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In a small way, the micro-budgeted U.K. indie “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” more than pulled its weight in drawing audiences back to theaters two years ago. The bad-taste concept and trailer generated guilty-pleasure viral traction; then the Fathom Events theatrical window was so short, there was no chance for word-of-mouth to spoil the fun. Which was fortunate, as the film itself was an amateurish slog.

You have to give the filmmakers credit, though: They swallowed all criticism (including an impressive sweep of the Golden Raspberries), vowing to plow their considerable profits into making better movies …albeit in the same vein. Last year’s “Honey” sequel was reportedly a significant improvement. Now there’s “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare,” a nasty piece of work — in the sense that it appeals to horror fans with a strong stomach not just for gore but truly unpleasant ideas.

You might hesitate to call a...

Plot: Wendy Darling strikes out in an attempt to rescue her brother Michael from ‘the clutches of the evil Peter Pan.’ Along the way she meets Tinkerbell, who will be seen taking heroin, believing that it’s pixie dust.

Review: It’s always very ambitious for a franchise to announce its plans way ahead of time. It certainly has bit Marvel on the butt, but if you’re going to parody their release schedule, you have to do things full bore. And I think most of us at least chuckled when the Poohniverse was announced. So smack dab in the middle of their release lies Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, a horror take on the J.M. Barrie classic. And it’s a hell of a lot darker than expected.

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is a very dark and twisted take on Peter Pan as he sucks the souls out of children to remain youthful.

From Jagged Edge Productions and ITN Studios, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is now in theaters until January 15, 2025, only from Iconic Events Releasing, and the team has provided Bloody Disgusting with a bloody exclusive clip to whet your appetite this morning.

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare gives a dark new spin on the classic fairy tale characters created by J.M. Barrie. Watch a bloody clip from a fight between Peter Pan and Wendy Darling below, and find the film’s previously released official trailer underneath.

The newest entry into the Poohniverse follows Wendy Darling as she strikes out in an attempt to rescue her brother Michael from the clutches of the evil Peter Pan who intends to send him to Neverland. Along the way she meets a twisted Tinkerbell, who is hooked on “fairy dust.”

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare gets a limited theatrical release for three days only, from January 13, 2025 until January 15, 2025, courtesy of Iconic Events Releasing.

Elvis Presley‘s Graceland home is one of the most iconic of any entertainer’s homes. Millions of visitors enter its musical gates every year to celebrate the life and career of the King of Rock and Roll. However, there’s another stately home, Neverland, that housed another legendary entertainer: the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. What are the same elements between these homes? What are the key differences? Most of all, who lived in both places?

Elvis Presley’s Graceland: The facts

Elvis Presley purchased Graceland on March 19, 1957 for $102,500. The mansion is located in Memphis, Tennessee.

Graceland is a 17,552-square-foot home with 23 rooms, in total, spread out over 13.8 acres. Elvis spent over 20 years enjoying the stately home, named in honor of Grace Toof, a relative of the original owners.

After Elvis’ death, Graceland remained a private residence until 1982, when it was opened to the public as a museum. It...

Fans of twisted fairy tales have something new to look forward to with the release of ‘Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare,’ brought to us by Jagged Edge Productions and ITN Studios.

This film is a dark departure from the beloved tales of our childhood, featuring a sinister version of Peter Pan that’s sure to unsettle you.

In this new horror twist, Peter Pan transforms from the whimsical boy who never wanted to grow up into a terrifying figure.

The plot centers around the Darling family, who find themselves in a nightmarish scenario when the youngest son, Michael, is kidnapped by Peter.

The film veers away from the adventurous trips to Neverland and instead throws Wendy and her siblings into a desperate struggle with their childhood hero-turned-villain.

The sneak peek provided by Collider just in time for the first day of ticket sales shows a scene that sets the tone for this horror story.

The most important thing I can tell you about Jake Kasdan’s “Red One” is that yes, it’s a real film starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans as a mismatched action movie odd couple rescuing a kidnapped Santa Claus, and not a “Saturday Night Live” parody. And it’s not nearly as awful as it sounds.

The film, which cost nearly $250 million to make, is an effectively constructed high-concept action-fantasy-comedy that waffles inconsistently between entertainingly imaginative and merely perfunctory. The world it builds — out of mythological creatures struggling to find their purpose in a world that no longer knows or cares they exist — is fun to think about, and rife with possibilities. But it explores that world using passé genre archetypes that rob the story and characters of their magic. It all averages out to slightly above average.

For a film like “Red One” that’s about as good as anyone could hope for.

Popularly known for being the master of horror and suspense, with a number of spine-tingling tales under his belt, even Stephen King was once blindsided by unexpected enchantment. Reading J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book, King claimed to be “moderately impressed” with it. Well, it’s hardly the reaction you’d expect from a literary giant, towards a beloved piece of literature.

