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In the early 1980s, writer S.S. Wilson was climbing over large boulders in the Mojave Desert when the thought occurred to him, “What if something was under the ground and I couldn’t get off this rock?” That thought would eventually grow into the story for one of the greatest creature features ever made, Tremors (watch it Here), which was directed by Ron Underwood from a screenplay Wilson wrote with Brent Maddock. That movie, released by Universal in 1990, introduced viewers to the subterranean monsters known as Graboids and spawned a franchise that has – so far – consisted of six direct-to-video sequels and a TV series that ran for thirteen episodes back in 2003. Wilson, Maddock, and their production company Stampede Entertainment were behind the first four movies and the TV show, and they had written a script for Tremors 5… but Universal kept the script on a shelf for several years, and when...

Unless you’re willing to settle for a bootleg decal of Calvin pissing on a Ford logo, it’s not easy to get your hands on Calvin and Hobbes merch. Feeling it compromised the integrity of the strip’s thoughtful messages about childhood, creator Bill Watterson has always been adamantly opposed to licensing his characters for adaptations and products.

Still, given the strip’s popularity when it ran from 1985 to 1995, all manner of big corporations tried to convince Watterson otherwise, including McDonald’s.

Back in the twilight of the 20th century, cartoonist, illustrator and toy designer Jim Engel worked on hundreds of promotions for McDonald’s Happy Meals as the head of creative at Simon Marketing (the other McDonald’s promotion Simon Marketing was famous for: the notorious Monopoly game). A big Calvin and Hobbes fan, Engel tried to convince his corporate overlords that Watterson would never go for a Happy Meal version of the characters,...

A lot of us who grew up reading Calvin and Hobbes were confused why the beloved comic strip didn’t spawn any tie-in merch, like most other hugely popular intellectual properties. Where were the plush toys? The breakfast cereals? The fast food collector’s cup slathered in toxic paint?

Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, however, wanted no part of that, famously refusing to license his characters for a quick buck. But while Watterson was able to keep corporate merchandising schemes at bay, he was less successful with bootleggers. Hence why some people in the ‘90s had shirts in which the underage Calvin and the imaginary Hobbes were seen partying at Mardi Gras.

But by far the most widespread Calvin and Hobbes bootleg was the decal featuring an image of Calvin defiantly taking a whiz. The image originated from a strip in which Calvin fills a water balloon, and, according...

Adapted by director Yoshiyuki Momose (a former animator at Studio Ghibli) and screenwriter Yoshiaki Nishimura (a former producer at Studio Ghibli) from a popular British children’s novel of the last decade, the Studio Ponoc production The Imaginary undermines much of its breathless talk of imagination by transparently and schematically tracing the footsteps of children’s entertainment titans. Its opening act introduces us to a pastel-colored, Ghibliesque English city where a lonely yet free-spirited little girl named Anna lives with her hardworking single mother in an adorably quaint family-run bookshop. She is quite imaginative: we know this because we see literal magic emanate out of her CD player when she puts on her favorite song, before flashily animated fantasy sequences literally morph her real-world surroundings into colorful (if generic) fantasy settings. First off: a Christmas land with reindeer, sleds, and yetis in the attic.

The story is not framed from Amanda’s point of view,...

The year was 1985 when Super Mario Bros. took the Nintendo Entertainment System by storm; Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes debuted in newspapers, and two unlikely friends named Marty McFly and Emmett Lathrop Brown piloted cinema’s most iconic time machine to a year when Panama hats and kitten heels were all the rage, 1955.

Fiercely protected at a level akin to Ghostbusters and Star Wars by millennials worldwide, Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future sits enthroned at Nostalgia Mountain’s top. The original film has spawned two sequels, a cartoon series, video game adaptations, a Broadway musical, and more. But how does it hold up by today’s standards? Strap on your seatbelt, and prepare yourselves to see some serious shit because this is Back to the Future Revisited.

In 1977, Robert Zemeckis did the unthinkable. He bulldozed into Amblin Entertainment without an appointment, heading straight for Steven Spielberg’s office.

For years, Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net.” In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…

Phil Shelly...

