Following last month’s news that “Frankenweenie,” Tim Burton’s latest foray into stop-motion animation, will open this year’s edition of Fantastic Fest in Austin, the festival has announced its first wave of film programming.
The biggest addition to the lineup is the red carpet premiere of “Dredd 3D,” the latest film imagining of the popular comic book character, first played on screen by Sylvester Stallone in the 1995 blockbuster, “Judge Dredd.” The new film, directed by Pete Travis, stars Karl Urban as the Judge.
Other highlights include Rodney Ascher’s festival favorite “Room 237,” which explores the bizarre theories about the symbolism in “The Shining;” a repertory screening of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining;” “Wrong,” Quentin Dupieux’s anticipated follow-up to “Rubber;” and the U.S. premiere of the aptly titled “Cockneys Vs Zombies,” an irreverent British comedy about a botched bank robbery that takes place during a zombie outbreak.
Fantastic Fest runs September 20-27 in Austin, Texas.
See below for the initial lineup of films at this year’s festival.
COCKNEYS VS ZOMBIES (2011)
US Premiere
Director – Matthias Hoene, 87min
When a badly planned bank robbery and a zombie outbreak collide, hilarity ensues in this balls-out, irreverent British comedy.
DEAD SUSHI (2012)
US Premiere
Director – Noboru Iguchi, 91min
Japanese splatter action comedy is on the menu when director Noboru Iguchi & karate girl Rina Takeda join forces to take on flying killer sushi monsters in DEAD SUSHI!
THE ENTITY (1982)
Repertory Screening as part of the House of Psychotic Women series
Director – Sidney J. Furie, 125min
In this controversial film based on a true story, director Furie explores the domestically-abused-woman-as-
US Premiere
Director – Eron Sheean, 101min
Plagued by the memory of the infant son he could not save, geneticist Geoff Burton plunges into a web of intrigue, jealousy and lies in this icily precise thriller.
THE MAFU CAGE (1978)
Repertory Screening as part of the House of Psychotic Women series
Director – Karen Arthur, 102min
One of the most compelling and uniquely dark films of the psychotic woman subgenre, Karen Arthur’s adaptation of Eric Westphal’s play You and Your Clouds stars Lee Grant as Ellen, an astronomer who lives with her feral sister Cissy (Carol Kane).
SECRET CEREMONY (1968)
Repertory Screening as part of the House of Psychotic Women series
Director – Joseph Losey, 105min
In Losey’s underrated SECRET CEREMONY, an aging but still glamourous Elizabeth Taylor stars as Leonora, a prostitute grieving over the death of her daughter in a drowning accident.
THE SHINING (1980)
Repertory Screening
Director – Stanley Kubrick, 142min
Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece features an unhinged performance by Jack Nicholson and a setting that drips with menace. Its imagery and characters have permeated all areas of pop culture throughout the decades, yet the film retains all its power to disturb and terrify.
Texas Premiere
Director – Alberto Rodriguez, 95min
Alberto Rodriguez’s UNIT 7 is gritty realistic thriller about a crew of narcotics officers in Seville, Spain who go rogue during a citywide crackdown in the years preceding Expo ’92.
YOUNG GUN IN THE TIME (2012)
US Premiere
Director – Oh Young Doo, 95min
The director of INVASION OF ALIEN BIKINI returns with a quirky, low budget time travel romp filled with sex shops, robot hands and Hawaiian shirts.