Stephen King on CBS’ Saturday Morning show

However, fate took a turn when a major road accident left Stephen King bedridden on painkillers, and he found himself committing to the rest of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding saga. What followed was a magical transformation, as King became not just a reader, but an avid fan, showering praises on Rowling for being a literary genius.

A Serious Road Accident Led Stephen King to Unravel the Magic of Harry Potter

Initially, when readers approach a piece of literature, they often seem skeptical about it.

She can fly, she can fly, she can fly! Get a breakdown of every time Tinker Bell appears in a feature film from Disney.

Disney may have brought Tinker Bell into pop culture in the early ‘50s, but the tiny but feisty, winged pixie got her start in the 1904 stage play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up written by J.M. Barrie.

Since then, Tink has largely escaped Peter Pan’s shadow (no pun intended) and become an icon in her own right, appearing in countless animated series and movies.

Read full article on The Direct.

In J.M. Barrie's original 1904 play "Peter and Wendy," the fairy Tinker Bell was typically represented by a powerful spotlamp, reflected onto the stage by a small hand mirror. Her dialogue was a series of small jingle bells, shaken offstage. When Barrie adapted his play into a 1911 novel, Tinker Bell remained mute, although she was able to participate in the action more closely. In the first film adaptation of Barrie's work, Herbert Brenson's 1924 film "Peter Pan," Tinker Bell was a light dangled by a string in long shots but actor Virginia Browne Faire in close-ups, either filmed against outside sets or composited into the frame.

In 1953, directors Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wilfred Jackson brought Pan to life in the celebrated animated film "Peter Pan," released by the Walt Disney Company. In that film, Tinker Bell was also mute, but could be animated as a miniature person in most of her scenes,...

Filmmaker Scott Jeffrey has confirmed that the upcoming horror movie based on J.M. Barrie’s classic story Peter Pan will hit theaters in the first few months of 2025. Titled “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare,” the film is the third installment in the Twisted Childhood Universe franchise.

Jeffrey, who wrote, directed, and produced the project, shared the release window during an Instagram interview. While he did not give a specific date, he said fans can expect the movie to premiere in early 2025. “Neverland Nightmare” will follow the surprise box office successes of the franchise’s first two films: “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” and its sequel.

Those movies reinvented beloved children’s characters in terrifying new ways. “Neverland Nightmare” takes a dark approach to Peter Pan as well. It stars Megan Placito as Wendy Darling, whose brother falls victim to a sinister version of the title character. In this adaptation, Peter Pan and...

Julia Roberts and Steven Spielberg only worked together once — on the 1991 film "Hook" — and it was not a pleasant experience for either of them. "Hook," to remind the reader, is a sequel to J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" story, imagining what might happen if Pan left Neverland, grew up, and started a family. By Spielberg's vision, Pan would change his name to Peter Banning (Robin Williams), become a boring lawyer, and forget all about his eternal youth as a flying pixie kid.

Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) hasn't forgotten, however, and sends his pirates to Earth to kidnap Banning's children to lure him back to Neverland. The adult Peter is abducted by Tinkerbell (Roberts) and dragged back to his Edenic youth by force. Peter hates Neverland at first — the Lost Boys are too rowdy — but he slowly starts remembering his time as Peter Pan, and eventually begins to revert.

"Hook...

In the beginning there was Winnie The Pooh: Blood & Honey. Then, there was Winnie the Pooh_: Blood & Honey 2_. And now, as Rhys Frake-Waterfield — the Kevin Feige of effed-up fairytale films — envisioned back in early 2023, the Twisted Childhood Universe of public domain based horrors is set to expand with Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare. Written and directed by Scott Jeffrey (not to be confused with Muppet Babies helmsman Jeffrey Scott), the Tcu's latest childhood crusher is set to see Martin Portlock bring to our screens a slightly more murderous version of the boy who never grew up than Disney's take on the J.M. Barrie fairytale. Check out the bloody first trailer below;

Welp — we don't know about his shadow, but it sure does look like our pal Peter has found his dark side here! Whilst theorists have long contested a dark truth at the heart of Barrie's book (that...

The Poohniverse has struck again, and this time, the situation seems to be more grave than ever before. After the slasher-horror pieces from the Twisted Childhood Universe (Tcu) that started with Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and followed by its sequel, this next film seems to hold an equally carnage vision as it strikes yet another fan-favorite character: Peter Pan.

Peter Pan. (1953) | Credits: Rko Pictures.

