#OnTheBigScreen: World War II zombies, Two Tails, and Life Itself

The Girl In The Spider’s Web

The Girl In The Spider’s Web is a first-time adaptation of the recent global bestseller by David Lagercrantz, which continues the acclaimed Millennium book series created by Stieg Larsson, under the direction of rising filmmaking talent Fede Alvarez, the director of 2016’s breakout thriller Don’t Breathe, with a screenplay adaptation crafted by Jay Basu, Fede Alvarez, and Steven Knight.

The fierce vigilante star of Stieg Larsson’s massively popular Millennium trilogy of dark, twisty, vengeance-driven cyber-thrillers, and four acclaimed film adaptations, independent hacker Lisbeth Salander is everything we need in a modern hero: smart, resourceful, driven by demons but not defined by them, and possessing a me-against-the-universe attitude that has been more than enough to take down abusive men, hidden killers, and anyone foolish enough to go up against her.

When a scientist employs her to steal his work from the Americans, Lisbeth (Claire Foy) finds herself pulled into a dark and violent web of intrigue after mysterious forces take the data, torch her apartment, and leave her for dead. With her old friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason), acting as an unlikely ally, Lisbeth must go on a perilous journey to find her attackers, protect the scientist’s young son, and get back what was taken from her. As the net tightens, she is drawn ever deeper back into the shadows of her own mysterious past.

Read more about The Girl In The Spider’s Web here.

Life Itself

Director and writer Dan Fogelman, creator of the groundbreaking series This Is Us, takes a poignant and expansive look at love, family, tragedy, joy, and fate in Life Itself.

As a young New York couple goes from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes.

Life Itself follows college sweethearts Will (Oscar Isaac) and Abby (Olivia Wilde) as they fall in love, get married, and prepare to bring their first child into the world. As their story unfolds, fate will link them to Dylan (Olivia Cooke), a troubled young woman trying to find a way out of her pain, Irwin (Mandy Patinkin), bringing up his son’s daughter in a perilous world, to Mr Saccione (Antonio Banderas), a moneyed landowner in Spain, his plantation manager Javier (Sergio PerisMencheta) and Javier’s family, Isabelle (Laia Costa) and Rodrigo (Alex Monner), in ways large and small, ordinary, and exceptional.

Read more about Life Itself. here.

Overlord

With only hours until D-Day, a team of American paratroopers drop into Nazi-occupied France to carry out a mission that’s crucial to the invasion’s success. Tasked with destroying a radio transmitter atop a fortified church, the desperate soldiers join forces with a young French villager to penetrate the walls and take down the tower. But, in a mysterious Nazi lab beneath the church, the outnumbered GIs come face-to-face with enemies unlike any the world has ever seen.

From producer JJ Abrams, Overlord is a thrilling, pulse-pounding action adventure with a twist.

Directed by Australian filmmaker Julius Avery from a screenplay is by Billy Ray (Captain Phillips) and Mark L Smith (The Revenant) from a story by Billy Ray.

Read more about Overlord here.

Bad Times At The El Royale

It’s January 1969. Richard Nixon has been inaugurated as the 37th president of the United States. A new decade beckons. And seven very different but equally lost souls converge on the El Royale, a once-glorious resort that has since fallen - like its visitors - into disrepute.

Situated on the border between California and Nevada, the El Royale offers warmth and sunshine to the west; hope and opportunity to the east. It also straddles the colliding worlds of past and present. Once the hotspot of Tahoe, where the country’s most famous celebrities and politicians comingled in and around the resort’s casino, bar, bungalows, and pool, the good times have now come to a close.

As is the El Royale. Now, in the resort’s lobby where the shine has faded and the laughter fallen silent, gather Father Daniel Flynn (Jeff Bridges), soul singer Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo), travelling salesman Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Jon Hamm), hippie Emily Summerspring (Dakota Johnson), her sister Rose (Cailee Spaeny), manager Miles Miller (Lewis Pullman), and the enigmatic Billy Lee (Chris Hemsworth).

Over the course of one fateful night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption before everything goes to hell.

The film was a passion project for writer-director Drew Goddard (The Martian, The Cabin In The Woods).

Read more about Bad Times At The El Royale here.

Two Tails

The story of the incredible adventures of two friends - Max the cat and Bob the beaver. It would be difficult to find heroes who’re more unlike each other! Conservative Bob likes peace and quiet, while Max is a fidget seeking fame and fortune. Regardless, it’s this duo that will have to repel the invasion of alien animal hunters and become famous for the whole galaxy.

Read more about the latest film releases: www.writingstudio.co.za.