News The Flood Zach Cregger’s Sci-Fi Thriller The Flood Will Land in Theaters in 2028 The project was previously in development at Netflix By Molly Templeton | Published on April 15, 2026 Image: 20th Century Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Image: 20th Century Studios Zach Cregger’s follow-up to Weapons is only a few months away: his Resident Evil movies arrives in September. But after that, he’s going to more science fictional territory. The Hollywood Reporter has the news that Cregger is once again working with Warner Bros.’ New Line (in conjunction with Amblin Entertainment) for the film The Flood, which is already scheduled for release in August, 2028. Naturally, Cregger is being cagey about what the movie is about. THR says that while “the filmmaker’s previous projects have been modern-set horror thriller freakouts, this one is described as being very much in the science fiction mold.” This keeps Cregger in business with New Line and Warner Bros., his studio partners for the now Oscar-winning Weapons. He’s also working with them for the Weapons prequel Gladys, though only as a co-writer on the film. The Flood was originally in development at Netflix, but in November, The Wrap reported that development there had come to a halt when Netflix would not commit to a theatrical release for the film. Netflix has only given a few of their recent projects wider theatrical releases, including KPop Demon Hunters (after it became a hit) and the series finale of Stranger Things. Greta Gerwig’s Narnia film, produced for Netflix, will also get an IMAX release. The Flood arrives in theaters August 11th, 2028.[end-mark] The post Zach Cregger’s Sci-Fi Thriller <i>The Flood</i> Will Land in Theaters in 2028 appeared first on Reactor.

News The Hunt for Gollum The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum Has Found Its Strider ’round here, folks just call him Christian Grey By Molly Templeton | Published on April 15, 2026 Image: New Line Cinema Comment 0 Share New Share Image: New Line Cinema Viggo, we’ll miss you. But there’s a new man filling Strider’s muddy boots. After some lively speculation, it turns out that the man playing Aragorn in Andy Serkis’ The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum has some hunting experience (fictionally speaking): Jamie Dornan has been cast in the role. Dornan’s most visible role was as Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey movies, and if that’s what you know him from, well, it does make this casting seem a bit odd. But long before that, he was Once Upon a Time’s Huntsman. He was also in the 2018 Robin Hood movie (about which the less said, the better) and the series The Fall, with Gillian Anderson. We already knew that Ian McKellan and Elijah Wood are returning to Middle-earth as Gandalf and Frodo, but one more familiar face will put on his cloak and headdress for this film: Lee Pace is now set to return as Thranduil, the king of the elves of Mirkwood. Pace gave us possibly the greatest elf this side of Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel, all arrogance and style, and his return is enough to get a person just a little bit excited about Serkis’ film. Leo Woodall will also join the film as Halvard after the actor was previously rumored to be in the running for the Strider role. But this film! As a reminder, it takes place between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, because the movies are apparently playing with Tolkien’s timeline a bit. It follows Strider and Gandalf as they search for Gollum, wishing to speak to him about his precious. This feels unnecessary, though not as much as Stephen Colbert’s movie version of six chapters from Fellowship that didn’t make it into Peter Jackson’s original film. The Hunt for Gollum kicks off in theaters on December 17, 2027.[end-mark] The post <i>The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum</i> Has Found Its Strider appeared first on Reactor.