This is because this very beloved character, who pretty much shaped a lot of kids’ childhood, has been transformed into a much grittier and gorier version in the upcoming Neverland Nightmare. And, as things get out of hand for this alternate crossover universe that reimagines beloved fairy-tale characters as horror movie villains, fans can’t help but express severe disapproval.

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare: The Bloody Poohniverse Strikes Again

After teasing the British independent horror film that will serve as the third installment in the...

The filmmakers behind Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey are expanding their public domain horror universe with a handful of upcoming “Poohniverse” movies, including Bambi: The Reckoning, Pinocchio: Unstrung, and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare.

Scott Jeffrey directs Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, and Bloody Disgusting is exclusively debuting the horror movie’s extremely bloody official trailer today. Check it out below.

Expect the film in theaters in early 2025.

The Jagged Edge Productions film — being sold by ITN Studios — follows Wendy Darling as she strikes out in an attempt to rescue her brother Michael from “the clutches of the evil Peter Pan.” Along the way she meets Tinkerbell, who in this twisted version of the story will be seen taking heroine, convinced that it’s pixie dust.

Jeffrey tells us, “This is tonally an extremely darker film to Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey. When dealing with children being abducted, it felt right.

A scene in one of Disneyland’s original rides is getting a modern makeover.

Peter Pan’s Flight has been a staple at Disneyland since opening day in 1955, and is one of Walt Disney’s few original attractions that remains operational.

One portion of the ride is getting a makeover, however. The so-called “Never Land Tribe scene,” which has for decades featured a chief in a headdress alongside drumming braves and a seated Tiger Lily, will now feature more benign-looking drummers and a more active Tiger Lily dancing alongside her grandmother. The chief is gone entirely.

The changes were already introduced at Walt Disney World last week, with visitors taking notice and posting photos. See below for before-and-after shots shared to social media.

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A post shared by Chip and Company (@chipandco)

Peter Pan's Flight Reopens at Magic Kingdom with Reimagined Never Land Tribe Scene https://t.

The Poohniverse—yes, it is real, it is happening, and no, it’s not a series of Disney-knockoff adult films from Wood Rocket. The next movie in the horror cinematic universe (Peter Pan’s Nightmare Neverland) has a brand new poster!

Jagged Edge Productions has released a more fleshed-out poster for Peter Pan’s Nightmare Neverland. And … I have several questions.

Image Credit: Jagged Edge Productions and ITN Studios

I get that Jep’s movies are somewhat limited by their budget, but nothing about this reminds me of J.M. Barrie’s or Disney’ Pan. I see Captain Hook back there, but what are Scott Jeffrey (director/writer) and Rhys Frake-Waterfield (writer) going for here?

According to Bloody Disgusting, Peter Pan’s Nightmare Neverland is less fantasy and more pedestrian slasher. When interviewing Scott Jeffrey, he had the following to say:

“I am taking inspiration from French cinema while in prep for this movie.

The filmmakers behind Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey are expanding their public domain horror universe with a handful of upcoming “Poohniverse” movies, including Bambi: The Reckoning, Pinocchio: Unstrung, and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare. Bloody Disgusting has exclusively scored the poster art for Neverland Nightmare today.

Scott Jeffrey directs Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, now in post-production. Find the poster below and read on for everything you need to know about the Peter Pan horror movie.

The Jagged Edge Productions film — being sold by ITN Studios — follows Wendy Darling as she strikes out in an attempt to rescue her brother Michael from “the clutches of the evil Peter Pan.” Along the way she meets Tinkerbell, who in this twisted version of the story will be seen taking heroine, convinced that it’s pixie dust.

Jeffrey tells us, “This is tonally an extremely darker film to Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey. When dealing with children being abducted,...

Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, the Polish composer who won a Oscar for his score of the 2004 film Finding Neverland, died today in Krakow following a years-long battle with Multiple System Atrophy. He was 71.

His death was announced bythe Polish Music Foundation.

A prolific composer for film and television, Kaczmarek’s credits beginning in the 1980s and building momentum in the 1990s and 2000s. Among the titles: Total Eclipse, Washington Square, Aimee and Jaguar, Unfaithful, Soldier’s Girl, The Visitor, City Island, Get Low and Paul, Apostle of Christ.

But it was his score for Finding Neverland that he’ll perhaps be most remembered for. Nominated for both BAFTA and Golden Globe awards, the score for Marc Forster’s J.M. Barrie 2004 biopic won the Oscar for Best Original Score the following year. The win made Kaczmarek an international presence in cinema.

Born in Konin in 1953, Kaczmarek abandoned his legal training in the 1970s...

Polish composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, who won a 2004 Oscar for “Finding Neverland,” died Tuesday in Krakow, the Polish Music Foundation announced. He was 71 and had suffered from Multiple System Atrophy (Msa) in recent years.

