Cannes isn't the only place news is happening this weekend. Big things are going on at the Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters as a massive casting update has arrived that just about doubles its total enrollment thus far! Read on for the details.

Per Deadline, Sarah Hyland ("Modern Family"), Joely Richardson (pictured; "Nip/Tuck," Event Horizon), and Gabriel Byrne ("In Treatment," Stigmata) will now also be sinking their teeth into the movie based on the books by Richelle Mead. Byrne will play Victor, one of the leaders of the Academy, while Hyland will play Natalie, Victor’s daughter and the best friend of the lead Rose and Lissa characters. Richardson will play Queen Tatiana, leader of the Moroi Vampires.

Dominic Sherwood has also joined the film and will be playing Christian, Lissa’s love interest. These latest cast additions come on the heels of the announcement last week that Sami Gayle ("Blue Bloods"), Cameron Monaghan ("Shameless"), Ashley Charles (White Buffalo), and Claire Foy (Season of the Witch) had been added to the ensemble cast.

Lucy Fry and Zoey Deutch were previously announced as Lissa and Rose. The film also stars Oblivion’s Olga Kurylenko and Danila Kozlovski.

Filming is scheduled to start next week so expect lots more soon.

Book Synopsis
Set in the present day against a hidden universe of vampires, half-humans, alchemy, and magic. Richelle Mead shifts the focus from the brooding male vampires of Twilight, "True Blood" and "The Vampire Diaries" to that of a strong, yet flawed 17-year-old female who confronts her world with grit, determination, and lots of moxie. Rose Hathaway is a dhampir, half human/half vampire, and guardian of the Moroi, a race of peaceful and magical mortal vampires who can walk in the daylight, survive by feeding off willing blood donors, grow old and die. Hidden deep in the forests of Montana is St. Vladimir's Academy, where Moroi and dhampirs learn to take their place in Moroi society.

Rose must master her inherited abilities as a dhampir and earn the approval of the Royal Council, as guardian to Princess Lissa, her best friend and sole heir of one of the twelve Royal families of Moroi. Rose and Lissa share a mysterious psychic bond and sense of destiny, but first they must survive an intense social scene, politics, and the physical challenges of Moroi life at the Academy. Outside the sanctuary of St. Vladimir's waits their greatest threat of all, the Strigoi, a race of bloodthirsty immortal vampires and predators of the Moroi.

The advertising industry in America has become so ridiculously homogenized it almost feels as if creativity itself has died a slow and painful death. Take the remake of Evil Dead for instance. We got your standard stuff. Elsewhere had some fun!

Bloody Disgusting pointed us towards the website 9 the Creative Shop, who recently scanned and published an ad that appeared in their newspaper's obituaries section. The kicker? Since the dead were returning to life, the areas where the names of the recently deceased would appear were left blank. Pretty nifty! Take a look!

Ghost House Pictures produced the much anticipated remake of The Evil Dead, the film that effectively launched the careers of Sam Raimi (Spider-Man franchise, Darkman, Drag Me to Hell), Rob Tapert (30 Days of Night), and Bruce Campbell, who played the Ash character and was co-producer of the original. They are now back to produce an Evil Dead for today's audience that's high on the horror, gore, plot twists, and more from a screenplay written by Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues with Diablo Cody. Executive producers are J.R. Young, Nathan Kahane, Joseph Drake, and Peter Schlessel.

Read our Evil Dead review here!

Related News: Everything About the Evil Dead Remake

Evil Dead has been rated R for “strong bloody violence and gore, some sexual content and language. It opened in US theatres on April 5th, 2013.

A core cast of young, fresh talent includes Jane Levy ("Suburgatory") as Mia; Shiloh Fernandez (Deadgirl, Red Riding Hood) as David; Lou Taylor Pucci (Carriers) as Eric; Jessica Lucas (Cloverfield) as Olivia; and Elizabeth Blackmore (Legend of the Seeker) as Natalie.

Synopsis
In the much anticipated remake of the 1981 cult-hit horror film, five twenty-something friends become holed up in a remote cabin. When they discover a Book of the Dead, they unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby woods, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival.

Click these links to visit the Evil Dead on Facebook and follow the Evil Dead on Twitter.

If you're a fan of possession flicks and/or foreign horror, read on for more details coming out of Cannes 2013 regarding Emili Pons' just launched Barcelona-based low-cost genre label Ms Entertainment, which announced its first project will be Asmodexia, the feature debut of Marc Carrete.

