Latest news with #1968
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Final Destination Bloodlines' Opening Was Originally Set On Riverboat, Directors Say
Partial "Final Destination Bloodlines" poster. The hit horror film Final Destination Bloodlines opens with the terrifying Skyview scene, but that dizzying sequence wasn't there when the film's directors, Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, started working on the film. Instead, the directors said, the original scene in the screenplay was not set 500 feet above ground in a tower in the sky, but in a boat on the water. Final Destination Bloodlines opened at No. 1 at the box office over the weekend with $51.6 million in domestic ticket sales and $54.1 million for a worldwide tally of $105.7 worldwide, making it the biggest opening in the six-film Final Destination franchise that began in 2000. The horrific Skyview sequence — set atop a Seattle Space Needle-like structure in 1968 — originates as a recurring nightmare that college student Stefanie (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) keeps having at the beginning of Final Destination Bloodlines. After a Rube Goldberg-like chain reaction leads to explosions and a breakdown in the structure, everyone in the Skyview restaurant either falls to their death or burn alive in the tower. As it turns out, however, the nightmare is a premonition of Stefanie's future grandmother, Iris (Bech Bassinger) had in 1968 in the Skyview, and in turn, everybody rushed out of the tower and survived. But death in the Final Destination movies has a way of coming for those who cheat their fate, and in this case, the grim reaper wants the survivors of the Skyview disaster and their blood relatives. In a Zoom conversation with Lipovsky and Stein before the release of Final Destination Bloodlines last week, the directors said the Skyview opening was a scene they helped build with the screenwriters and other talent to set the stage for the horror thriller. 'The draft of the script that we read and based our pitch around didn't even have that same opening sequence,' Stein explained. 'It had a completely different opening sequence that took place on a paddle wheel riverboat. So, we pitched a bunch of ideas for that sequence.' At the same time, Stein added, he and Lipovsky weren't afraid to tell the production that the riverboat idea had some choppy waters to navigate. 'We also mentioned our reservations about that direction, because as soon as we started going down the road of thinking about ideas and how to do a major disaster on a boat, you run into Titanic,' Stein recalled. 'But you're never going to have the budget to do what Titanic did. [We thought], 'You're never going to make a better disaster than Titanic, so you might want to think about other ideas.'' While Stein and Lipovsky were pushing back on the original riverboat idea, their candidness about the shortcomings of the script didn't rub the Final Destination Bloodlines producers the wrong way. 'I think one of the things that I think is really important in doing a successful pitch is to be very passionate to have lots of ideas, but then also be very candid about your reservations about the material because they want to know that you're gonna have lots of ideas of how to make it better than it already is,' Stein said. Interestingly, there were a couple of other key scenes in the final version of Final Destination Bloodlines that weren't in the original script, either. 'There wasn't a tattoo parlor scene and there wasn't a backyard barbecue scene,' Stein said. 'It was a very different movie when we first got involved.' HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - MAY 12: (L-R) Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky attend the World Premiere of ... More Warner Bros "Final Destination Bloodlines" at TCL Chinese Theatre on May 12, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic) Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein — who beat out around 200 other directors vying to helm Final Destination Bloodlines by staging a fake decapitation scene during a Zoom meeting with studio reps — said working on the film presented them with a decidedly different process than their 2018 indie horror film sensation, Freaks. Ultimately, it was an environment where the filmmakers said they thrived as new ideas were brought to the table. 'It's a many, many-year process that involves hundreds of people collaborating,' Lipovsky explained. 'It starts with all the producers and writers in the studio as we're working on ideas, but then very quickly, you start hiring crew. 'You're continuously iterating and having huge meetings with all the different key department heads and artists that are going to work on the film, and then you're also budgeting everything and going, 'Oh wait, well, we can't do that. So, we have to do this instead,'' Lipovsky added. 'It's this massive, evolving machine that can take many years to get all the pieces in place.' Brec Bassinger in "Final Destination Bloodlines." Stein said one of the first things he and Lipovsky did after they were hired was participate in a huge collaborative session of writers to bounce ideas off each other. 'They got a writer's room together with a bunch of talented horror writers from around the industry to just brainstorm [with questions like], 'What are other locations we could exploit? What are other fears we could exploit? Lots of ideas came out of that,' he said. After that, Lipovsky and Stein, as well as the film's writers and producers, had a 'roundtable summit' at Final Destination franchise producer Craig Perry's house to construct what became Final Destination Bloodlines. 