Also among Kaczmarek’s 50-plus film and television scores, mostly from the 1990s and 2000s, were “Unfaithful,” “Bliss,” “Aimee and Jaguar,” “The Visitor” and “Get Low.” He also scored the lavish four-part French-Italian miniseries of “War and Peace” in 2007.

Kaczmarek had one of the most unusual backgrounds of any film composer of his time. Born in Konin in 1953, he was educated as a lawyer. But he abandoned a planned career as a diplomat to compose music for an experimental theater company, headed by avant-garde theater director Jerzy Grotowski, in Poznan during the 1970s.

He formed his own ensemble, the Orchestra of the Eighth Day, which toured Europe in the late 1970s and early 1980s, releasing an LP,...

Storyboard Media has added J.M. Barrie supernatural thriller adaptation The Island Between Tides starring Paloma Kwiatkowski from Riot Girls to its Cannes sales roster.

The story is based on Barrie’s Gothic story Mary Rose, about a young woman who goes missing on a remote island and reappears years later with no memory of what happened to her.

David Mazouz from Gotham, Donal Logue from Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City, and Adam Beach from The Power Of The Dog round out the cast.

Austin Andrews and Andrew Holmes co-wrote and co-directed for Flicker Theory, Famous Red Car, and Mad Samurai Productions.

The filmmakers behind Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey are expanding their public domain horror universe with a handful of upcoming “Poohniverse” movies, including Bambi: The Reckoning, Pinocchio: Unstrung, and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare.

Variety has scored the first image from Neverland Nightmare, seen above.

The website details, “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare follows Wendy Darling as she strikes out in an attempt to rescue her brother Michael from ‘the clutches of the evil Peter Pan.’ Along the way she meets Tinkerbell, who in this twisted version of the story will be seen taking heroin, convinced that it’s pixie dust.”

Scott Jeffrey will direct Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, expected Halloween 2024.

Jeffrey tells us, “I am taking inspiration from French cinema while in prep for this movie. The film will be incredibly tense. I would say it’s a mesh between Switchblade Romance and The Black Phone with our own spin on it.

Steven Spielberg’s 1981 film, Hook, is regarded as the best adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy. The film presented a different take on the children’s fairytale and provided a different experience than the other iterations. A popular rumor suggested that Tom Hanks was the first choice for the role of an older Peter Pan. However, the Philadelphia actor clarified that the story is different.

Robin Williams in Spielberg’s Hook

Hook focuses on the story of a lawyer played by the late Robin Williams, who learns that he is the older Peter Pan. When his kids are kidnapped by Captain Hook as revenge, he goes back to Neverland and joins forces with the Lost Boys and Julia Roberts’ Tinkerbell. Steven Spielberg’s iteration of the fairy tale initially divided the audiences but became a cult classic moving forward.

Was Tom Hanks the first choice to play Peter Pan in Hook?...

Paloma Kwiatkowski as Lily in The Island Between Tides

Somewhere between an adaptation of and a sequel to Jm Barrie’s play Mary Rose, The Island Between Tides is the story of a family whose lives are turned upside down by encounters with a magical island where time runs at a different pace. Lily (played as an adult by Paloma Kwiatkowski) is lost there briefly as a child and experiences a change of perspective as a result. Her return visit as an adult sees her flung forward 25 years into the future. Donal Logue plays the father and Camille Sullivan the sister who have to cope with her disappearances, while Logue’s Gotham co-star David Mazouz takes on the role of Jared, the son who grows up without her, also altered by the island’s influence and struggling with mental illness and substance abuse as a result.

It’s a film heavily dependent on atmosphere,...

Stories of secret places where time runs out of sync with our own have an ancient pedigree. They can be found in Celtic myths, in Middle Eastern ones and in Japan, and they’re the earliest examples of time travel stories, often used to compare the present with the past. They also have a more personal aspect, frequently dealing with lost romance or the pain of separation from family. It was this theme that inspired Peter Pan author Jm Barrie to write his play Mary Rose in 1920, and it is on this play that Austin Andrews and Austin Holmes’ film is (loosely) based. A century apart they are, appropriately, linked by references to Norman O’Neill’s original music in Keith Power’s score, which provides an additional sense of temporal dislocation for those familiar with it.

The power of Barrie’s work derives in part from his own sense of loss,...

Establishing a shared cinematic universe is hard. Take Warner Bros. and DC's attempt at matching the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for instance. Though it had some commercial successes, the DC Extended Universe ultimately disintegrated over the course of several recent box office bombs that included superheroic flop "The Flash." Then, there was Universal, with its ill-fated Dark Universe, which would have seen updated takes on classic Universal monsters inhabiting a shared timeline that would ultimately lead to some sort of monster team-up. Unfortunately, the whole thing failed almost instantly with the disappointment that was 2017's "The Mummy."

