World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
Wild Horse Nine opens in the UK, Statham & Ritchie reunite at Netflix, Blumhouse Atomic & AFM’s Moonsong and Atoman.
Morning, all. After yesterday’s Carrie anniversary and the Jailer 2 record, today is a big day for UK cinemas, with one of the highlights of my London Film Festival opening in cinemas.
Wild Horse Nine opens in the UK: Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine opens in UK and Irish cinemas today, via Searchlight, two days ahead of its US release on Friday. I gave it five stars at the London Film Festival, and John Malkovich won the Best Actor prize at Venice for his performance and could be a strong contender for the Best Actor Oscar. I’ve seen it twice now and during the second time – which I enjoyed just as much – I really got to appreciate Sam Rockwell’s performance as the ‘straight man’ of the duo. Some of his dumbfounded ‘looks’ just crack me up without him saying a word. This should – imho – be very much on your cinema-watching list in the next week or two.
Statham and Ritchie reunite: Jason Statham is reuniting with Guy Ritchie for Dogfight, a Netflix revenge thriller set in London’s criminal underworld (so a real divergence then for both men!). It’s a busy year for Ritchie, whose Wife & Dog opens in UK cinemas on 19 February 2027.
Blumhouse Atomic: Jason Blum’s Blumhouse and James Wan’s Atomic Monster, which merged in 2024, have unveiled their new corporate name, Blumhouse Atomic, which must have taken them AGES to come up with! The two will, however, continue to trade as separate production labels. The combined company’s films have taken more than $2.5 billion worldwide against production budgets of less than $330 million, and in 2026 alone it has taken $1.3 billion, thanks to Curry Barker’s Obsession ($520 million worldwide) and Kane Parsons’ Backrooms ($400 million), both of which feature in our special ‘Flickering Breadcrumbs’ Top 10 Horror Films podcast. Next up is The Exorcist: Martyrs, and Wan is returning to the Saw franchise as producer.
The American Film Market, continued: Several stars have joined Rebecca Miller’s Moonsong: A Life in Seven Verses, which stars Julianne Moore and Elle Fanning, and follows the writer Margaret Wise Brown in 1930s New York as she discovers her gift for children’s stories. Josh Hartnett, Emma Thompson, Sally Hawkins and Danny Huston are among the new cast members. Meanwhile, the Moroccan-Belgian superhero film Atoman has secured a North American release from Disrupt Entertainment, which plans to roll it out on at least 100 screens, ahead of an international sales push at the AFM.
Birthdays: Matthew McConaughey, who won an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club, turns 57 today, and Ralph Macchio, star of The Karate Kid, turns 65.
That’s all for today.
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