'We went through all the ideas that were on the table and we basically started shaping the version of the movie that became what it is now,' Stein said. 'The Skyview idea came out of that conversation. Basically, we said, 'Well, if we're not going to do a boat [disaster], what else could we do? What are other fears we could exploit?' And that's where the fear of heights came in.' Final Destination Bloodlines, featuring a screenplay written by Guy Busick & Lori Evans Taylor that is based on a story by Jon Watts and Busick & Evans Taylor, is playing in theaters worldwide.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Euronews Culture's Film of the Week: 'Final Destination: Bloodlines' - Death gets very messy
The walk home after a Final Destination movie is rife with anxiety. Is that jagged beer can in the street about to be catapulted into my neck by a sudden breeze? And why is that construction worker up ahead… carrying a power tool?! Originally an X-Files spec script by Jeffrey Reddick — inspired by a news story about a woman that got off a plane after her mother had a premonition — each Final Destination film revolves around a bunch of foolish kids trying to outrun death's devious dice rolls. While predictable and gawky in that 2000s teen horror way, the series has always thrived on its paranoia-inducing formula: turning the seemingly mundane into the murderously absurd. If 2011's Final Destination 5 brought us full circle to the first film, directing duo Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein (Freaks, 2018) take us back to where it all began, with an ambitious sixth instalment that's dutifully disgusting. We begin in 1968, where a primped and pregnant Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger) and her partner Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones) arrive at the newly opened Skyview Restaurant — a space age skyscraper resembling a UFO balanced on a terrifyingly tall Tam Tam stool. We already know this won't end well... Never one to be subtle, death soon sets its plans in motion as windows rattle, glass floors begin to crack, and an insufferable little kid chucks a coin off the roof. The result is all-out fiery carnage in which everyone — including Iris — gruesomely perishes. But unlike the franchise's usual opening premonitions, we next wake up in 2025, as Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), a college student plagued by recurring nightmares about her estranged grandmother (Gabrielle Rose). After tracking Iris down at a remote safe house in the woods, she learns that her visions are not just echoes of Iris's past, but also a symptom of a family curse that won't stop until their entire bloodline is wiped out. At a time when generational trauma has become a hallmark of horror, you might be tempted to question: have the premonitions always been symbolic of our self-fulfilling cycles of fear and destruction? But don't over analyse this — all Final Destination: Bloodlines really asks of us is to cheer at some heads getting splattered and have a good time. Indeed, this might be the most self-aware franchise entry, with Lipovsky and Stein leaning into the previous films' tropes to pay homage, subvert expectations, and ramp up the gore and goofiness. Central to this are the 'new fear unlocked' death traps, and they're played out here in creatively sick fashion — one involving a super-magnetic MRI machine and nipple piercings easily enters the canon of all-time great deaths. The best thing about Bloodlines, however, is its period-set premonition that develops into an interconnecting, lore-expanding premise. You see, when Iris saved everyone at the Skyview Restaurant on that fateful day, it created one hell of a list for death. Those traps? They take time. And during that time, the doomed survivors had families, and those families had families — some of whom died from plane crashes and log trucks, wink wink. We also get long-awaited context for mortician William Bludworth, played with delicious drawl by the late Tony Todd in his final role. After explaining to Stefani's family that their only options for survival are to take another's life, or to die and be resuscitated, he snarls: 'If you fuck with death and lose, things can get very messy.' Everyone should see the film for this scene alone. But Bloodlines' bold ideas are also its downfall. The plot moves at such a hurried pace to contain it all, the opening spectacle quickly dwindles into slushy shenanigans and rushed exposition — at one point Stefani devours Iris' big scrapbook filled with potential deaths (only one book — seriously?) to create a Pepe Silvia-style timeline of events. By the third act, it feels like death has lost all inspiration, as janky CGI deaths are crammed in quick succession to no real satisfying conclusion. Then again, the strength of a Final Destination film has always rested on the creativity of its death play, and it mostly excels here. It's also always been a very silly franchise — a quality that Bloodlines fully embraces by intensifying death's slasher persona while acknowledging the ridiculousness of navigating the world as a trap: 'Stay away from that tree trimmer!' It's also bolstered by the characters of cousins Bobby (Owen Joyner) and Erik (Richard Harmon), who have some of the funniest asides in the movie — like sipping from a mug that says 'show me your kitties'. Honourable mention must also go to Paco the micro turtle and his stellar pineapple eating. Much like the victims of the films, horror franchises rarely recognise when their number's up. This year alone we've got revivals of I Know What You Did Last Summer, Saw XI, and Idle Hands. But Bloodlines at least tries to do something new while paying fan service, reminding us there's still plenty of laughs (and groans) to be found in its anxiety-inducing chaos. After all, sometimes you just want to scream with an audience at a man's head being chewed up by a lawnmower — because, as William Bludworth reminds us: 'Life is precious. Enjoy every second. You never know when…' is out in cinemas now.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Yahoo
