If that’s not enough, think about their enchanting romantic drama The Lake House. You see what I’m getting at. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock will reunite for an untitled romantic thriller at Amazon MGM Studios.

The project boasts a script by Noah Oppenheim, the writer of the 2016 Jackie Kennedy Onassis biopic Jackie. Plot details remain a mystery. Still, THR says they’ve heard the story is “propulsive.” I admit that’s not a lot to go on, but knowing Reeves and Bullock are attached is enough for me. The untitled project finds Reeves and Bullock re-teaming with Speed producer Mark Gordon,...

Like the 1970s, the '90s were a great decade for disaster films. In addition to films like "Deep Impact," "Armageddon," "Independence Day," "Dante's Peak," and "Volcano," there was, of course, "Twister." The Jan de Bont film followed a storm-chasing couple on the verge of divorce, chasing one of the worst outbreaks of tornados in the history of Oklahoma. Though the film is now almost three decades old, it holds up!

There are lots of reasons why the movie works so well. One major factor was de Bont's insistence on practical effects. "We dropped those combines hanging from helicopters onto the road as the car was driving, which, of course, makes for the best reaction you can get from the actors, because it's goddamned real," he told Vulture. "They really fall from the sky, and it is not like a little fall."

Another major aspect of the film's success was its cast.

Even at their most fantastical, high-concept blockbusters can prompt audiences to contemplate what might happen if their circumstances took place in real life. Frequently, the question is as simple as what would “actually” happen or how an individual would react if presented with a larger-than-life situation. But after watching local, national or even worldwide forces respond to an emergency or incident, it becomes easy — even natural — to compare that effort to what the characters in a movie do when they leap into action.

In that regard, “Bullet Train Explosion” meets a believability threshold that feels virtually unparalleled. Like his previous film “Shin Godzilla,” director Shinji Higuchi’s follow-up to the 1975 Japanese film “The Bullet Train” explores with meticulous and realistic detail what a bureaucratic response might be to, well, a scenario that’s likely only to happen in the movies. Even without a movie star fighting his way up and...

If you think sequels are bad now, you should have seen them a couple decades ago. Today, franchises are so ubiquitous that the studios take time to get them as right as possible, securing the original stars and trying to write stories that equal their predecessors. At the dawn of the blockbuster era, however, sequels were seen as cheap cash cows to be rushed out as quickly as possible while people still remembered the original. Nowadays, we know that nostalgia can overcome most of that and keep some properties around forever.

If you're wondering why your least favorite "Star Wars, "Star Trek," or "Superman" isn't on this list, it's simple: when you have an actor associated with an iconic character who continues to commit to the role, it elevates even "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace." It's hard to hate a movie that has Christopher Reeve in the tights, or Leonard Nimoy in pointy ears,...

Are you ready to go back to the drive-in and watch one of your favorite Bollywood films, Bradford? Well, get ready because the first in a series of large-scale outdoor cinema spectaculars for Bradford 2025 takes place this April, as a Drive-In Cinema comes to Cannon Mills in Great Horton, overlooking the cityscape of Bradford’s historic textile mills. From 17 to 19 April, there will be three days of screenings for audiences to watch from their car in a classic movie-going experience. How exciting is this?

Specially programmed for the Drive-In is a strand of classic and contemporary Hindi films, opening with Kabir Khan’s 2015 smash hit Bajrangi Bhaijaan and classic Bollywood comedy Amar, Akbar, Anthony.

There will also be a chance to see family-friendly road-trip movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, and romantic musical comedy Jab We Met. All Hindi films will be subtitled in English.

English language films include a Good...

Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and Juarez (Lisseth Chavez) are in full action movie mode in Season 7, Episode 11 of “The Rookie,” aptly titled “Speed.” A throwback to the 1994 L.A. action classic of the same name, the new episode finds Nolan and Juarez trapped in a hostage situation on a bus while undercover for a public safety initiative. Meanwhile, the Mid-Wilshire team mobilizes to hunt down the suspects and get all the passengers off safely.

Directed by Jan de Bont (“Twister”), the original “Speed” stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock as a cop and a bus passenger, respectively, who have to keep their bus speeding through the streets of L.A. at over 50 mph. If they fail, or if anyone tries to get off, the bus is rigged to blow, thanks to the handiwork of a vengeful retired bomb squad member (Dennis Hopper).

As for “The Rookie” episode, you’ll have to...