Column 80s Fantasy Film Club Labyrinth: Muppets, Bowie, and the Pain of Impending Adulthood Name a better musical fantasy movie about our fear of growing up. By Tyler Dean | Published on April 15, 2026 Credit: The Jim Henson Company Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: The Jim Henson Company In this column, we’re looking back at the 1980s as their own particular age of fantasy movies—a legacy that largely disappeared in the ’90s only to resurface in the 2000s, though in many ways, the fantasy films of the Eighties are far weirder and less polished than what we got in the aughts. In each of these articles, we’ll explore a canonical fantasy movie released between 1980 and 1989 and discuss whatever enduring legacy the film has maintained in the decades since. For a more in-depth introduction to this series of articles, you can find the first installment here, focusing on 1981’s Dragonslayer. Last time we looked at Rankin/Bass’ animated adaptation of Peter S. Beagle’s classic novel The Last Unicorn. This time we’re continuing the hit parade with an examination of the Jim Henson fairytale classic and showcase for David Bowie’s legendary bulge, Labyrinth. Labyrinth was one of my favorites growing up; I was too young to have caught its 1986 theatrical release, but I watched it on rented VHS repeatedly with my sister and stepsisters. Alongside Willow, it was a family favorite played on endless repeat.  Based on a screenplay by Monty Python alumnus Terry Jones (along with other uncredited writers, including Elaine May) and directed by Henson working in close collaboration with the legendary illustrator, Brian Froud, Labyrinth follows suburban teen Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), annoyed by her stepmother and stuck babysitting her half-brother, Toby (Toby Froud, Brian’s son). In a moment of pique, she idly wishes that the Goblin King would take the crying baby away and leave her in peace. When the Goblin King turns out to be real—his name is Jareth, and he’s played, of course, by David Bowie—and his muppet-y minions fulfill her wish, Sarah must journey to the heart of Jareth’s realm before thirteen hours elapse or risk losing her brother forever. Alongside Hoggle, a curmudgeonly dwarf, Ludo, a fearsome-looking but harmless beast, and Sir Didymus, a chivalrous, dog-riding fox, Sarah navigates the titular labyrinth’s lateral thinking puzzles and cruel tricks, all while negotiating her growing fascination with and attraction to Jareth. She finally confronts the Goblin King in an MC Escher-inspired liminal space, recites the incantation she was practicing at the beginning of the film, reclaiming her brother and returning to the real world. In a final moment, many of the characters and creatures she encountered appear in her room, telling her that they’ll always be there if she needs them. Labyrinth, like many of the films reviewed in this column, was a modest box office success that became a runaway hit on home video and through overseas theatrical releases. It received some stunningly bad reviews at the time—another nail in the coffin of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s good taste, in my opinion—but is generally beloved today. It’s widely considered one of Henson’s best films (certainly his best that doesn’t feature the Muppets) and helped to further bolster the reputation of executive producer George Lucas and Lucasfilm as forces to be reckoned with in speculative fiction films. But…is it any good? Does it hold up forty years later? You better believe it does! Froud’s design, Henson’s practical effect magic, Jones’ comic sensibilities, and Bowie’s overwhelming charisma make this one a winner on almost every level. I’ve revisited Labyrinth many times over the years but there are always new details to find. With the advent of subtitles this time around, I discovered that one of the tiny goblins that rearranges Sarah’s lipstick-drawn arrows shouts some version of “your mother is a fragging aardvark!” which is just one of dozens of laugh lines delivered by a cavalcade of appealing Froud-y puppets with the voices of veteran Muppet actors like Steve Whitmire, Brian Henson, and Frank Oz.  It’s a gorgeous film and while it might lack some of the pure nightmare fuel of Henson and Froud’s other collaboration—1982’s The Dark Crystal—it more than makes up for it with whimsy, charm, and a color palette of lush greens and deep ochres. Its goblin characters are grotesque without ever being unappealing; Hoggle, for example, is an ugly little troll who somehow still has all the rugged swagger and cantankerous personality of a late-in-life Harrison Ford. Ludo is a delightful mixture of orangutan and giant ground sloth who looks like a distant cousin of a Balrog run through a kawaii Snapchat filter. Every single goblin, worm, and talking rock lands right at the nexus of hideous and incredibly cute.  