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Before USA Network became series-focused, the cable channel delivered a steady stream of weekly original movies. Many of which were produced by McA (now NBCUniversal). And during this era — between the late 1980s and early 2000s — USA offered a variety of genres; action and suspense were the most common, but horror also came up from time to time.

Especially around Halloween.

USA Network is no longer in the business of airing these “World Premiere Movies,” horror or otherwise, and there haven’t been great strides to bring all of them to streaming or modern home video. However, the horror entries certainly have their merits as well as fans.

See if you can remember these original movies from USA Network’s horror history.

Trapped (1989)

Image: Kathleen Quinlan in Trapped (1989).

Directed by Fred Walton, Trapped was one of USA’s first World Premiere Movies. Here Kathleen Quinlan starred in what feels like a blueprint for P2.

Former Wiedemann & Berg Managing Director and producer Justyna Muesch is joining forces with ex-colleague Sofie Scherz-Fleischer (known as Scherz) and director Alireza Golafshan to launch Munich-based independent production company Story Garden.

They are being joined in the venture by Thomas Herberth and Florian Brüning at the Munich and Vienna-based company Horse&Fruits Film Productions, which they created with Golafshan some 10 years ago.

The new company will focus on developing and producing high-end films and series for the German-speaking market, across all genre.

Producer Muesch, production and line producer Scherz and Golafshan have been working together successfully for years.

Over the summer, they released their third joint project, Golafshan’s comedy Alles Fifty Fifty, which won the Bavarian Film Award for Best Director in 2024. Previous collaborations include The Goldfish in 2019 and Jga: Jasmin.Gina.Anna in 2021.

Under the venture, documentary producers Herberth and Brüning will roll the Munich-based operations of Horse&Fruits into Story Garden,...

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The Sims 4 Lovestruck Expansion Pack aims to bring romance to new heights for Simmers, though its drastic variances in depth make for Dlc that's difficult to recommend at full price. Much like Growing Together, this new release puts a large focus on interpersonal dynamics, though to less success than the aforementioned EP. Lovestruck brings back some beloved concepts from past games like The Sims 2: Nightlife and The Sims: Hot Date alongside a few new ideas that make for entertaining drama, but it overall feels stretched too thin,...

The Sims 4's "Season of Love" focuses on enhancing romantic relationships through new customization options and destination kits for in-game dates. Previous expansions in The Sims series have built upon romance with new items, locations, and features, enriching the gameplay experience for players. While specifics on the release date of The Sims 4's "Season of Love" are still unclear, players can expect a fresh take on dating mechanics and romantic interactions in the game.

Electronic Arts has revealed The Sims 4's latest season, which will focus on the love lives of the Sims. Forming relationships has always been a major part of the life-simulation series since its launch back in the year 2000 with players able to create characters and have them form families with either their other creations, or the NPCs found in the game, and several expansions over the years focused on dating as a way to build this...

Germany network Rtl Deutschland has struck a long-term strategic deal with Wiedemann & Berg Film and the producer’s parent, Leonine Studios.

The multi-year agreement covers free TV and streaming, and means Rtl Deutschland will have exclusive rights to German theatrical releases from the two companies, which produced or co-produced the country’s most successful film in each year between 2020 and 2023.

The pact includes the new comedy Alter Weisser Mann from director Simon Verhoeven starring Jan Josef Liefers, Nadja Uhl, Friedrich von Thun, Michael Maertens, Meltem Kaptan and Elyas M’Barek. It began shooting this month.

The film follows family man Heinz Hellmich, who tries show is ‘wokest’ side and prove he is not an ‘old white man’ to land the job he has longed for. Inviting his boss and colleagues to a dinner party, his family politically correct facade begins to crumble, causing chaos among the guests.

Andreas Fischer, Chief Operating...

Best known for playing cellist Kara Milovy in the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights, actress Maryam d’Abo made her screen acting debut in the 1982 sci-fi horror film Xtro – and now she’s returning to the world of horror by taking a role in the gothic feature The Baby in the Basket!

Directed by Nathan Shepka (When Darkness Falls) from a screenplay by Tom Jolliffe (War of the Worlds: The Attack), The Baby in the Basket has the following synopsis: In 1940s, the nuns of a remote Scottish island convent ready for an impending storm, but when a baby is left on their doorstep, Sister Agnes becomes convinced he is the Devil and wants to kill the child. After Agnes is locked away a grim series of events ensue as the storm rages, and as her Sisters begin to question faith and reality, Sister Eleanor must try to repent and...