The old saying goes you shouldn’t marry anyone you can’t stand to be with for a three-day train ride. This is perhaps the basis for most of Richard Linklater’s Before series, tracing a couple from initial courtship to eventual marriage, from the fantasy of being young and taking a different path to settling into comfort. Kristian Mercado’s fluffy and sweet hang-out movie If You Were the Last initially opens in a living room before we pull back to reveal that our couple, Adam (Anthony Mackie) and Jane (Zoe Chao), are floating ruthlessly in space, on a self-sustaining ship that has lost all navigation and communication with NASA back on earth. Like an extreme version of the Before series, we enter mid-relationship, after the routines have been established 1,000 days into a solidly platonic relationship.

Adam and Jane are set in their schedules: completing the checklist, caring for the garden and animals,...

Back in 1990, director Ron Underwood brought us one of the greatest creature features ever made, Tremors (watch it Here). A film that introduced subterranean monsters known as Graboids and spawned a franchise that has – so far – consisted of six direct-to-video sequels and a TV series that ran for thirteen episodes back in 2003. The only cast member who stuck with the franchise through every sequel and the TV series was Michael Gross, but for the last few years Tremors star Kevin Bacon has let it be known that he wants to come back to the world of Tremors. He even starred in a pilot for a second Tremors TV series… but Syfy didn’t pick it up. While Bacon continues to “wait for the call” that will give him the chance to reprise the role of Valentine McKee, Daily Dead has discovered that Universal Pictures’ 1440 Entertainment division was recently developing a...

With Michael Gross at the helm, the original Tremors franchise released its seventh installment back in 2020, and all has been quiet on that front for the past few years. Of course, Kevin Bacon is still itching to bring that small screen “Tremors” TV series to life, but we haven’t heard of any forward momentum on that project. So what’s the latest on Tremors?

Daily Dead has done some research and they managed to dig up information on a planned Tremors reboot from director Bill Watterson (Dave Made a Maze) that never came to life.

According to Daily Dead’s Heather Wixson, Universal 1440 Entertainment was behind the cancelled reboot, and Wixson obtained some insights directly from Bill Watterson.

Wixson writes, “While Watterson couldn’t fully elaborate on any exact details surrounding the project due to legal reasons, he did confirm that the project had been greenlit by Universal...

If you know me or have been following the work that I’ve been doing here at Daily Dead for the last decade, then declaring that I am a huge Tremors fan here should not come as any kind of surprise. It’s a film series that has meant the world to me for more than three decades now, and not only did I have the distinct pleasure of covering the last three Tremors sequels, but I even chatted with Jonathan Melville, the writer behind Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors, because I was just so fascinated by everything that I read in his book. In fact, StudioADI’s effects on the original Tremors were partly responsible for my wanting to write about FX artists in the first place.

So, when it was recently brought to my attention that not only was there a planned Tremors reboot in the works,...

Animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky joins Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss his favorite silent sequences from great movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Infested (2002)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Godfather (1972) – Ernest Dickerson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Apocalypse Now (1979) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

A Fistful of Dollars (1964) – John Badham’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray reviews

Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Birds (1963) – Eli Roth’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966) – Ernest Dickerson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray reviews

Conan The Barbarian (1982)

Conan The Destroyer (1984)

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

The Party (1968) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary

The Pink Panther...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "The Maltese Falcon"

Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max

The Pitch: My personal introduction to the world of hard-boiled noir and crime drama came in the form of "Calvin and Hobbes." Among the alter-egos Calvin would imagine for himself in Bill Watterson's exemplar comic strip was Tracer Bullet, hardened private eye, and notorious alcoholic.

"I keep two magnums in my desk. One's a gun, and I keep it loaded. The other's a bottle, and it...

The post The Daily Stream: The Maltese Falcon is the Stuff Noir is Made Of appeared first on /Film.

Every time someone takes a comic book character the world adores and decides to make an animated movie, there’s a risk they won’t do justice to the original designs. “The Adventures of Tintin” comes immediately to mind, since Spielberg and company made the bold choice of swapping artist Hergé’s appealing clean-line designs with appalling performance-capture zombies. Or 2019’s disappointing “The Addams Family” reboot, which effectively turned Charles Addams’ macabre sketches into benign, generic-looking balloon animals.

It’s a problem the folks at On Entertainment take seriously. They’re the ones who translated Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince” to the screen, erring on the side of overdoing the CG equivalent in that case. Now, the same studio has done right by Jean-Jacques Sempé and René Goscinny’s Petit Nicolas — or Little Nicholas to English speakers, who are almost certainly less familiar with the source material (essentially...