There are a couple of sour notes. There are some weird racial stereotypes in the form of armored goblins with stereotypical East Asian accents performed by white voice actors. It begins to drag a little bit in its second half. And, while I can appreciate the body horror of the scene, nothing will ever make me like the head-juggling, limb-swapping Fireys that show up to sing Labyrinth’s worst song, the reggae-inspired “Chilly Down” (also, notably, the only song that Bowie doesn’t sing in the final version). It’s also undeniable that David Bowie makes the film work. Sting, Mick Jagger, Prince, Michael Jackson, and Kevin Kline were all apparently considered for the part of the Goblin King and with the possible exception of Kline, it would be hard to overstate how much the others would not have worked in the role. Bowie is weird without being off-putting, ominous but never overtly threatening, queer without falling into the tropes of queer-coded Disney villains while his status as a bi icon ensures his chemistry with Connelly feel believable, and he perfectly masks his desperate attentions under an exaggerated veil of disinterest. All of that without mentioning how much screen time his far-too-revealing tights get. Bowie’s bulge has been the subject of much discussion over the years and, no doubt, fuel for many an AO3 yarn, but it feels weirdly in line with the rest of his character—an obvious bit of seductive tantalization hidden just enough to not feel obscene in a children’s film. But one of the best things in Labyrinth is how seriously it takes Sarah. She’s profoundly relatable but largely unlikable. She’s rude to her stepmother, overreacts dramatically when her father tries to talk to her, and is pretty whiny about her situation in the labyrinth for the first half of the film. None of that is a mark against the film or Connelly’s performance. Sarah feels more like a real teenager than most on-screen representations, and the film never makes light of her feelings, even as it makes her entitlement and bad behavior pretty clear. And where her arc might have revolved around her needing to grow up in a less skillful script, here the ultimate lesson is that she’s allowed to hold on to childish things and the world of her imagination even as life forces her to grow up and take on greater responsibility. And that brings us, of course, to what is probably the film’s most powerful scene: Jareth’s masquerade, in which Sarah finds herself transported into a decadent fantasy, dressed up in a gorgeous ballgown while glamorous, sinister couples swirl around her. Unsure of herself, Sarah mopes around the edges of the ball, looking for Jareth and silently emoting both desire and trepidation. When she finally dances with Jareth, the film manages to project a distinct sense of unease on Sarah’s part. Jareth is never explicitly portrayed as predatory; one gets the sense that he is less of an adult preying on Sara so much as a projection of her own complicated desire (it’s important to remember that the film opens with her stepmother insinuating that she’s a late bloomer when it comes to dating). But it also gets at the feeling of being barred from something one desperately wants to be a part of: Peter Pan at the Darlings’ window. I mentioned this in my review of Legend—another film with a lot to say about the line between childhood and adulthood—but the masquerade ball perfectly encapsulates the desire to be an adult while being unprepared for the complicated feelings and rituals of the adult world. Whereas Legend says of its teenaged, female protagonist that the adult world will not allow her to remain a child, Labyrinth, ever centering children, allows that the adult world of sexual desire can be a scary place while also making sure that it’s Sara’s feelings, not her actual well-being, that is at stake. It’s a bit ironic that one of Labyrinth’s enduring legacies is the “Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball” a costumed, bacchanalian two-day event that has been taking place in Los Angeles and San Diego for the last thirty years and leans hard into the sexual awakening/forbidden desires angle of the scene. It’s a lot of fun and definitely a highlight of the cosplay/con circuit, but it does sort of miss the point of the scene entirely.  