After swirling through the box office and making an impact, Twisters spins its way onto a new streaming service. The long-awaited sequel to the award-winning original, Twister, debuts on Amazon Prime Video and finds instant success on the popular streamer.

Twisters debuted via Prime Video on Mar. 18, nearly eight months after its theatrical debut, and is already the top-ranked movie on the platform. The disaster film sequel's Prime Video success adds to its streaming prowess on Peacock, where it debuted last November and outperformed the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer with its early returns.

Coming nearly three decades after the Oscar-nominated Twister, Twisters is a standalone sequel to the original, not carrying over characters or storylines from the first film, though it maintains the movie's spirit. The film sees Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) return to storm chasing after a tragic event from her days as a meteorology student, looking to track a tornado...

Keanu Reeves is a national treasure. An indelible performer, he's actively improving with age, putting his stoic gravitas to spectacular effect as cinema's greatest action hero. Fans fell in love with him in The Matrix, heralding Neo as a modern pop culture icon. However, when critics took issue with Reeves' limited range, he reinvented himself with The John Wick franchise. As the Baba Yaga, Keanu Reeves is a harbinger of death, carrying himself like an icy specter of relentless bloodshed. Suffice it to say, the role cemented his status as a warrior without equal. That being said, Keanu wasn't always the action-savant his reputation suggests.

Released in 1994, Speed is a first-rate thrill ride rarely seen on the big screen nowadays. The premise is simple yet brilliant: There's a bomb on a bus, and if it goes below 50 Mph, it will blow. The result is an immaculate piece of cinematic craft...

Movies frequently use novels as source material. When authors create rich, vibrant stories inside their pages, it's hard not to want to see them played out on the big screen. Countless fairy tales, children's books, dramas and romance novels eventually become films. For horror movie fans, they can also see their favorite books turned into fantastically scary movies.

Sometimes, a reader's imagination is a lot scarier than that of a movie adaptation. These horror books may have been adapted into entertaining, beloved movies, but they are still worth reading because of the frights they deliver. Horror fans will be missing out if they don't add these terrifying novels to their Tbr lists.

Updated on March 11, 2025, by Robert Vaux: Horror novels provide easy name recognition and a built-in audience. Hollywood has no shortage of horror movie adaptations that can't quite match the terrors evoked by their source material. The article is updated with five new entries,...

Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" draws us into its gothic, macabre world even before we set our sights on the titular mansion. When we finally see the scary residence, Jackson's haunting prose etches the picture of a house that observes and reacts to human presence, being every bit sentient as its inhabitants. The true horror, however, lies in the unspoken fears evoked by such a horrible, surreal place. When the mansion brings out the worst anxieties in our protagonist, Eleanor Vance, it's hard not to slip into her shoes and absorb some of her fears.

As the key to capturing the heart of Jackson's chilling tale is to explore these subtleties, few adaptations have managed to reinvent the book's premise on its own terms. The most effective and notable effort (so far) is Mike Flanagan's "The Haunting of Hill House," which uses Jackson's haunted house...

Is "Twisters" scientifically accurate? The answer is not, as a cynical reader might assume, an instant no. Jan De Bont's original "Twister" in 1996 has a lot to answer for, but its 2024 follow-up has a little bit more on its mind; its creatives were more careful.

There is some nuance to real-life storm science that "Twisters" directly taps into. "Twisters," for those who missed Lee Isaac Chung's 2024 blockbuster, centers on Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a former storm-chaser. In the film's prologue, Kate loses several of her closest peers to a tornado while doing some dangerous research, hoping to use specialized chemicals to cause the storm to instantly dissipate. (The experiment is not successful.) Years after the tragedy, Kate has settled into a world of safe, indoor meteorology. She now works for the Noaa, but is afraid to venture outdoors underneath stormy skies.

Kate is then pulled back into storm-chasing by...

Keanu Reeves. Probably one of the most popular actors in the industry today, who is loved by millions. He’s an unlikely icon in every sense and has helped define eras in Hollywood, from his teen days to his action-star period. The internet can’t seem to get enough of him, and his very image started the Sad Keanu posts, the wholesome Keanu memes, and the never-ending irresistible fandom.

For a person who’s famous for staying off-grid and low-key, nobody would’ve thought Keanu would turn from a cult hero to a guy who’s literally everywhere right now! The internet shouldn’t let us deviate from how talented an actor he is, and his versatility, especially; roles in comedies, romantic dramas, art-house films, and thriller/action flicks, has truly given new definitions to the range of his fan base.