“Grubbs,” a Keenspot all-ages webcomic that draws inspiration from “Calvin & Hobbes” and “Dennis the Menace,” is slated for an animated TV series adaptation penned by M.J. Offen. Also the head writer of the Cartoon Network and HBO Max animated series “Jade Armor,” Offen serves as showrunner and is scripting the pilot, co-producing with Keenspot’s Chris Crosby, Bobby Crosby and “Grubbs” creator Max Weaver.

The announcement comes hot off the heels of the theatrical debut of “Marry Me,” which was based on the Keenspot graphic novel of the same name from creator Bobby Crosby. The rom-com, starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, rose high on streaming charts on Valentine’s Day. Adapted by “She-Hulk” director Kat Coiro, “Marry Me” currently holds a 60% critics score and a 92% audience score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

“I see Grubbs’ potential as a troublemaker we love to see act up, like Calvin or Dennis or Bart,...

To celebrate the release of Dave Made a Maze – available on Blu-ray and Digital HD from January 28th and premiering on the Arrow Video Channel on January 25th – we’re giving away a Blu-ray, a limited edition t-shirt from pixel art designer Takekiyo and a mystery cardboard prop used in the film!

Imagine Michel Gondry and Tim Burton given unlimited cardboard, sellotape and a film camera, and you’re somewhere close to getting this dazzlingly original, Saturn Award-winning horror comedy from debut director Bill Watterson. A cult classic in the making, this brilliantly realised homage to fantasy adventure films from the 1980’s features incredible and imaginative production design, that literally takes you out of this world, and into the chaotic and creative mind of Bill Watterson. Described by Nerdist as “a homemade Labyrinth for adults”, this critically-acclaimed indie gem offers a modern comedic edge and an even higher body count.

On the tail of a successful festival run, Us home video release, and an upcoming home video release through Arrow Films in the UK, director Bill Watterson's incredible cult oddity Dave Made a Maze has scored a theatrical release in Japan beginning this Friday, October 19th.  When Dave (Nick Thune), a bored homebody who decided to build a complex maze out of cardboard boxes in his living room gets lost, it's up to his girlfriend, Annie (Meera Rohit Kumbhani) and their friends to save him from his own insane/ingenious creation. Dave Made a Maze is a marvel not only of pure creative spirit, but also a hugely impressive feat of art direction and production design.  Building a complex labyrinth out of cardboard boxes and other...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Author of Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson once said, “You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood. What mood is that? Last-minute panic.” We completely agree, Bill. For this reason, we chose to wait until the last minute to choose this week’s movie, and boy did it get […]

The post Who Goes There Podcast: Ep 165 – Anonymous 616 appeared first on Dread Central.

Brendon Connelly Jan 19, 2018

Pixar's Lee Unkrich chats directing Coco, Calvin & Hobbes rumours, The Shining and more...

Last summer, I was lucky enough to speak with Adrian Molina, co-director of Pixar's jaw-droppingly beautiful Coco. Now that the film is complete, the film's other director, Lee Unkrich, also found time for a chat. Here's what he had to tell me about Kubrick's Col Legno, the influence of live-action filmmaking techniques on his animation, and even his encounters with Calvin and Hobbes' creator Bill Watterson...

See related  Hard Sun episode 2 review Hard Sun episode 1 review 28 British TV dramas to watch in 2018

Adrian Molina, your co-director is not here. What do you think he would want us to know if he was?

Adrian being Mexican-American himself has a lot of pride in having been a vital part of the making of this film. We all feel a lot of pride for how we...

Chicago – It’s time to choose the Ten Scariest Donald Trump Tweets, excuse me, The 10 Best films of 2017 (got a lot on my mind). Selected by HollywoodChicago.com’s Patrick McDonald, the “Über Critic,” it is a list that celebrates redemptive spirit, love of the love and just all-out fun at the flickers.

In keeping with list-o-mania, and the need for fuller disclosure, here are the films – according to the Über – that came at 25th-11th (click highlighted titles for reviews/interviews)… 25th - Patti Cake$, 24th - Wonder Wheel/I Love You, Daddy, 23rd - Norman, 22nd - Novitiate, 21st - Free Fire, 20th - Coco, 19th - mother!, 18th - Beatriz at Dinner, 17th - Their Finest, 16th - Wonder Woman, 15th - Call Me By Your Name, 14th - Happy End, 13th - Bpm (Beats Per Minute), 12th - The Square, 11th - Beauty and the Beast.