Now, with the almighty MCU even struggling to maintain its dominance amid the deluge of "content" being pumped out in its name, it seems harder than ever to construct and maintain a successful shared cinematic universe. But that won't stop horror director Rhys Frake-Waterfield, who is now threatening an entire interconnected...

The Lost Boys became one of the ’80s most iconic horror films with its dark, steamy take on vampires. But its co-writer James Jeremias initially had a much different type of film in mind, inspired by Peter Pan.

In an interview with The Guardian for the publication’s “How We Made” series, Jeremias, a former grip turned screenwriter who wrote the Joel Schumacher film alongside Janice Fischer, recalled that after reading Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire, he was particularly struck by Claudia being frozen in time in the body of a 5-year-old for eternity.

“It got me thinking about J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan — where our title came from. What if the reason he came out at night, could fly and didn’t grow up was because he was a vampire? We took a fictional character and put him in a new light. What if it wasn’t...

“Kids started calling me Lousy Carter when I was in the golf team at high school...it obviously wasn’t meant to be a complimentary nickname but it stuck,” says our hero at the start of this tale. A little while later, a hospital receptionist calls out for “Lazy Carter”, and he responds all the same. He’s about to go into a consultation that will change his life – by letting him know that he doesn’t have much of it left.

Jm Barrie has a lot to answer for. If he had known how common boys who don’t grow up would become, would he have restrained himself? He was, of course, writing about premature death, and Lousy is fortysomething, but that doesn’t mean that any noticeable process of maturation has occurred. One wonders if impending death will encourage it. Spoiler: it doesn’t.

An amiable little comedy...

For The Ages

Revered Indian actor Waheeda Rehman, who was accorded the Dadasaheb Phalke award, India’s highest film honor, last year, has donated her personal memorabilia to the Film Heritage Foundation (Fhf) for preservation. Rehman, the 86-year-old grande dame of Indian cinema, has worked with most of the legendary filmmakers of her country during her career and the roles she chose were in films that are considered classics in the annals of Indian cinema. She worked with Guru Dutt in “Pyaasa” (1957) and “Kaagaz Ke Phool” (1959), Satyajit Ray in “Abhijaan” (1962), Basu Bhattacharya in “Teesri Kasam” (1966) and Yash Chopra in “Kabhie Kabhie” (1976), among many other memorable roles.

The donated material includes the saree Rehman wore to the “C.I.D.” premiere in 1956, her photo albums and photographs and lobby cards from “Kaagaz Ke Phool,” “Chaudvin Ka Chand” (1960), “Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam” (1962) “C.I.D.,” “Bees Saal Baad” (1962) and “Baat Ek Raat Ki” (1962). The donation was...

If this year's Screen Actors Guild Awards pointed to anything in terms of next month's Oscars, it's that Oppenheimer has, on the acting front at least, mostly cemented its path once more towards some shiny gold statuettes. Saturday night saw the film take Outstanding Performance By A Cast In Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for Cillian Murphy and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for Robert Downey Jr.

Following a year in which actors walked the picket line for a better contract with studios, there was even more impetus to celebrate, the show switching from its former Stateside cable home to Netflix's live offerings, where there were no commercials and a more liberal swearing policy. Billie Eilish signed "superfan" Melissa McCarthy's head. The casts of Breaking Bad, Modern Family and leads from The Devil Wears Prada and...

The filmmakers behind Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey are expanding their public domain horror universe with a handful of upcoming movies, many of which will be teased in the end-credits sequence for the upcoming Blood and Honey sequel. Those movies include Bambi: The Reckoning, Pinocchio: Unstrung, and even a Peter Pan horror movie.

From Jagged Edge Productions, the upcoming Peter Pan horror movie is titled Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, and the team has exclusively shared with us the teaser sketch image that will be featured at the end of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2.

Additionally, they’ve let us know that The Prosthetic Studio’s Shaune Harrison and Paula Anne Booker-Harrison will be working as SFX artists and designers of this twisted Peter Pan. Their works have included Harry Potter’s Lord Voldemort and Mad Eye Moody, along with Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones...

On January 1, 2024, the original incarnation of Mickey Mouse, Steamboat Willie, entered into the public domain. Steamboat Willie, born in 1928, is the crown jewel of thousands of pieces of intellectual property that have just seen their copyright expire, a crop that also includes the original German version of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando,” an iteration of Peter Pan, and more.