With some of Germany’s most successful production companies in its stable, Leonine Studios is reaping the rewards with such feature film and television hits as “School of Magical Animals,” “Nightlife,” “Dark” and “Pagan Peak.”

Leonine’s production division includes such well-established companies as Wiedemann & Berg Film, which focuses on theatrical features, W&b Television and Odeon Fiction, which produce movies and series for all broadcasters and streaming platforms in Germany, documentary outfit Gebrueder Beetz and format maker I&u TV.

“We are in for high creative quality and commercial success,” explains Quirin Berg, who, along with Max Wiedemann, serves as Leonine’s chief production officer and managing director of Wiedemann & Berg Film.

“The parameters in each segment we are operating in may be different, but the agenda is not. And that was already the profile when we started out as producers some 20 years ago.”

Indeed, Wiedemann & Berg’s first feature film,...

Variety will bestow its International Achievement in Film Award on German production, licensing and distribution company Leonine Studios at a ceremony at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

This award is the most prestigious honor Variety can bestow on an international film company or executive, and is designed to spotlight the honoree’s achievements over the past few years.

Steven Gaydos, Executive Vice President, Global Content, Variety, said: “Building on the links to a storied, successful history, Leonine Studios has rapidly established itself in the past few years as one of the world’s leading producers, licensors and distributors of premium movies and series.

“The Leonine Studios name is now known for its brave and highly informed decision-making, as well as its innovation, and its allegiance to high-quality product. In a challenging and complex global entertainment business environment, Leonine is steering a dynamic, creative course that is serving as a...

The Berlin ceremony brought together the German industry for the first time in 18 months.

Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man was the big winner at the Lolas, the German Film Awards in Berlin on October 1, winning best film, best director, best screenwriter for Schrader and Jan Schomberg and best actress for Maren Eggert.

I’m Your Man is produced by Lisa Blumenberg’s Hamburg-based Letterbox Filmproduktion. It is Germany’s entry to the best international film category at the Oscars. I’m Your Man had its world premiere in competition at the Berlinale in March where Eggert also won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for her performance.

After joining forces last year to launch a banner together, indie film and TV powerhouses Mediawan and Leonine Studios (“Dark”) have acquired a 51% stake in Drama Republic, the award-winning U.K. production banner behind “Doctor Foster” and “The Honourable Woman.”

The acquisition marks a milestone in developing the recently-launched Mediawan & Leonine Studios across English-speaking territories and in the U.K.

Drama Republic is led by industry veterans Greg Brenman, Roanna Benn and chief content officer Jude Liknaitzky, who will all remain in their respective roles. The company has created some of Britain’s most successful dramas, many of which have became global hits, such as “Doctor Foster,” which sold in over 100 territories, and the BAFTA-winning “The Honourable Woman.” The outfit has built ties with some of the U.K.’s top talent, including screenwriter and director Hugo Blick, best-selling novelist and screenwriter David Nicholls (“Patrick Melrose”) and Olivier award-winning playwright...

After news broke on Thursday that the legendary Jessica Walter had died, celebrities took to social media to share condolences and fond memories of the award-winning actress.

Walter, who was 80, was best known for her portrayal of Lucille Bluth in “Arrested Development.” Her career spanned more than six decades and included other iconic roles, such as Malory Archer in “Archer” and the title character in the 1970s crime drama “Amy Prentiss.”

In addition to film and TV, Walter also found success in theater, starring in Broadway productions like “Advise & Consent,” Neil Simon’s “Rumors,” “A Severed Head,” “Nightlife” and “Photo Finish,” which earned her the Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Newcomer.

Jason Bateman, who starred as Michael Bluth on “Arrested Development,” paid tribute to his on-screen mom.

“R.I.P. Jessica Walter. What an incredible career, filled with amazing performances,” he tweeted. “I will forever remember my time with her,...

Jessica Walter, the award-winning actress best known for portraying Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development, died Wednesday at age 80 at her home in New York City. A representative for Walter confirmed the news to Rolling Stone but did not provide a cause of death.

Walter is survived by her daughter, Brooke Bowman, and grandson, Micah Heymann. Bowman said in a statement: “It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of my beloved mom Jessica. A working actor for over six decades, her greatest pleasure was bringing joy to...

Jessica Walter, award-winning star of stage and screen with six decades in show business, passed away in her sleep in new York City on Wednesday March 24. (Via Deadline.) In recent years, Walter was best known for her Emmy-nominated role as matriarch Lucille Bluth in “Arrested Development,” as well as for voicing Malory Archer on Fxx’s animated series “Archer.” She won an Emmy in 1975 for her leading role in the police drama “Amy Prentiss.”