Chicago – On Tuesday, December 5th, the Midwest Independent Film Festival will award their 2017 “Best of the Midwest” honors with a ceremony at Landmark Century Centre Cinema in Chicago at 7pm. Nominees include the feature films “Dave Made a Maze,” “Halfway,” “Signature Move,” “The Legend of Swee’ Pea” and “The View From Tall.”

Presented by the Midwest Independent Film Festival

Photo credit: MidwestFilm.com

The Midwest Independent Film Festival is a year-round movie event in Chicago that takes place the first Tuesday of every month, at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema. The festival has been recognized by Chicago Magazine in their “Best of Chicago” issue, and has become one of the top places for local filmmakers, producers and actors to network in the city. The “Best of the Midwest” Awards has a number of TV & Film guests (click here) scheduled to attend.

The nominees for the 2017 “Best of the Midwest” Awards are as follows…...

From November the 23rd till November the 28th, the German city of Constance will be hosting the Shivers Film Festival. It's the third time the festival is being held and the organizers have just revealed the entire line-up, which happens to be a very impressing one. For starters they have Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missoury, and you can take "starters" literally, as it is the fest's opening film. Other Screen Anarchy favorites include Can Evrenol's Housewife, Yorgos Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Bill Watterson's Dave Made a Maze and Nabwana I.G.G's utterly fantastic Wakaliwood extravaganza Bad Black. And hey, any festival which plays Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce and Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers gets our thumbs-up. And while Germany has had a (25...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!" The spooky, Halloween goodness has only just begun! The clothing store Unique Vintage recently teamed up with Nerdist for a Ghoul Gang photo that's featured in today's Horror Highlights. Also: Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival 2017, Coma Ward board game details, Mortal Kombat hits New York Comic Con 2017, Final Girls Berlin Film Fest's call for submissions, and release details and a trailer for Bunnyman Vengeance.

Unique Vintage's Ghoul Gang Photo Shoot: "Bring on the gothic glamour! Leading up to Halloween, Unique Vintage is celebrating the spookiest season with Nerdist for a special photo shoot promoting their Ghoul Gang t-shirt and Creepy Collection of retro clothing. Whether you're the daughter of Dracula or a Mistress of the Dark, this collection has something for you!

Inspired by the best-selling t-shirt, the Ghoul Gang includes: Bizarre States podcast host Jessica Chobot as Morticia Addams; Nerdist Editor-in-Chief...

It’s rare for a fresh voice to arrive fully articulate, and it’s all the more special when it gets heard because the strength of a movie’s central concept resonates with so many. As far as filmmaking goes, striking gold with little means is no easy feat, but Dave Made a Maze defies the odds, erects a labyrinth in an apartment and takes viewers on an adventure – both humorous and dark – into an interior world that’s externalized through cardboard cutouts: “it’s much bigger on the inside” indeed. This is low-budget high concept pulled off with admirable skill. On a Monday afternoon in Vienna we simply had to pick writer-director Bill Watterson’s brain about an indie debut whose momentum shows no signs of letting up....

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Grimmfest, Manchester’s Festival of Horror, Cult and Fantastic Film is back; bigger, bolder, and bloodier than ever before. As the Printworks once again find itself under siege by blood-soaked hordes of horror enthusiasts and film freaks, as Team Grimmfest unleashes…the Ninth Configuration! The festivals latest and greatest line-up yet of dark, dangerous, wild, weird, witty, thrilling, chilling, blood-spilling movies, every one of them a premiere or cult classic of one kind or another.

Highlights include: World Premieres!

Grimmfest is proud to be presenting the world premiere of the remarkable and utterly unique Borley Rectory. Using an elaborate mixture of live action, stills, paintings, and model work, it’s an immersive, eerily atmospheric, and elegantly retro-styled exploration of the Most Haunted House in Britain. Over six years in the making, it’s a real labor of love for its creator, Ashley Thorpe. Featuring a score by Ex-Banshee Steve Severin,...

So here’s the thing: being an adult kind of sucks. We spend so much of our childhoods yearning for responsibility and the freedom that being of a certain age brings, but most of us probably failed to appreciate just how good we had it as carefree kids. And now, we are expected to transform ourselves into responsible grown-ups who have to spend the rest of our days worrying about bills, jobs, or even living up to the expectations of our significant others or other loved ones.