In this article, we’ll be charting his growth...

The Sooner State is well represented on the silver screen, with a cinematic legacy that goes back more than a century. In fact, it began shortly after Oklahoma's founding as the 46th state in 1907. The first movie set and filmed in Oklahoma was probably "The Bank Robbery" in 1908, made in Cache, Oklahoma by two lawmen and a photographer. Proving indisputably that there's no business like show business, the cast included the lawmen, a former outlaw, and even the infamous Chief Quanah Parker, war leader of the Kwahadi ("Antelope") of the Comanche Nation. This scenario proves why storytellers have always been drawn to The Sooner State –- it's a wild, weird, and wonderful place, as rich with stories as it historically was with oil.

"The Bank Robbery" was probably the first movie set in Oklahoma, but it was certainly not the last. Not by a long shot. But we're only considering...

There were a lot of great pivotal moments in the action movie genre in the 1990s. From Heat(1995) to Léon: The Professional (1994), these movies dominated the box office for their action-packed sequences and innovative plots. One of the most popular movies of that decade, Speed, revolutionized the action genre. Directed by Jan de Bont and starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, and Dennis Hopper, the 1995 film is quintessential in the genre for giving high stakes, a realistic premise, and a new style of shooting these exhilarating action sequences that were genuinely dangerous. Speed centers on an LAPD cop, Jack Traven (Reeves), who has to save a lot of people from a bomb that will blow off if the bus drops below fifty miles per hour. This is a simple yet thrilling plot that changed the layout of action movies and also introduced audiences to a new kind of hero that defied the brooding,...

As amazing as Keanu Reeves is in the John Wick franchise, The Matrix: Resurrections, Toy Story 4, and even Sonic the Hedgehog 3, sometimes you just can't beat a classic. Ask anyone what Reeves' best action movie is, and you might get a few answers, including Point Break, The Matrix, or maybe even Constantine. But one film that you're guaranteed to hear is Speed, the 1994 action classic that temporarily gave the entire country a fear of buses.

Speed is enthralling audiences once again on streaming, as Max users can't get enough of Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock driving a bus and stopping a domestic terrorist (Speed was a wild movie!). The movie is currently putting in a strong showing on Max's Top 10 most popular movies of the week -- if it drops below fifth place, it might explode. Directed by Jan de Bont, Speed stars Reeves as Jack Tavern, a...

Why did Keanu Reeves pass on Speed 2? (Photo Credit – Facebook/Prime Video)

Keanu Reeves made one of the smartest career moves ever by giving Speed 2 a hard pass. The first Speed was an absolute adrenaline rush, a steady ride of shambles and outbursts. So when they announced a sequel, everyone just assumed Reeves would be back for more but nope, he slammed the brakes on that one.

Instead of him racing against time, we got Jason Patric as Sandra Bullock’s new on-screen boyfriend. Not precisely something fans were hoping for. Reeves took one look at the script and knew it wasn’t exemplary. So, he trusted his gut and walked away. And guess what? He was right.

Why Keanu Reeves Opted Out of Speed 2

When Speed 2 dropped, everyone presumed Keanu Reeves would be back as Jack Traven. After all, he was a major reason the...

Speed, the iconic action film starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, has found a new streaming home this February. Fans of the action classic that shot Reeves and Bullock to stardom will be able to stream the movie on Max starting from today. It was a major blockbuster back in 1994, making over $350 million at the box office and winning two Academy Awards the year after in the Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing categories. The film was also acclaimed by critics and audiences, landing a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with renowned critics like Roger Ebert awarding it four out of four stars.

The movie, directed by Jan de Bont, also stars Dennis Hopper, Jeff Daniels, Joe Morton, Beth Grant and Alan Ruck, among others. Speed follows an LAPD officer named Jack, who's forced to get on board a bus that has a bomb rigged into the speedometer. Luckily, one of the passengers,...

Jan de Bont’s Speed was a massive blockbuster success for 20th Century Studios, and more than that, it made Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock international stars. With the fame and money that the franchise made, it’s only logical to expect a sequel. Unfortunately, the John Wick star opted out of it.

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in Speed / Credits: 20th Century Studios

Without Reeves, Speed 2: Cruise Control tanked at the box office, but it was more of a deficiency in the script. This is why the actor did not return—he wasn’t feeling it, in plain speak. Now, he’s got a new project that almost feels like it is set in the same atmosphere as Speed.