A whole new chapter for one of SC's greatest writers, Beaufort's Ann Head
The story ends with Ann Head's disturbing death. 'Unlike her fiction, her ending was never resolved,' her daughter Nancy Thode writes in a biography of her mother that launched in Beaufort on Saturday. Ann Head is a little-known native of Beaufort who overcame personal fears to become one of South Carolina's most accomplished writers. At the time of her death in 1968, she was believed to be South Carolina's most widely-read novelist. They said a stroke or cerebral aneurysm ended Ann Head's life at age 52, only a day and a half after yet another night at home was torn apart by the rage of her husband, well-respected Beaufort doctor Stan Morse. He would not let Nancy see her mother in the hospital. And there was no autopsy. When the stabs of fate are more than plot lines on paper, they hurt – for 57 years, and counting -- for Ann Head's two daughters who call their mother's last chapter 'the enduring unknown.' 'Not knowing has haunted Stacey and me to this day,' Thode writes in the last chapter of 'Ahead of Her Time: The Trailblazing Life and Literary Legacy of Ann Head' from Evening Post Books in Charleston. Now the story can have a different ending. The world can now better appreciate the woman who was Pat Conroy's first writing mentor when he was a Beaufort High School student. It can read the correspondence between the two when Conroy was at The Citadel. It can see how Ann Head's four novels – including the young-adult classic 'Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones' and 'Fair With Rain' – came to be, and read samplings from her more than 50 magazine stories that have been unearthed to date through eBay and other searches. Ann Head's story involves one of Beaufort's most historic families, a sudden marriage and divorce from the eventual inventor of the Head Ski, and the sad tale of the dream boat from hell that almost sank her second marriage. It traces family tragedy, a nervous breakdown at age 8, and plenty of sex and intrigue -- including a mention of Murdaugh madness of old. Ann Head was born Anne Wales Christensen to Niels Christensen and Nancy Stratton in October 1915. The Christensens are a well-educated, cultured family that has contributed to Beaufort's fabric in many ways since Ann Head's grandmother, Abbie Holmes Christensen, arrived in Beaufort with her abolitionist parents during the Civil War. The Strattons were proper Boston elites, and young Ann Head split her life between these two poles. Beaufort historian Larry Rowland says Thode's biography offers 'a revealing description of mid-twentieth century Beaufort.' But the crux of the story is that a divorced woman who smoked, drank and read The New Yorker had to support herself and her young daughter with a typewriter and empty sheets of paper. And she did it. She filled page after page with complex characters and subject matter that pushed the boundaries, much like her personal life that included affairs with married men, a pregnancy hidden through a tangled scheme, and a second marriage that brought her stability and standing, but also turmoil. Ann Head tapped into the world of magazines, where she had to cater to the demand for soft endings, but her characters and Lowcountry settings could bring her decent money when America entertained itself by reading well-illustrated magazines instead of staring at cell phones. She sat at the typewriter every day, listening to the music of Broadway shows or opera, wearing little rubber finger tips. From there, often looking over the Beaufort River, she attracted an international audience, the moguls of Hollywood and the admiration of other writers on the world stage – especially Samuel Hopkins Adams, a mentor who wintered in Beaufort. 'Boy, did she push the boundaries,' said Harlan Greene of Charleston, the writer, historian and archivist who suggested the biography and mentored Thode through the five-year process. 'There seem to be no boundaries between her life and her writing,' Greene said. 'It's like what came first, the chicken or the egg.' Ann Head was loved and admired in Beaufort, where if people were offended by some of her ways, they got over it. The town showed her grace when she needed it most. Thode saw her mother as kind, and giving, and too modest about her writing accomplishments. Pat Conroy was perhaps the first to tell the world about her, calling her his first novelist in an essay published in his 2004 book, 'The Pat Conroy Cookbook.' He placed a rose on Ann Head's tombstone in the St. Helena's churchyard every time he sold a book to a publisher. But even he had no idea about all of his mentor's magazine stories, and how she supported herself and young Nancy through her art alone. In 2020, the family established the Ann Head Prize for Short Story Literature at Beaufort High School. And the Ann Head story came full circle when the Pat Conroy Literary Center co-sponsored the biography's local launch event. And it featured high school students. A year ago, Ann Head was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors. But the newest chapter in the Ann Head story – the biography – has its own lessons to teach. 