And those are the predicaments faced by the titular protagonist in Dave Made a Maze: do you settle for the life everyone else expects you to lead, or do you dare to follow the unbeaten path (which, in Bill Watterson’s delightful comedy, leads directly into a magical labyrinth within the confines of a box fort) in hopes of achieving a sense...

Dave Made A Maze Gravitas Ventures Director: Bill Watterson Writer: Steven Sears Cast: Nick Thune, Meera Rohit Kumbhani, James Urbaniak, Adam Busch, Stephanie Allynne, Rick Overton, Scott Krinsky, Frank Caeti, Scott Narver Running Time: 80min Rating: Unrated (language, comedic violence) In Theaters And on VOD August 18, 2017 Dave (Nick Thune, Bad Johnson) is a struggling […]

The post Dave Made a Maze Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Chicago – When the magnificently creative film “Dave Made a Maze” begins, it seems like another Millennial generation stab at micro budget filmmaking, with a claustrophobic set and extreme archetypes instead of characters. But then the “exploration” of the title maze starts, and suddenly “Dave” becomes a marvel of invention, tribute, hilarity and even truth.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

A passionate group of filmmakers got together with a strange idea… what if they were to send this group of archetypes into a cardboard fort that a frustrated artist has built, a group that includes his offbeat lover? And what if once inside that maze, the magic begins, as rooms become expansive and tests the will of the search party, transporting them into fantasies of their favorite adventure films from the last 40 years. Oh yeah, and there has to be a film-within-a-film that a hapless documentary crew is trying to make. Does this sound like...

The premise is silly: stunted artist who’s never finished a project in his life finds inspiration through cardboard boxes and their ability to be molded into a literal labyrinth he’s already erected virtually inside his mind to ensure he will never fail (or succeed) since such a final verdict only comes with completion. So bogged down in existential dread—and made to endure it while girlfriend Annie (Meera Rohit Kumbhani) is out-of-town for a much-needed reprieve from his slacker-infused excuses—Dave (Nick Thune) allows its weight to force him into an abyss of despair he cannot escape alone. The only avenue towards freedom is ultimately found by going farther inward. Dave must finish something, everything … anything. He must commit to the work, to Annie, and to himself.

While that all sounds like some crazy on-the-nose metaphor performed through imaginative dream, you’re only going to find yourself half right.

Remember making forts as a kid? I used to think it was so much cooler than my parents did. I had doors, and sometimes windows, and occasionally even a sky roof. I always wanted it to be bigger though. My favorite episode of Community was the pillow fort episode. Everything in me loves forts. Which makes me so excited for this new film called Dave Made a Maze.

Dave Made a Maze is an upcoming film directed by actor Bill Waterson and for an Indy film, it looks pretty impressive. It's about a man named Dave, who makes what appears to be a fort out of cardboard, he goes in and gets lost, and it's up to his friends to save him. And trust me, the maze is bigger on the inside. There are traps, and a monster, and much more. It looks like fun. Something that makes me wish I was a kid again.

Adrian Askarieh, the producer of the Hitman action movies, has optioned the movie rights to Spencer & Locke, a comic that has been described as being Calvin & Hobbes by way of Quentin Tarantino.

Created writer David Pepose and artist Jorge Santiago, Jr, the comic tells of a detective who’s former grade-school crush is found brutally murdered. The detective’s only recourse is to turn to his strange partner, who happens to be the imaginary pet tiger from his childhood.

The comic, which takes the classic idea of a childhood imaginary pet friend (and smartly rendered by Bill Watterson with his...

Directed by Bill Watterson, Dave Made a Maze follows Dave, an artist who has yet to complete anything significant in his career. He builds a fort in his living room out of pure frustration, only to wind up trapped by the fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and critters of his own creation. Ignoring his warnings, Dave’s girlfriend Annie leads a band of oddball explorers on a rescue mission. Once inside, they find themselves caught in an ever-changing supernatural world, threatened by booby traps and pursued by a bloodthirsty Minotaur.

Starring Kirsten Vangsness, James Urbaniak, Adam Busch, Stephanie Allynne, Scott Krinsky, Nick Thune, wrestler-turned actor John Hennigan (who plays the minotaur), Rick Overton, Meera Rohit Kumbhani, Frank Caeti, Timothy Nordwind, and Scott Narver, Dave Made a Maze is set for a Us release on August 18th.