The film, as the rare cult classic that has all but conquered the mainstream’s imagination in the forty years since its release, has had a long and prosperous afterlife, influencing cinema and pop culture in all sorts of ways. There are numerous artbooks published over the last four decades as well as a videogame released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II in 1986. There were also pinball games, comic books, short stories, and a planned graphic novel prequel that never actually saw the light of day. And there are also rumors of a sequel or remake that stretch back to 2016. While nothing has been set, horror auteur Robert Eggers, who directed The VVitch (2015), and Nosferatu (2024) is currently attached. But beyond direct media adaptations, the film’s legacy endures in a variety of ways. It has kept the late glam-rock icon David Bowie relevant to later generations that might never have otherwise connected with his music career in the ’70s and ’80s. His look in Labyrinth—Tina Turner wig, puffy shirt, black leather vest, and uncomfortably revealing silver tights—is as iconic as any the Thin White Duke ever sported. For folks under 50, he’s probably more recognizable as Jareth than he is as Ziggy Stardust. Certainly, Labyrinth is the crown of Bowie’s film career. As much as I love The Last Temptation of Christ, The Hunger, and The Prestige, his roles in those films just can’t compete with the Goblin King. Much like its fellow faerie-centric film, 1985’s Legend, Labyrinth’s visual style has seeped into the DNA of modern filmmakers. Guillermo del Toro’s films have been on the shortlist for production design, costuming, and makeup awards for the last twenty-five years and there is no question that Labyrinth’s look (and Brian Froud’s work in general) have been a gigantic influence. His most faerie-tale inspired film, 2006’s Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) even invokes the image of a labyrinth both in plot and title. And all of this is without considering the fan response. One is hard pressed to attend a con or a Renaissance Faire without spotting at least one Labyrinth-inspired costume.  It’s also worth noting that Labyrinth, which is a standout in a long line of stories about girls from the real world confronting fantastical beings or transported into fantasy lands (Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and the Wizard of Oz to name just a few), helped a new wave of fantasy authors to revive and revitalize that trope. Authors like Terri Windling, Pamela Dean, Charles de Lint, and Seanan McGuire have used this trope to build out whole genres of fantasy literature and, while Labyrinth is far from the first example, it’s an important cultural touchpoint along the way.  But what do you think? Is Labyrinth as central to your personality as it is to mine? Are you a Bowie fan because of this film? Are you excited for or trepidatious about the rumored sequel/remake? And be sure to join us next time when we go from one of Henson’s greatest triumphs to one of his biggest failures, The Dark Crystal.[end-mark] The post <i>Labyrinth</i>: Muppets, Bowie, and the Pain of Impending Adulthood appeared first on Reactor.

Books cover reveals Revealing Under the Iron Sky by A.T. Emerald The start of a new dark fantasy trilogy, arriving October 2026 By Reactor | Published on April 15, 2026 Photo courtesy of A.T. Emerald Comment 0 Share New Share Photo courtesy of A.T. Emerald A fallen empire. A warrior determined to protect her people. And the masked soldier who captures her behind enemy lines... We’re thrilled to share the cover of Under the Iron Sky, the start of a dark, seductive trilogy from author A.T. Emerald—available on October 13, 2026 from Delacorte. Vordell was beautiful once. Its people lived in harmony, and their civilization flourished as they learned to harness and control the power of Light.Then the darkness came.The Iron Sky unfolded dark clouds across the land, thick enough to choke out the light of the suns. The ground cracked, releasing vicious creatures that looked like humanity’s oldest fears. The Dar’rak—an enemy long believed to be buried and forgotten—returned to claim the world above.Soraya Tollmere has spent most of her life on the front lines of the brutal war that followed. Now a high-ranking commander, she knows loss better than anyone.By day, she leads troops across ruined landscapes and guides covert teams through enemy territory. By night, she meets with a Dar’rak defector who has kept humanity alive with his steady stream of secrets.On a mission to investigate his latest lead—one that could turn the tide of the war—Soraya is captured by The Demon, the Dar’rak’s most feared soldier, his true identity unknown.His orders are simple: break the human commander, uncover where the humans are keeping a weapon that could win them the war, and bring it to the Dar’rak. But as he gets to know the fierce warrior, the lines