Keanu Reeves was disappointed with Speed 2 script

Keanu Reeves made a lot of money in 1994’s Speed playing Jack Traven, a police officer who tried to avoid...

One of the most iconic films of Keanu Reeves' entire career is racing its way to a new streaming home.

Per Max, 1994's instantly iconic action thriller Speed is headed to the streaming platform as its new home. Speed will be available for streaming on Max in less than two weeks, with the film making its debut on the platform on February 1.

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Directed by Jan de Bont from a script by writer Graham Yost, Speed starred Keanu Reeves and Jeff Daniels as LAPD Officers Jack Travern and Harry Temple, respectively, who are tasked with hunting down and preventing the latest attack by Dennis Hopper's Howard Payne, a...

Fresh off the success of his summer blockbuster, Twisters, director Lee Isaac Chung has lined up his next film, which is described as a sci-fi family drama.

Per Deadline, Chung is set to direct The Traveler for Skydance, an adaptation of Joseph Eckert's novel, Traveler. The film has reportedly been in the making for many years, as MGM showed interest in the original script written by Austin Everett back in 2019. However, the latest draft was written by Justin Rhodes, best known as the screenwriter behind Terminator: Dark Fate and an episode of the Prime Video series, Secret Level.

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The outlet describes the film as "an intimate family drama that exponentially develops into a vast science fiction odyssey," further...

From the bouncer brawler Road House to the high-octane spy caper True Lies, there are plenty of great mindless action movies out there for Fast & Furious fans to enjoy. What makes the Fast & Furious movies so much fun is that they allow the audience to switch off their brain. They flagrantly defy the laws of physics with their absurd action set-pieces. James Bond movies tend to have complicated plots and the Bourne movies deal with heavy themes, but the Fast & Furious saga doesn’t strive to do anything more than entertain.

There are plenty of other great action movies that fall into this category. Directors like Michael Bay and stars like Jason Statham have made a career out of action movies that stimulate the audience’s adrenaline while giving their intellect some much-needed rest. There are action movies with ridiculous premises that make no sense, like the face-swapping plot of Face/Off,...

It's part of the mythos of Hollywood action stars that they're not afraid to do their own stunts, risk their necks, and just generally court danger in order to maintain their larger-than life mystique. Even on that scale, though, the stories Gerard Butler told during a recent conversation with his...

Putting a dystopian future on the big screen was nothing new in the early 2000s, especially when set in the realm of science-fiction. But making it work also within the action genre is a monumental ask. Really, how often did an all-out action flick want to make its viewers think…especially when the plot revolves around thinking be illegal.

But Kurt Wimmer gave it a go with Equilibrium, which wondered what the world might look like under a totalitarian rule…if there was a lot of gunplay involved. Brushed aside by the studio, critics and moviegoers, Equilibrium has gone on to become a minor cult favorite (including here on JoBlo), something Wimmer could have never seen coming…Just don’t go comparing it to The Matrix in front of him…

So, take off your thinking cap and load up your pistols as we find out: Wtf Happened to This Movie?...

Let’s rewind to 1994. Speed became an instant classic, throwing us into the high-stakes drama of a bus wired to explode if it dropped below 50 mph. It had it all—especially Keanu Reeves as the heroic cop Jack Traven, Sandra Bullock as the witty passenger Annie Porter, and a plot that kept us hooked.

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in Speed (Credits: 20th Century Studios)

Naturally, fans couldn’t wait for a sequel. But then came Speed 2: Cruise Control in 1997. And, well it wasn’t what anyone hoped for. The high-speed bus was swapped for a slow-moving cruise ship, and Reeves didn’t return.

So, why did our beloved Jack Traven ditch the sequel, leaving Annie Porter to awkwardly flirt with a new guy? Turns out, the lead star had some solid reasons, and honestly? He dodged a bullet—or maybe a sinking ship.

Keanu Reeves’ reason for skipping...

Tom Hanks almost replaced Keanu Reeves in Speed? (Photo Credit – Instagram/Wikipedia)

Back in the early ’90s, Tom Hanks was in talks to play Jack Traven in Jan de Bont’s iconic action-thriller Speed, instead of the iconic Keanu Reeves.

Hanks passed on the project, though the reason remains unclear. His career choices show a preference for depth-driven films like Saving Private Ryan and Road to Perdition. Speed’s action-packed thrills likely didn’t fit his narrative-focused style.

