Jem and The Holograms - H 2014
Courtesy Everett CollectionUniversal has set an Oct. 23, 2015, release date for Jem and the Holograms, the much-anticipated musical adventure based on the 1980s Hasbro toy line that was also a beloved cartoon.
At the same time, the studio has penciled in an April 10, 2015, release date for Cybernatural, a horror thriller it quietly picked up that has Timur Bekmambetov producing.
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Universal got involved in Cybernatural, which premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival, after execs saw a test screening of the flick and saw the audience reaction. It then quietly picked up the movie, which was developed and conceived by Bekmambetov, who directed Wanted for the studio. WME Global brokered the deal.
Nelson Greaves wrote the script for Cybernatural and is producing along with Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum, who is behind horror movies such as Paranormal Activity and Universal’s own The Purge series.
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The conceit of the movie is that the story is told in real time from the point of view of a teen girl’s computer. The girl and her friends are stalked by an unseen figure who seeks vengeance for a shaming video that led a vicious bully to kill herself a year earlier.
Blum is also a producer on Jem, which tells of a small-town girl who is catapulted from underground video sensation to global superstar. She and her three sisters begin a one-in-a-million journey of discovering that some talents are too special to keep hidden, according to the studio’s dating announcement.
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Aubrey Peeples, Stefanie Scott, Aurora Perrineau, Hayley Kiyoko, Ryan Guzman, Molly Ringwald and Juliette Lewis star in the movie, which is directed by Jon M. Chu.
Joining Blum as producers are Chu, Scooter Braun for SB Projects, Bennett Schneir, and Brian Goldner and Stephen Davis of Hasbro Studios.