"If you want to survive this fantasy world, think outside the boxes." Holy mackerel, this looks amazing!! Gravitas has unveiled an official trailer for an indie comedy titled Dave Made a Maze, about an artist who builds a huge fort in his living room out of cardboard. The clever concept here is that as soon as you enter the maze, it turns into something much bigger. Dave builds the maze out of pure frustration, only to end up trapped by the "fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and critters of his own creation." This stars Nick Thune, Meera Rohit Kumbhani, James Urbaniak, Stephanie Allynne, Kirsten Vangsness, plus Scott Krinsky. Ohh it looks like it's going to be so, so much fun, kind of like Michel Gondry meets the Duplass Brothers, or something like that. This really does seem like a certified instant cult classic. I'm ready to enter. Here's the first official...

Long time actor Bill Watterson has made his directorial debut on Dave Made a Maze, which had its World Premiere in competition at the Slamdance Film Festival (read our review), where it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative. Gravitas Ventures recently acquired all North American rights and has now constructed a trailer and August 18th […]...

When Daily Dead contributor Ben Larned saw it at the Boston Underground Film Festival, he called Dave Made a Maze a "playful, darkly inventive look into the creative mind" in his review, and Gravitas Ventures' official trailer for the film certainly highlights its humor and the strangely unsettling vibe ahead of its August release.

Synopsis: "An unaccomplished and frustrated artist builds a cardboard box fort in his living room and winds up trapped with a gang of oddball explorers in a fantasy world of his own creation, threatened by booby traps and a bloodthirsty Minotaur."

Directed by Bill Watterson, Dave Made a Maze stars Nick Thune, Meera Rohit Kumbhani, James Urbaniak, John Morrison, Kirsten Vangsness, Stephanie Allynne, and Adam Busch. Gravitas Ventures will release the movie in select theaters on August 18th.

The post Enter a Lethal Labyrinth in the Official Trailer for Dave Made A Maze appeared first on Daily Dead.

Long time actor Bill Watterson has made his directorial debut on Dave Made a Maze, which had its World Premiere in competition at the Slamdance Film Festival (read our review), where it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative. Gravitas Ventures recently acquired all North American rights and has now constructed a trailer and August 18th […]...

As part of its Orbiter Year-Round Series, Other Worlds Austin SciFi Film Festival is thrilled to present the Texas premiere of the SciFi horror/comedy Dave Made A Maze on Wednesday, July 19 (7:30pm) at Flix Brewhouse. Producer John Charles Meyer will be in attendance and will do a Q&A after the screening. Co-Writer/Director, Bill Watterson’s …

The post Other Worlds Austin Presents Dave Made A Maze, a Texas Premiere first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net 2017 - Official Horror News Site...

Zombies, werewolves, and serial killing social media stars will descend upon Miami this August for the third annual Popcorn Frights Film Festival. Taking place August 11th–17th, the Florida film fest's first wave of programming includes Another Wolfcop, Tragedy Girls, It Stains the Sands Red, Better Watch Out, and more.

Press Release: Miami, Fl – Popcorn Frights Film Festival, Florida’s largest and most respected genre film event, announces its first wave of programming for its third annual celebration of genre-twisting cinema, occurring August 11 through 17, 2017, at Miami's landmark O Cinema Wynwood theater.

"We're thrilled to bring the best in horror and genre filmmaking to South Florida audiences for our third annual Popcorn Frights Film Festival. We scoured the globe for the most audacious and spine-tingling films and this first wave selection just gives a small taste of all the exciting things to come,” said Igor Shteyrenberg & Marc Ferman, Co-Founders & Co-Directors of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival.

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Lineup Announcements

– The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the full slate of films for AFI Docs 2017, a five-day documentary celebration in the nation’s capital. Each year, the festival is committed to providing artists with the opportunity to present powerfully told, artfully constructed stories — and to connect audiences and filmmakers with policy leaders. AFI Docs 2017 runs June 14 – 18 in Washington, DC, and Silver Spring, MD.