Monday’s date had been circled on the calendar of many opportunistic filmmakers, and not 48 hours after New Year’s Eve turned to New Year’s Day, several Steamboat Willie-inspired projects — all of them some iteration of twisted, slasher horror — have been announced. This one already put out a trailer, this one (from the guy who did a horror parody of “The Grinch”) put out a press release, and this one is a horror video game based on Mickey — er, Willie — the most popular cartoon character in the world.

Today, Jan. 1, isn’t just New Year’s Day — it’s also Public Domain Day, where thousands of cinematic treasures, literary classics, Great American Songbook selections, and works of art see their copyrights expire and enter the public domain.

The headliner this year is the fair use of Mickey Mouse — at least, the Steamboat Willie version of the beloved character — as that copyright expiration has been anticipated for years. However, there’s much more than just Mickey entering the public domain in 2024.

Jennifer Jenkins, Director of Duke’s Center for...

Deals close in Australia, Middle East, Scandinavia, Japan.

Premiere Entertainment Group (Peg) has reported robust pre-sales on the upcoming Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare from the producers behind this year’s hit Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey.

Peg has licensed rights involving theatrical components on the slasher horror to: Australia and New Zealand (Umbrella), Mexico and Latin America (Cine Video y TV), Germany and Italy (Plaion), UK (101 Films), Benelux (Movie Company), France (Crome Films), and Spain (Flins y Piniculas).

Further deals have closed in Scandinavia (Njutafilms), Japan (Rights Cube), Middle East (Vox Cinemas), Turkey (Bg Film), Russia/Cis...

Streaming has forever changed the way we consume and experience movies and TV. One of the small joys (and anxieties) that has all but disappeared in the streaming era is channel surfing — the joy of discovering something new by chance, and also the pressure of not knowing when you might watch a certain title again.

Except, the essence of channel surfing is still there, in the way streaming platforms remove and add titles every month. The pressure of only having a certain amount of time before a title disappears forever is still there, only you have a month's notice. With October almost over, it is time for another round of movies and shows Netflix is taking off the platform and replacing with new ones. Like with everything streaming-related, there are a lot of soon-to-be-gone shows and movies. So I'm here to help break down the titles you do not want...

The CW may still consider staking out "The Lost Boys" as a live-action TV series, after the network previously passed on a TV pilot directed by Catherine Hardwicke ("Twilight") that updated the comic book reading, vampire-killing 'Frog Brothers' into the woke 'Frog Sisters':

"...in the original movie 'The Lost Boys', still mourning the death of her husband, 'Lucy' is forced to move back home to 'Santa Carla', California — something she’s dreaded since causing a town scandal 27 years ago, when she ditched her boyfriend to run off with another man.

"Lucy's elder son 'Michael' planning to attend 'Columbia Medical' school is thrown off by the diagnosis that he shares the same genetic weakness that killed his father. The only thing that consoles him is the friendship he strikes up with 'Stella', a young woman who runs a concession stand on the Santa Carla boardwalk.

"Stella takes to Michael, but...

Peter Pan Goes Wrong has roped in Bradley Whitford and Daniel Dae Kim.

The pair are confirmed as special guest stars for the Center Theatre Group production, which will be mounted at the Ahmanson Theatre from Aug. 8 through Sept. 10. Whitford will take the stage Aug. 9-20 while Kim is set to appear Aug. 30-Sept. 10, with both taking on the role of Francis, “a member of the Cornley Drama Society who portrays the Narrator in Peter Pan.”

The production lands in L.A. with a West Coast premiere direct from Broadway. Co-written by Mischief company members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, Peter Pan Goes Wrong is described as “a highly physical comedy packed with finely-tuned and inspired slapstick, delivered with split-second timing and ambitious daring stunts.” It follows the Cornley Drama Society as they attempt to present J.M. Barrie’s classic tale amid hi-jinx, accidents and cast disputes.

The...

Lost Children. Michèle Jacob on the shoot: 'The team were camping; it was like a big holiday camp' Photo: Courtesy of Kviff The Scottish playwright and novelist J M Barrie has a lot to answer for as he relived the experience of his own childhood through the Peter Pan stories and then shared them with the world at large.

Belgian filmmaker Michèle Jacob, who read his tales at about the age of 9, found his writings “too sad and disturbing and they broke my heart. It was the first time I had cried in front of art”.

She said: “I was given some the books as a gift from my mother. I think she thought it was great storytelling with children able to fly and all those other tricks. She thought Peter Pan was a great story. I didn’t think it was funny at all and for years I was unable to talk about.

German distributor Dolphin Medien has partnered with U.K. horror production house Red Shadow Studios on horror films based on public domain children’s properties Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan, it was revealed at the ongoing Cannes film market.