'I learned how scared she was,' Thode said. 'I learned how brave she was. How she persevered through thick of thin, no matter what.' Thode said that from the age 3 to 13, it was just the two of them. A team, led by a mother plagued with various phobias. 'She never conveyed that fear to me. She always made me feel things were an adventure, if we didn't have enough money or enough food. It was, 'No. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this.' ' Thode may try to get some of her mother's novels back in print. So perhaps one of Beaufort's most remarkable stories will never end. David Lauderdale may be reached at lauderdalecolumn@
Auto Car
18-05-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Car
All Minors, no majors: Learning to drive in a 57-year-old Morris
Learning to drive in a classic car can be a very shrewd choice – and it could well make you a better driver too You can keep your Fiestas, this is a far cooler car for learning to drive in Close There's a Morris Minor fan near where I live. He has a Traveller on his drive and a saloon on the road outside that doesn't appear to have moved for some time because there's an eco system developing underneath it. Then a few weeks ago, while cycling past Hampton Court Palace, I saw what looked like the saloon motoring along the A308 in the direction of the M3. An impressive turnaround in fortune for a car that, I suspected, might never run again. Except this wasn't that Morris Minor. This one was being driven by a young-looking lad who, from the presence of an L-plate front and back, appeared to be learning to drive in it. A few days later, I spotted the car parked outside the local doctor's surgery. Further detective work revealed that the blue 1968 Morris Minor 1000 is the pride and joy of father Ed Wilson and his son Patrick. Patrick is 17 years old and has been learning to drive over the past four months. First, if you believe the mass media, no youngsters are learning to drive these days, and second, if they are, they're not likely to be learning in a 57-year-old classic. I found the sight of young Patrick in his Morris Minor rather heart-warming. So, Ed, why isn't junior learning to drive in something more modern? Something a bit more conventional like a Volkswagen Polo or Ford Fiesta? 'Money,' says Ed. 'At least that's the primary reason.' I'd heard via word of mouth that insuring young people to drive a classic car was far cheaper than for a modern car. That turned out to be true because Patrick, who is the policy holder on the Minor, with dad as a named driver, pays only £120 per year. "That's for limited mileage, and only 1000 miles at that, but that's adequate for us as we don't go very far from home,' says Ed. 'And although the premium will rise once he's passed his test, it will still be far cheaper than for a modern car.' Why a Morris Minor? 'Well, my grandfather had one,' says Ed, 'which added some appeal. We looked at a Traveller but the woodwork was really rotten so we gave that one a miss. Then we spotted this saloon that was for sale for £1500. "As you can see, the paintwork is very dull and there is some surface rust in places, but structurally it's pretty sound. The other advantage of this car is that it's ULEZ-exempt, which is an important factor when you're on a tight budget.' Ed learned to drive at the age of 25 in a Ford Fiesta, a rather more sophisticated car than the Moggie. 'It took me a while to adjust to driving the Minor,' he says, 'but Patrick picked it up quicker than me.' Patrick says: 'Most of my friends are learning to drive, but nobody is driving a car as old as ours. They haven't commented much on the Morris but my sister Poppy reckons that it's a really cool car.' Even for Ed, the Morris has features he had not encountered before. Such as a foot-operated dip switch. 'I've never owned a car with a manual choke,' he says, 'which has taken some mastering.' But it's not what the car has: it's what it hasn't that makes it interesting for a learner driver. Like synchromesh on first gear. 'I've had to learn to think ahead,' says Patrick. 'I only drive the car in town but even so I have to think carefully when I'm coming up to a junction or making a manoeuvre. I don't think I'd like to drive it on a motorway as it's not fast enough and other traffic would be intimidating. I'll be taking my test in a modern car.' There's no question in my mind that Patrick will be a better driver for learning in such an analogue car with no distractions. He'll be picking up skills that will be of great use to him throughout his driving life even if he does migrate to a modern car that will help steer and park for him, spot pedestrians and carry out emergency stops. What did I learn in? A Morris Minor 1000 Traveller. Join our WhatsApp community and be the first to read about the latest news and reviews wowing the car world. Our community is the best, easiest and most direct place to tap into the minds of Autocar, and if you join you'll also be treated to unique WhatsApp content. You can leave at any time after joining - check our full privacy policy here. Next Prev In partnership with
Forbes
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Does ‘Final Destination Bloodlines' Have A Post-Credits Scene?