“The 2017 slate of films reflects AFI Docs’ mission to celebrate powerfully told stories and the people at the heart of them,” said Michael Lumpkin, Director, AFI Docs. “Documentaries continue to play an important role in our country regardless of partisan lines. No matter your background, these human stories have the power to inform and inspire. We look forward to another year of dynamic nonfiction cinema.

Exclusive: Company picks up Lemon and Dave Made A Maze.

Screen Media International has boarded Slamdance audience award winner Dave Made A Maze and Sundance selection Lemon [pictured] and is kicking off talks on the Croisette.

Janicza Bravo’s Lemon follows a man whose life unravels after his blind girlfriend leaves him.

Brett Gelman, Gillian Jacobs and Michael Cera star and Magnolia Pictures will distribute in North America later this year

Bill Watterson’s Dave Made A Maze premiered in Slamdance and stars Nick Thune, Meera Rohit Kumbhani and Adam Busch.

The film centres on a frustrated aspiring artist who builds a fort in his living room and gets sucked into its fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and imagined creatures.

Gravitas Ventures handles North American rights and plans a release later in the year.

“Both titles have already been well received at independent film festivals,” Screen Media International president Almira Ravil said. “We also believe...

Gravitas Ventures has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to Dave Made A Maze, the Slamdance Film Festival audience award winner starring Nick Thune. Bill Watterson’s offbeat comedy co-written with Steven Sears centers on an artist who builds a fort in his living room out of pure frustration, only to wind up trapped by the fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and creatures of his own creation. An August 18 theatrical and VOD release is in the works. Music Box Films has…...

The film will be released day-and-date on August 18.

Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to Dave Made A Maze, the Slamdance audience award-winner for best narrative feature.

First-time director Bill Watterson’s offbeat comedy starring Nick Thune centres on an artist who builds a fort in his living room out of pure frustration, only to wind up trapped by the fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and critters of his own creation.

The film, co-written by Steven Sears, also stars Meera Rohit Kumbhani, James Urbaniak, Stephanie Allynne, and Kirsten Vangsness.

“We wanted to re-imagine classic 80’s adventure films with a comedic edge and a higher body count,” Watterson said. “To reignite that tactile sense of wonder triggered by those films, we played in the sandbox of old-school practical effects – puppetry, miniatures, stop motion animation, and in-camera optical illusions.”

Gravitas Founder and CEO Nolan Gallagher said: “We’d never seen anything like Dave Made A Maze before. We were drawn...

Few films can get away with creating entire sets, villains, plot beats, and characters out of cardboard. Then again, few films in recent years have conjured the playful, metaphysical spirit that infuses Bill Watterson’s Dave Made a Maze. This purely independent and fully realized vision was one of the greatest joys of this year’s Boston Underground Film Festival lineup.

While his girlfriend Annie is away on a business trip, unsuccessful artist Dave decides—as the title suggests—to make a maze. But he goes too far and gets lost in his creation. Upon returning home, Annie finds the maze in her living room, much smaller than Dave’s echoing voice suggests. She enlists the help of Dave’s filmmaker friends to help him escape, but when they enter the maze, they find it to be huge—and haunted by a Minotaur that seeks to destroy them before they can escape.

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Lineup Announcements

– The 2017 HollyWeb Festival, sponsored by AMC Independent and running March 30 – April 2, has announced the full schedule of digital series, filmmaker panels, and events for this year’s edition of the festival, celebrating the world’s premiere digital content. 97 digital series will have episodes screened at AMC Universal CityWalk 19 (100 Universal City Plaza), the Universal Hilton (555 Universal Hollywood Drive), and the Fonda Theatre (6126 Hollywood Blvd.).

HollyWeb Festival Co-Director Daniel Doherty said, “From the beginning, the HollyWeb Festival has sought to shine a light on web series creators, honor their collective vision and work, as well as create a yearly event where they can gather and meet, exchange notes, and possibly form partnerships that will lead to even more outstanding and entertaining web series.” HollyWeb Co-Director Jennifer Doherty,...

I grew up with Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes comic strip in my life. There is so much imagination loaded into it with so many meaningful life lessons. It's always so enjoyable to read. Artist Javier Burgos is also a fan of the comic strip, and he created a wonderful piece of art paying tribute to it and Calvin's intergalactic heroic alter ego Spaceman Spiff. I love Spaceman Spiff, and this fan art is just super fun. I hope you like it. ...

Stefan Avalos’s feature dazzled jury and audiences in Park City.

