Nicolas Cage is certainly building on his resume of genre-driven films with the new sci-fi horror pic Color Out of Space, which opens in limited release January 24. The film marks the first feature from celebrated cult filmmaker Richard Stanley since Hardware.
Based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft, the film follows Nathan Gardner (Cage) and his family after a meteorite lands in the front yard of their farm. As things unravel, the family finds themselves battling a mutant extraterrestrial organism as it infects their minds and bodies, transforming their quiet rural life into a technicolor nightmare.
The film, which Stanley co-wrote with Scarlett Amaris also stars Joely Richardson (The Patriot, Nip/Tuck), Madeleine Arthur (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, The Family), Brendan Meyer (The OA, The Guest), Julian Hilliard (The Haunting of Hill House, The Conjuring 3), Elliot Knight (American Gothic, Once Upon a Time), Q’orianka Kilcher (The New World, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) and Tommy Chong (Up in Smoke, Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie).
The U.S. rights to the film were acquired by RLJE Films ahead of its Midnight Madness premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this past September. Based on the trailer (which you can watch below), the film is very much in the same vein of Mandy a fever dream of a thriller that also starred Cage. Like Mandy, the film is produced by Elijah Wood’s SpectreVision and XYZ films. Mandy banked a worldwide gross of $1,335,484.
Color Out of Space is produced by SpectreVision’s Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller, Lisa Whalen and Elijah Wood. Executive producers are Timur Bekbosunov, Johnny Chang, Emma Lee and Peter Wong for ACE Pictures, which is also financing. Stacy Jorgensen serves as executive producer for SpectreVision.
The modern-day B-movie has already garnered a cult audience and has been gaining traction since its world premiere at TIFF with an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film is set to open in 75 theaters with an additional 150 one-night-only eventized screenings at Regal, Drafthouse, AMC, Landmark and various independent chains.
Todd Robinson’s all-star Vietnam drama The Last Full Measure starring Sebastian Stan, Christopher Plummer and William Hurt will also debut this we The film follows the true story of Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger (Jeremy Irvine), a U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen medic who personally saved over 60 men in the Army’s 1st Infantry Division during a devastating 1966 battle, losing his own life in the process.
Fast forward 32 years later and Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman (Stan) is tasked with investigating a Congressional Medal of Honor request for Pitsenbarger made by his best friend and partner on the mission (Hurt) and his parents (Plummer and Diane Ladd). Scott seeks out the testimony of Army veterans who witnessed Pitsenbarger’s heroic rescues He talks to Takoda (Samuel L. Jackson), Burr (Peter Fonda) and Mott (Ed Harris), but as he more about Pitsenbarger’s courageous acts, he uncovers a high-level conspiracy behind the decades-long denial of the medal, prompting him to put his own career on the line to seek justice for the fallen airman. The film also stars LisaGay Hamilton, Amy Madigan, Linus Roache, John Savage, Alison Sudol and Bradley Whitford.
Watch the trailer below.
Also opening this weekend is the Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari-directed Panga, which is inspired by the life of a national level Kabaddi player from India. The film starring Kangana Ranaut, Jassie Gill, Richa Chadda, Neena Gupta and Yagya Bhasin is set to open globally on January 24 with over 100 theaters across North America.
The female-fronted pic is very much a “second act” type of story that sheds light on the ups and downs of a middle-class Indian woman who is a forgotten world champion of the popular South Asian sport of Kabaddi. She looks to give a new meaning to her existing role as a wife and mother and makes the choice to return to the sport and in turn, challenges age stereotypes and a new generation complexities. In turn, she creates an upheaval in her life as she is torn between family responsibility and love for the sport.
Detective Chinatown 3 will also debut this weekend and will continue the wildly successful action-comedy buddy franchise starring Baiqiang Wang and Haoran Liu. The third installment finds detectives Tang Ren and Qin Feng in Tokyo as they investigate a crime alongside Noda Hiroshi (Satoshi Tsumabuki). As a result, a hilarious battle of detectives ensue. With Chen Sicheng returning to the director’s chair, the film is one of the biggest U.S. releases of a Chinese-language film. The first installment debuted in 2015 and earned $125,112,232 in China and $474,252 stateside while the 2018 sequel earned a mind-boggling $541,406,438 at the Chinese box office and $1,983,984 domestically.