But Hanks wasn’t the only megastar to sidestep the role. Tom Cruise also turned it down before Reeves snagged the part. At the time, Reeves had gained some buzz from Point Break and Bill & Ted, but Speed catapulted him into Hollywood’s action elite. By the time The Matrix rolled around, Reeves was untouchable in the genre—and Speed was a big reason why.

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Spanish-American filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra returns to his genre roots with Carry-On (2024), an airport thriller set on Christmas Eve that evokes the tension of Die Hard with a touch of Phone Booth’s claustrophobic suspense—departing from his usual collaborations with Liam Neeson in Hitchcock-inspired, mid-budget action fare, Collet-Serra teams up with Taron Egerton in a high-stakes thriller that follows Tsa agent Ethan Kopek, who is coerced by a mysterious figure to allow a dangerous package onto a Christmas Eve flight. Although it’s not right to expect something deeper out of Serra’s movies, the film explores themes of morality, manipulation, and the weight of responsibility under pressure. As Ethan navigates a tense game of survival, the narrative delves into ethical dilemmas, personal redemption, and the impact of split-second decisions in life-or-death scenarios. If you found Netflix’s Carry-on riveting in any form, here are 7 other movies that you...

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Carry-On is an action thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra from a screenplay by T.J. Fixman. The must-watch Netflix film follows Ethan Kopek, a young Tsa agent who a mysterious passenger blackmails into letting an unchecked package slip onto a flight on Christmas Eve. If he doesn’t follow his orders, his blackmailer will kill his pregnant girlfriend. Carry-On stars Taron Egerton, Jason Bateman, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler, Logan Marshall-Green, and Theo Rossi. So, if you love the thrilling story, nail-biting drama, and compelling characters in Carry-On, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Die Hard 2 Credit – 20th Century Studios

Die Hard 2 is an action thriller film directed by Renny Harlin from a screenplay co-written by Steven E. de Souza and Doug Richardson. Based on the 1987 novel 58 Minutes by author Walter Wager,...

Sandra Bullock Passed Her Bus Driver’s License Test For Speed On The First Try. ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Sandra Bullock’s commitment to her craft hit full throttle when she landed Speed. She didn’t just play Annie, the brave bus driver; she became one — earning a real Santa Monica bus driver’s license! Yep, she mastered maneuvering a massive bus before hitting the set. And she aced it on her very first try. Talk about dedication.

Bullock shared this quirky, high-octane detail at a special Q&a celebrating the 30th anniversary of Speed alongside director Jan de Bont and costar Keanu Reeves. “The fun part was that I was at the helm of the bus, but in the back, someone was driving it on the roof while I was smashing into whatever Jan thought I needed to destroy that day,” she joked. She made it clear that driving that...

Twisters, Glen Powell’s sequel to Twister, has broken a very important record. After premiering on Peacock 14 days ago, the film has become the streamer’s most-watched film. Christopher Nolan’s Academy Award-winning biographical drama Oppenheimer previously held the record, but Powell’s tornado thriller is one of the biggest films of the year and has outperformed the historical biopic on this side of the streaming universe. Premiering in July of this year, the summer movie made over $371 million at the box office from a $155 million production budget. The critical response has been good as well, with critics giving it a 75% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Per Deadline, Twisters joins other successful titles in Peacock’s Pay 1 film catalog, such as Despicable Me 4 and The Fall Guy: The Extended Cut. Twisters is set to remain until March 2025. The Deadline piece reports that Five Nights at Freddy’s holds the record for a Peacock premiere,...

It's been a long road, getting from there to here. 

Jon Turteltaub's 2018 shark thriller "The Meg" was based on Steve Alten's novel "Meg" that was published way back in 1997. The book was optioned for a film adaptation by Hollywood Pictures, a Disney subsidiary, the year prior, and several screenplay drafts were immediately written. Jeffrey Boam was said to have written an adaptation of "Meg," but Disney didn't like it. Indeed, none of those screenplays were deemed good enough to develop into an actual feature, and three years passed without any movement on the project. In 1999, the rights reverted to Alten. 

Then, in 2005, the book was optioned again, this time by New Line Cinema. The new version of "Meg" was going to be an impressive affair, with Shane Salerno as its screenwriter, and Jan de Bont as director. A 2008 report in the Los Angeles Times even noted that "Meg...