“Winnie the Pooh: Death House,” described by the makers as “The Strangers” meets “The Purge,” is a stylized serial killer slant on A.A. Milne’s beloved character, which recently entered the public domain. The film is written by Red Shadow’s Adam Stephen Kelly and is directed by S.J. Evans (“Dead of the Nite”). The story centres around an unexpected school reunion in a remote country mansion – an event orchestrated by members of a cult who were mercilessly tormented by the guests as children. Now, years later, they’re out for gruesome revenge. Filming is underway at U.K. locations.

Evans said: “The script is supremely clever with scope for iconic visuals,...

Stars: Ever Anderson, Joshua Pickering, Jacobi Jupe, Alexander Molony, Noah Matthews Matofsky, Alyssa Wapanatâhk, Jude Law | Written by David Lowery, Toby Halbrooks | Directed by David Lowery

Peter Pan has seen as many adaptations as anyone, they come around every few decades, and every now and again one sticks with a generation for a lifetime. The 1953 Disney original certainly had that, as too did 1991s Hook, the film that stuck with me and my generation. Since then the only other adaption that has stuck was the 2003 adaption. The 2003 adaption was another good entry into the legend of Peter Pan, and like the films before, it hooked onto a generation that still love that film today. When a Peter Pan adaptation is done even half right, it finds itself stuck to a generation, it is perhaps a testament to the story J.M. Barrie created that so many different adaptions and takes can connect to so many,...

This week a new version of “Peter Pan,” inspired by both the 1953 Disney film and the original works by J.M. Barrie, splashes on Disney+. And it was enough to make us think about the many, many times the story has been brought to life (and where this new live-action film ranks among them). With that in mind we decided to list five great versions of the “Peter Pan” story – and where to stream them. Make sure you’ve got your pixie dust and remember that to get to Never Land, it’s the second star on the right and straight on until morning.

Also, two runners-up we wanted to address: the 1924 silent film version from Paramount Pictures (with Betty Bronson as Pan and Scottish character actor Ernest Torrence as Hook), which is often cited in the same breath as the Disney version as being the most influential; and Joel Schumacher...

It’s a slow week for new releases, both in theaters and at home. “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” deserves to be an Oscar contender — let’s get Rachel McAdams‘ supporting-actress campaign started pronto — but you’ll have to leave the couch to see that one. Without venturing to the multiplex, you can catch two favorites from the Oscars’ most recent shortlists and two new movies with very different sensibilities.

This contender to watch this week: “Moonage Daydream”

“David Bowie: The Last Five Years,” released in 2017, focused on the final chapter in the glam rocker’s storied career. “Moonage Daydream” is about what came before. The film made last year’s Oscar shortlist but was left out when nominations were announced, surprising many who thought this kaleidoscopic profile would be a shoo-in for Best Documentary Feature. Brett Morgan, who also directed the stylish “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,...

Make no mistake, "Peter Pan and Wendy" director David Lowery definitely has an affinity for the horror genre, but he wanted to make sure that the new Disney+ children adventure wasn't as dark as it looked at first glance. Lowery's melancholy supernatural drama "A Ghost Story" starring Casey Affleck wearing a bed sheet is hauntingly beautiful, and his take on the 14th-century Arthurian adventure "The Green Knight" is steeped in some fairly gruesome imagery. The entire tale does center around a beheading, after all. 

Of course, the latest adaptation of the classic children's story, starring Jude Law as Captain Hook and Alexander Molony as Peter Pan, is still a fairly lighthearted adventure. But that doesn't mean that Lowery didn't leave a few, shall we say, revolting details in the background for eagle-eyed viewers to catch. "Peter Pan and Wendy" comes out today, so be sure to check out the...

As Peter Pan fans await “Peter Pan & Wendy,” Hollywood’s latest adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s beloved tale, it may make one wonder just how many times the fictional character’s story has been told. From Broadway plays to televised events to a Robin Williams-led and Stephen Spielberg-directed “Hook,” playing Peter Pan never gets old.

Peter Pan was created by Scottish novelist and playwright J.M. Barries, who crafted the character from several inspirations, which included his personal aversion to adulthood, and a boy named Peter Llewelyn Davies, whom he befriended and later adopted after growing close to his family.

Peter Pan made his first appearance in Barrie’s 1902 novel “The Little White Bird.” The writer then adapted the flying boy’s story into a play titled “Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up” in 1904. Peter Pan was then turned into a book in 1911, originally titled “Peter and Wendy,...

Disney continues its streak of live-action adaptations of its most popular animated characters with Peter Pan and Wendy. We have already got Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Lion King, Maleficent and many more. Some of them were hits, and some of them weren’t. With more on their release slate and even more in development, it seems that it will do Disney good if they slow down. Pinocchio was a failure. Aladdin and Mulan were also harsh setbacks. Considering that these are all beloved characters that we would love to see on the big screen, Disney needs to be more careful before doing so and not spoil it for us. Peter Pan and Wendy is another not-so-convincing live-action take on the popular children’s character. Other than Jude Law’s rendition of Captain Hook, which is brilliant, the other characters fail to make an impression, especially Alexander Molony’s Peter Pan.