Stefan Avalos’s feature earned the Sparky Prize for Best Documentary Feature and the audience award in Park City on Friday night.

The Sparky Prize for Best Narrative Feature went to Daniel Warth’s Dim The Fluorescents and Bill Watterson’s Dave Made A Maze won the Narrative Feature Audience Award.

Jamie Greenberg’s Future ’38 earned the Beyond Feature Audience Award.

Moriom by Francesca Scalisi and Mark Olexa won the Sparky Prize for best documentary short, while Tim Mason’s No Other Way To Say It won best narrative short and Hold Me (Ca Caw Ca Caw) by Renee Zhan took the animated prize.

UpCycles by Ariana Gerstein won best experimental short and Maxwell McCabe-Lokoss’s took best anarchy short for Ape Sodom.

The Spirit Of Slamdance Award went to the film team behind Neighborhood Food Drive by Jerzy Rose.

Last night, the 23rd annual Slamdance Film Festival announced the feature and short film recipients of this year’s Sparky Awards. A jury of filmmakers and industry professionals determined the Slamdance Jury Awards for Narrative Feature, Documentary Feature, and Short Film categories. The Audience Awards and the Spirit of Slamdance, an award given by the filmmakers of Slamdance 2017 to the director who best embodies the spirit of the Festival, were also bestowed. The award winners were announced at the festival’s annual Awards Ceremony at the Treasure Mountain Inn in Park City, Utah.

Read More: Slamdance Film Festival Announces 2017 Lineup: ‘Aerotropolis,’ ‘The Children Send Their Regards’ and More

“Independent film is made beautiful not by those individual artists that form celebrity culture but by creative collaboration” said Peter Baxter, Slamdance Co-Founder and President. “At Slamdance this year we’ve experienced an entire program of beautiful independent film and the promise...

The Sundance Film Festival won’t be handing out its awards until tomorrow but that other Park City shindig held its ceremony last night and a certain Stradivari obsessed documentary took some top prizes. There were wins for the Bill Waterson directed Dave Made a Maze and a Spirit of Slamdance victory for the Jerzy Rose helmed Neighborhood Food Drive, at the 23rd Slamdance fest on Thursday. The event at Park City’s Treasure Mountain Inn also saw the Stefan Avalos directed S…...

Wildly inventive on a micro-budget scale, actor Bill Watterson’s shift to directing is an impressively crafted feature that’s full of frequent surprises. Assembling 30,000 square feet of cardboard to build full-scale sets for a fantastical maze clearly requires substantial commitment and creative vision, although the film’s determined quirkiness may mark it more for cult status than for widespread appeal.

An easily recognizable type, Dave (Nick Thune) is a would-be artist and chronic false-starter with a reputation for never completing anything he begins working on. So he decides to downsize his ambitions and build a fortress-like maze about the size of...

Exclusive: The Slamdance festival is always a reliable place to find real gems that might otherwise get overlooked in the crush the coinciding Sundance festival, and if the teaser for Dave Made A Maze is any indication, 2017 will be no exception. The debut feature from director Bill Watterson, the pic follows Dave, an artist who has yet to complete anything significant in his career. When he builds a fort in his living room out of pure frustration,he ends up trapped by…...

Slamdance has announced the 11 narratives and eight documentaries that will comprise its 2017 lineup. The festival was established in 1995 and takes place in Park City, Utah in January — the same time and place, of course, as Sundance. 12 of the films will be world premieres, and all competition entries are directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1 million that have yet to receive stateside distribution. Next year’s edition of the festival will run from January 20–26. Full lineup below:

Read More: Watch Slamdance Selections ‘Coming To’ and ‘Courtesan,’ Thanks to Digital Bolex and Seed&Spark (Exclusive)

Narrative Features

“Aerotropolis” (Jheng-Neng Li)

“Beat Beat Heart” (Luise Brinkmann)

“Cortez” (Cheryl Nichols)

“Dave Made a Maze” (Bill Watterson)

“Dim the Fluorescents” (Daniel Warth)

“The Family” (Shumin Liu)

“Kate Can’t Swim” (Josh Helman)

“Kuro” (Joji Koyama, Tujiko Noriko)

“Weather House” (Frauke Havermann)

“Wexford Plaza” (Joyce Wong)

“Withdrawn” (Adrian Murray)

Read More: Watch the Trailer for...