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Walter attended New York City’s High School of Performing Arts (now called Laguardia) and further studied acting at the famed Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. She began her career on Broadway, starring in productions such as “Advise and Consent,” Neil Simon’s “Rumors,” “A Severed Head,” “Nightlife,” “Tartuffe,” “The Royal Family,” and “Photo Finish.”

Her earliest prominent film role came in 1971’s “Play Misty for Me,” in which her...

Meanwhile cinemas will remain closed until January 31.

German exhibitors and distributors saw box-office takings fall by over 70% in 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.

According to provisional figures collated by Comscore, German cinemas posted total box-office turnover of €284.8m and sold 33.7m tickets. This was 70.5% and 69.2% down on takings and admissions recorded for 2019.

While US releases took €171.8m and were seen by over 19.5m cinema-goers - translating into a year-on-year decrease of 75.8% and 74.9% respectively, German films fared somewhat better in a year dominated by the pandemic and lockdown measures forcing cinemas to close for months.

Local production generated €85.3m box-office...

Thin Lizzy will pack 74 previous unreleased tracks into a new box set, Rock Legends, set to arrive October 23rd via Umc.

The six-cd/one-dvd collection, which is available to preorder, spans the band’s whole career and comprises a mix of demos, radio sessions, live recordings and rare single edits. The set is based around a collection of newly discovered tapes, and the tracklist was compiled by Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham and band expert Nick Sharp.

The first disc of the Rock Legends set will boast the single edits...

Korean hit #Alive kicked up another $2.2M this weekend, holding well throughout the mid-weeks, but with an overall 63% Friday-Saturday-Sunday dip from the comparable weekend days last session. The timely thriller that’s set against the backdrop of a city in lockdown due to a virus has now grossed $11M. It’s a continued indication that moviegoers want something new, and in cases of a strong local industry, they’re also enjoying homegrown fare. Still, not much is going to rock the international box office until Hollywood starts releasing fresh titles.

A question has been raised as to whether the studios could release big new movies overseas without the biggest domestic cities given the situation in the U.S. is still dire. While international makes up the lion’s share of receipts (73% in 2019), a finance source explains that an event picture generally goes out on more than 30,000 screens worldwide — those screens are hardly available at present.

Paris-based media group Mediawan has launched a new pan-European entity, Mediawan Alliance, and has entered exclusive negotiations to acquire France’s Lagardere Studios.

The company has also acquired a majority stake in Spain’s Good Mood. Mediawan Alliance has also entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire Troisieme Oeil, a top French production company owned by Pierre-Antoine Capton, chairman of the Mediawan board.

Mediawan Alliance is being financially backed by the French investment firm MacSf and the U.S. private equity firm Kkr, and is headquartered in Paris. The new entity will be co-headed by Capton as CEO, and Leonine CEO’s Fred Kogel as deputy CEO.

Capton launched Mediawan with Xavier Niel and Mathieu Pigasse four years ago. The three entrepreneurs currently own 19.75% of Mediawan and are creating Mediawan Alliance as a vehicle to make a tender offer on the remaining 73% of Mediawan’s shares.

If the tender offer on...

Exclusive: Some international box office markets that are up and running — even if not at full steam — saw increases this weekend while others faced drops given good weather in some spots and an overall lack of new product. However, Disney floated Kristen Stewart-starrer Underwater into Korea for the first time with a No. 1 start at $402K which is one of the better overseas openings for the underperformer that began rolling out globally in January. Disney/Pixar’s Onward also continued to lead Taiwan in its second week.

Local titles in Germany and Czech Republic were still atop the charts and the former continues to see strong drive-in business. Overall, however, there’s evidence that new releases — scant though they may be — are the ones drawing the most attention from moviegoers. (See market snapshots below.)

There was good news this week out of France where it was announced that cinemas...

The Slovenian filmmaker's debut feature took part in the First Films First, Midpoint and APostLab development programmes, and the co-production markets in Trieste, Cottbus and Sofia. Slovenian writer-director Darko Sinko's first feature film, Inventory, is in the final stages of editing and is expected to be ready this autumn, Cineuropa has learned from producer Vlado Bulajić, at Ljubljana-based production company December. The main character, Boris (Radoš Bolčina), is an ordinary man who is brutally attacked one night by an unknown perpetrator. Police inspector Andrej opens an investigation. It turns out that Boris has no enemies or conflicts with anyone. There are no suspects, and it seems that no one could possibly be interested in shooting Boris, so the police eventually suspend the investigation. But, riddled with doubt, Boris starts investigating on his own. We follow a tragicomic path of a man who discovers that more people...