Plot: Wendy Darling, a young girl afraid to leave her childhood home behind, meets Peter Pan, a boy who refuses to grow up. Alongside her brothers and a tiny fairy, Tinker Bell, she travels with Peter to the magical world of Neverland. There, she encounters the evil pirate Captain Hook and embarks on a thrilling and dangerous adventure that will change her life forever.

Review: In their seemingly neverending quest to refresh their animated IP with live-action remakes, Disney thought they would find luck by bringing auteur David Lowery back after his updated take of Pete’s Dragon to tackle a new Peter Pan feature film. Where Lowery imbued Pete’s Dragon, a less familiar title in the overall Disney canon, with realistic characters and emotionally grounded storytelling, his Peter Pan & Wendy is a rote remake that sticks pretty close to the 1953 original. While the more problematic elements from the classic animated film have been replaced,...

As a retelling of both J.M. Barrie’s novel and Disney’s 1953 animated classic, Disney+‘s Peter Pan & Wendy is a mixed bag. But as a retelling via director David Lowery, it’s totally on-brand.

The first half-hour of the 106-minute movie (streaming now on Disney+) suggests a beat-for-beat retread (à la Jon Favreau’s The Lion King), but Lowery’s quirky preferences permit a more offbeat take. And once Peter, Wendy et al reach Neverland, the story takes on new life.

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As written by J. M. Barrie in his original 1904 play, “Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up,” the century-old name Peter Pan has always been synonymous with a severe case of arrested development. More expressly, the fear of adulthood, the immature reluctance towards embracing the responsibilities and pains of being a grown-up, unable to gauge the earned rewards of such hardships.

So what could a 21st-century version of such arrested development look like? One that has something to say to today’s grown-ups both mesmerized and puzzled by a fiery younger generation vastly different than them, and today’s kids, being raised by an unprecedented sense of individuality? With “Peter Pan & Wendy,” soulful auteur David Lowery tries to find an answer with mixed results that’s fascinating and refreshing in parts and somewhat wearisome on the whole.

An expressive voice throughout his wide range of tales,...

Based on Scottish novelist J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play, subsequent self-penned 1911 novelization, and Disney’s classic 1953 animated film, Peter Pan & Wendy finds indie-auteur David Lowery confidently back in big-studio mode. Lowery delivers an exquisitely balanced mix of visual spectacle and grounded, intimate moments, Buttressed by uniformly strong, naturalistic performances from a talented cast, Peter Pan & Wendy should be considered a worthy, worthwhile addition to any streaming diet, especially family-oriented ones. Like practically every iteration with the exception of Steven Spielberg’s justly maligned reimagining (Hook), Peter Pan & Wendy centers on the title characters, Peter Pan (Alexander Molony), the boy who refused to grow up, and Wendy Darling (Ever Anderson), a teen facing major changes who,...

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It looks like kids’ movies are dominating the box office right now. Mind you, what looks to be the first billion-dollar blockbuster is based on a decades-old video game. But what about the classic fairy tales, you may ask? Not to worry, although it’s fairly young at a spry 121 years, as opposed to the centuries-old Grimm Brothers stories and assorted myths and legends. And it’s also the 70th anniversary of the definitive animated adaptation from the master artists at the “mouse house”. Ugh, you may be thinking, not another live-action retread of a superb cartoon ala the recent Pinocchio (not the Oscar-winner) or the dreary Dumbo. Well, you’re not really correct as this tale began (after its literary roots) on the stage and has been played by flesh-and-blood actors in versions going back to the silent movie days. And so, here’s another version, this time sharing...

Don’t be fooled by the direct to Disney+ of it all: David Lowery’s lush and transportive “Peter Pan & Wendy” is neither a creatively bankrupt “live-action remake” in the vein of 2017’s soulless “The Beauty and the Beast,” nor a similarly hollow “live-action” remake in the “style” of 2019’s CGI “The Lion King.”

For one thing, Lowery’s update doesn’t look horrible — quite the opposite, in fact. For another, it doesn’t cynically adhere to the stale narrative beats that audiences have been conditioned to expect. That’s partially because “remake” isn’t the right word for Lowery’s film, but also because the animated “Peter Pan” that Disney adapted from J.M. Barrie’s novel in 1953 doesn’t have quite the same stranglehold over the collective imagination as some of the Mouse House’s more beloved movies.

None of this will come as much of a surprise...