The Final Destination movie saga continues with Final Destination Bloodlines. Is there a post-credits scene at the end of the film that adds to the mayhem? The beloved horror franchise began in 2000 with Final Destination, which was followed by four sequels. Since the last Final Destination movie was in 2011, Final Destination Bloodlines is considered a reboot of the series under the direction of Freaks filmmakers Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein. The logline for Final Destination Bloodlines reads, 'Plagued by a recurring violent nightmare, a college student (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) returns home to find the one person who can break the cycle and save her family from the horrific fate that inevitably awaits them.' Final Destination Bloodlines also stars Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Brec Bassinger and the late Tony Todd. In the film, Juana plays Stefanie, who is tormented by a recurring nightmare, which takes place in 1968. Stefanie has horrific visions of the Skyview restaurant and lounge — which sits atop a structure akin to the Seattle Space Needle — bursting into flames and breaking apart, sending dozens of patrons falling to particularly gruesome deaths. After asking questions of her family, Stefanie learns the young woman at the center of her nightmare, Iris (Bassinger), is her future grandmother. Iris, as it turns out, had a premonition about the Skyview's collapse and warned everyone to flee the structure before explosions caused it to crumble. Like in Final Destination movies past, however, death has a way of claiming those who cheat it. In the case of the latest film chapter, death wants everybody in the Skyview survivors' family bloodlines, too. Rated R, Final Destination Bloodlines contains references to previous films in the Final Destination franchise. But as the film looks back, is there anything in the end credits that suggests the film series has a future? Note: The next section reveals spoilers for 'Final Destination Bloodlines.' Generally, end credits or post-credits scenes serve one of two functions. Either they wrap up loose ends from a scene earlier in the film, or the scene gives an indication whether there could possibly be a sequel. For fans hoping for more of the movie once the end titles begin to roll, they may be disappointed to learn that Final Destination Bloodlines does not have a post-credits scene. Still, the main set of end credits presents an interesting scenario that suggests the franchise has a chance of continuing. During the film, Stefanie locates the older version of her grandmother, Iris (Gabriel Rose), who staves off death by becoming a recluse in a heavily fortified compound. Hoping she can help Stefanie find a way to break the cycle of death that began with the Skyview's collapse, Iris gives her granddaughter a book of notes and newspaper clippings of all of the people death has claimed in the decades following the Skyview disaster. After that, Stefanie traces the bloodlines of the families who died by taping all of the newspaper clippings together to form what essentially mimics a morbid family tree. After the wild third act in Final Destination Bloodlines, the credits begin to roll with a view of the newspaper clippings that Stefanie assembled. Rolling down the middle of the middle of the clippings is a penny, which plays a pivotal part in how the disaster began and how it continues to wreak havoc. As the penny rolls, viewers are able to see some of the stories of death that were compiled by Iris after she survived the Skyview mishap. The penny then rolls into the darkness, perhaps suggesting that the Final Destination story and death's quest to claim those who cheat it will continue. In a recent Zoom conversation with Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, the directors told me that the idea of a post-credits scene for Final Destination Bloodlines was definitely on their minds. 'There was one that we debated, but I'm not sure we can talk about it, though,' Lipovsky said with a laugh. 'There was one [idea] Rated R, Final Destination Bloodlines is playing in theaters worldwide.