"You have something they want, and now they are coming." Hewes Pictures has debuted an official trailer for a short film titled Nightlife, the latest from filmmaker Brando Benetton (American Bullet). This film is barely a "short" as it comes in at 43 minutes, closer to being a "medium-length" film than anything. And it will be available to rent/watch streaming starting May. Two American agents are hired to retrieve military chips containing top-secret content. Their plan goes awry when an unexpected political prisoner enters the picture. Starring Dylan Baker, with Bradley Stryker, Francesco Pannofino, and Becky Ann Baker. Described as a "white-knuckle thriller", this looks like it has some serious urban action to offer. Take a peek. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Brando Benetton's short film Nightfire, direct from YouTube: Two American agents (Lorenzo Pisoni and Greg Hadley) are hired to retrieve military chips containing a large sum of government money.

The news comes as the German Producers Alliance issued a statement calling for solidarity within the film industry.

All of Germany’s cinemas must now be closed to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic following an agreement reached on Monday (16 March) by the Federal Government in Bonn with the prime ministers of the 16 regional Länder.

The new guidelines specify that cinemas, along with bars, clubs, theatres, opera houses and museums will shut down until further notice.

At the weekend, cities such as Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg announced measures to restrict social contact, which had included the closing of cinemas,...

Sales agent Picture Tree Intl. has taken the international rights to comedy “The Black Square,” which will star Sandra Hueller, the co-lead of Oscar-nominated “Toni Erdmann,” and now appearing in “Exile,” which has its European premiere Monday in Berlin’s Panorama section, after playing at Sundance.

Port au Prince Pictures will release “The Black Square” in Germany and Austria. The distributor also released last year’s Berlinale Silver Bear winner and German Oscar entry “System Crasher,” which became an indie box office hit in Germany with a $5.15 million theatrical gross.

“The Black Square,” which starts principal photography on Tuesday, is written and directed by Peter Meister, making his feature film debut.

The film tells the story of two art thieves who have stolen the iconic avant-garde painting “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich. The handover of the $60 million ransom is set to take place on a cruise ship, but things go...

Dieter Berner’s directs the ambitious new period drama.

Picture Tree International has confirmed the financing and casting on Dieter Berner’s ambitious new period drama, Alma & Oskar, which will begin shooting in June.

The film, set in pre-First World War Vienna and which explores the turbulent relationship between the Viennese society Grand Dame Alma Mahler and the expressionist artist and enfant terrible Oskar Kokoschka. has been put together as an Austrian (Fillm Ag), German (Wüste Film), Swiss (Turnus Film) and Czech (Dawson Films) coproduction.

In advance of shooting, various distributors are also already aboard the production: Alamode for Germany,...

Berlin-based Picture Tree International (Pti) has acquired global sales rights to Leander Haussmann’s highly anticipated East German laffer “A Stasi Comedy.”

Set in the early 1980s, the film centers on East Germany’s infamous state security service, the Staatssicherheitsdienst or Stasi, and young agent Ludger, played by David Kross, who is sent to infiltrate the counterculture scene in East Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district, home to artists, bohemians and free-thinking radicals. Decades later, Ludger is confronted with the possibility of his secret Stasi past coming to light.

Written and directed by Haussmann, “A Stasi Comedy” is the third installment in the celebrated filmmaker’s East German-themed comedy trilogy that began with “Sonnenallee” (“Sun Alley”) in 2000 and followed with “Nva” in 2004.

“After 30 years, it should be finally allowed to laugh about the Stasi,” Haussmann said.

“A Stasi Comedy” is produced by Ufa Fiction in co-production with Constantin Film, which is...

Picture Tree Intl. has secured global sales rights of Berlin comedy “Nightlife,” directed by Simon Verhoeven, following his last film “Welcome to Germany,” which was Germany’s comic relief to the refugee crisis. The film sold to more than 60 territories and screened at more than 50 festivals worldwide, while being the No.1 box office hit in Germany in 2016.

“Nightlife” features German star Elyas M’Barek as bartender Milo who, on a night out in Berlin, meets Sunny, a Berlin native and the woman of his dreams – a fateful encounter as it soon turns out. Their first date starts out very smoothly until Milo’s chaotic friend Renzo, played by Frederick Lau, appears on the scene. Unexpectedly, the romantic evening turns into a wild race through the nightlife of Berlin with the trio fighting for nothing less than their lives and true love.

After blockbusters like “Maennerherzen” (Men in the City) (2009) and “Welcome to Germany...