between interrogator and enemy, prisoner and ally, begin to blur.As devastating truths surface and loyalties shatter, Soraya must decide who to trust in a world where light is dying—and where her greatest enemy may be her only salvation. Cover art by Marcela Bolivar, design by Sarah Horgan From the author, A.T. Emerald: Being dyslexic, I’m a very visual person, so when I started writing Under the Iron Sky, I set out to create a book that felt as cinematic as it did immersive, and oh my goodness—did this cover have me screaming and kicking my feet! I don’t want to give too much away, but when the book starts, the planet of Vordell… Well, she’s seen better days. Buildings are crumbling, sunlight is a thing of the past, and what was once glittering gold is now rotting and rusted beyond recognition. All sounds very cheery, I know—but as with many dark fantasy novels, not everything is as it seems. I had an absolute blast creating this world and characters, and I really hope readers enjoy getting as lost exploring this world with me where magic and technology are at war, and trusting the wrong person is the difference between survival and ruin. Buy the Book Under the Iron Sky A.T. Emerald Buy Book Under the Iron Sky A.T. Emerald Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget A. T. Emerald lives with her husband and baby daughter in Nottinghamshire. She discovered her love of writing in 2020 and has not shut up about enemies to lovers ever since. She loves iced matchas, torrid love confessions with knives pressed to throats (fictional, of course) and does not accept bills for any therapy her books might incur. The post Revealing <i>Under the Iron Sky</i> by A.T. Emerald appeared first on Reactor.

Books reading recommendations Five Stories About What Happens After We Get to the Moon Reaching the Moon is one thing; trying to settle and survive there is another matter… By James Davis Nicoll | Published on April 15, 2026 Credit: NASA Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: NASA Reaching the Moon might only be the beginning, at least as far as science fiction authors are concerned. No doubt initial lunar exploration will be followed by cities as vast as any Antarctic metropolis. The Moon is an alien world sure to shape its inhabitants in interesting, plot-friendly ways. Authors have not hesitated to explore the possibilities, as these five works show. A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke (1961) Thomas Gold’s lunar dust hypothesis proved not merely correct, but the source of valuable income for the Moon. Tourists flock to the Sea of Thirst’s Port Roris to enjoy the bizarre spectacle of an airless, perfectly dry sea whose working “fluid” is extremely fine dust. Most solid objects dropped into the dust would simply vanish. The dust-cruiser Selene is buoyant enough to safely convey tourists across the dust in perfect safety… until now. Captain Pat Harris, stewardess Sue Wilkins, and an assortment of broadly drawn characters set out on the Selene, unaware that there is a vast bubble under the sea, or that bubble will burst just as the Selene passes over it. The Selene vanishes under the dust. The Selene survives for the moment, but what hope of rescue could there be, given that the dust-cruiser is fifteen meters under a featureless dust sea? A Fall of Moondust is an interesting mix of elements that aged reasonably well and elements that aged… less well. One could handwave frictionless dust in one location on the Moon, and the race to save the trapped people before the escalating disasters kill them is still effective, but the reader will still have to accept the gender stereotypes of a bygone age, not to mention the odd detail that amongst Selene’s supplies is a store of a thousand cigarettes. Still, this could be a solid seed for an exciting movie. Millennium by Ben Bova (1976) The Soviet Lunagrad and the American Moonbase share integrated life support systems. This is a relic of that brief era when Russia and the USA were more scared of China than each other. It is also a tremendous inconvenience now that the two powers have set aside Sinophobia in favour of mutual loathing and a relentless march towards WWIII. The leaders of both great powers believe whoever completes their orbiting ABM system will be able to dictate terms to the other. Moonbase commander Chet Kinsman believes this confidence is a recipe for planetary suicide. As both ABM networks are supplied from the Moon, the lunar colonies could intervene to prevent this particular path to WWIII… but only if protagonist Kinsman can somehow convince his Soviet counterpart to cooperate. Interesting detail about this alternate 1999: moonbases, space lasers, and affordable crewed space flight exist to far greater degree than in our 19991. The concept of workplace sexual harassment as something you might want to discourage does not2. Plymouth, film by Lee David Zlotoff (1991) A mishap at a UNIDAC facility leaves Plymouth, Oregon uninhabitable. Unusually, UNIDAC eschews decades of litigation. Instead, they agree to compensation, in the form of a brand-new town. More specifically, a brand-new town on the Moon, as the newest element in UNIDAC’s ailing lunar helium-three mining venture3. Like the bold souls who founded Roanoke and bravely traversed the Donner Pass, Plymouth’s surviving inhabitants embark for the Moon, eager to build new lives. Can they survive lunar hazards? Will they be the key to a profitable lunar colony? We will never know, because this was a pilot movie for a series that was not picked up. The odd mix of quasi-plausible elements and absolutely daft ones makes me wonder if there were backstage disagreements about writing choices. One cannot help but marvel at the tremendous convenience for UNIDAC that their obliteration of Plymouth provided them with a workforce for their troubled Moon colony… The Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (2002) Law enforcement on the Moon was always going to be challenging. Law enforcement on the Moon after first contact with the Milky Way’s vast assortment of alien civilizations presents an almost impossible challenge, given the potential need to reconcile a myriad of legal systems. Nevertheless, doing so is the job of Miles Flint and Noelle DeRicci of Armstrong Dome. Fortunately for Flint and DeRicci, treaty complications are rare—or rather, have been rare in the past. Now the duo are faced with three seemingly unconnected cases, each of which could be a career-defining quagmire. Or if handled badly, career-ending. Yes, yes, I know narrative logic suggests that three unlikely events happening simultaneously have to be connected, even if they don’t seem to be. However, this sort of clustering is quite possible. Or is it? Pioneer by Dr. Sandy Antunes, Christopher Griffen et al. (2026) Why settle for reading about fictional characters’ adventures IN SPACE (including the Moon) when you could role-play adventures IN SPACE (including the Moon)? Mongoose Games’ Traveller-derived tabletop role-playing game Pioneer offers gamers the opportunity to explore the possibilities of near-future space development, including building humanity’s first moonbases4. In fact, gamemasters who so chose could focus their entire campaign to the lunar setting! Or rather, Pioneer *will* do so, once it is released in August 2026 (for regular people) or soonish, at least in Beta (for the Kickstarter backers). Patience, patience… The Moon having long been a prominent feature in the sky, it provides the setting for a great many works of imagination, of which five are a very small sample. No doubt I missed some of your faves. Comments are below.[end-mark] Bova’s 1974 “Build Me a Mountain,” which detailed the funding of the Moonbase featured in this novel, was set in 2020, comfortably far enough in the future of 1974 that the author could assume enormous progress in space travel. Bova altered the timeline for this 1976 sequel, presumably because Millennium (Plus a Generation, More or Less) isn’t nearly as cool a title as Millennium. To be fair, almost everyone thought we would get a lot farther in space than we have. ︎This is not a fictional setting where the moral universe arcs towards justice, at least where women are concerned. In Millennium’s sequel, Colony, women are not allowed to serve as part of the planetary government’s Executive Council “because that would be too cruel,” and the beautiful revolutionary Bahjat is handed over to protagonist David as a reward for all his hard work. I won’t get into the subplot in which reporter Evelyn Hall submits to sexual coercion in order to further her investigations. ︎AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH. ︎There was a surprisingly acrimonious USENET flamewar centred on the question of whether a certain lunar colony would allow the colonists automobiles or limit them to walking, bicycles, and public transit. It turned out this is a question about which people held passionate, inflexible views. As non-driving moderate who would like to see bicycles outlawed, I favour walking or public transit. (I’ve only been struck by a car once, and that was totally my fault. However, I’ve been clipped or knocked down by bicycles dozens of times. Eliminating bicycles seems like a no-brainer to me, although of course not everyone agrees.) ︎The post Five Stories About What Happens After We Get to the Moon appeared first on Reactor.