Per Variety, Catalan Carrete's shorts — Mal cuerpo and slasher pic Castidermia (check out its trailer below) — bowed at Catalonia’s Sitges Festival in 2011 and 2012, respectively; and this new project doesn't stray far from home. The Spanish-language horror film takes place over five days in the lives of an exorcist and his granddaughter, who work in the Barcelona area.

The screenplay is by Sitges fest deputy director Mike Hostench and Carrete from the director's original idea. Asmodexia goes into production August 26th, with Hostench taking an associate producer credit. Speaking at Cannes, Hostench described Asmodexia as a more realistic exorcism movie than most, where location is incredibly important.

Pons' background is in commercials and marketing, and he and his fellow Ms shareholders will make films outside the state subsidy system by tapping private investment. They will also target new media, including VOD and subscription VOD, and the English-speaking market.

Ms joins Barcelona’s vibrant horror scene, which includes Rodar y Rodar (The Orphanage), Nostromo Pictures (Grand Piano), Roxbury (Painless), and Filmax (REC). The Ms launch comes as young Spanish directors are increasingly turning to genre and thrillers for their feature debuts. “It always happens in economic downturns: Genre saves the day. Maybe not the whole of the day, but part of it,” Hostench said.

For more info on the fest, which runs until May 26th, visit the official Festival de Cannes website.

Let's face it... we live in a far from perfect world, but thankfully there are a handful of quality filmmakers out there who make movies that get us through the rough patches in the most memorable, gruesome, and fun ways. Alexandre Aja fits that description perfectly.

Screen Daily reports that French producer Charles Gillibert and Aja (pictured) have jointly acquired adaptation rights to American writer Laura Kasischke’s bestseller In a Perfect World.

In A Perfect World revolves around newly-married former flight attendant Jiselle, who is surviving life as a new stepmother to three children. Their lives are altered forever when a deadly flu epidemic breaks out.

“In a Perfect World is a suspense novel that holds all the emotional layers of a rich family drama, a world where terror, beauty and chaos walk hand in hand. A dystopian family drama, set in an environment of doom,” the pair said in a joint announcement.

More on this one as it comes.

If you were one of the many who saw Star Trek Into Darkness this weekend, then you are well aware that Simon Pegg stole the entire friggin' show. So what's next up for the actor who also has At the World's End coming up? Read on for the latest!

Screen Daily reports that Pegg has come on board the Australian thriller Kill Me Three Times from Red Dog director Kriv Stenders. Pegg joins the action set in a sun-drenched Australian town where a young woman is the link between murder, blackmail, and revenge.

The flick formerly had director Greg McLean in the director's chair with Alice Braga (Repo Men), Abbie Cornish (Sucker Punch), Ben Mendelsohn (Killer Elite), and Sullivan Stapleton (Animal Kingdom) originally set to star. But things change...

Cargo Entertainment is handling international pre-sales in Cannes. Tania Chambers, Laurence Malkin, and Share Stallings produce the project, which is set to commence shooting on September 16 in Western Australia. Hopscotch / eOne will distribute in Australia and New Zealand.

More soon!

Fresh off its recent debut at Tribeca in NYC, Raze hit the French Riviera for Cannes and quickly landed North American distro with IFC Midnight. No release details are available yet, but we're sure to hear more once the dust settles.

Per Deadline, the deal for the film was negotiated by Jeff Deutchman, Director of Acquisitions & Productions for Sundance Selects/IFC Films, with Nate Bolotin of XYZ Films on behalf of the filmmakers. Celluloid Dreams is currently selling the film’s international rights at Cannes.

Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: “Josh Waller has crafted the most intense and unique action film that we have seen in a long time. With the magnificent Zoe Bell leading a strong female cast, Raze delivers and then some. We can’t wait to unleash it upon audiences.”

Raze (review here), directed by Josh C. Waller from a script by Robert Beaucage, stars Rachel Nichols (Star Trek, P2, The Amityville Horror), Zoe Bell (Kill Bill, Grindhouse), Tracie Thoms (Death Proof, Rent), Sherilyn Fenn ("Twin Peaks," Boxing Helena), Rebecca Marshall (Saw 3D, That’s My Boy), Doug Jones (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth), Bruce Thomas (Babysitter Wanted, Kyle XY), Tara Macken (The Hunger Games), Adrienne Wilkinson ("Xena", Star Wars :The Force Unleashed), Nicole Steinwedell (The Unit), Bailey Borders, Allene Quincy, Jordan James Smith, Amy Johnston, Victoria Cruz and Brianna Gage.

Synopsis:
Raze focuses on two abducted women and 50 other women who are forced to fight each other using their bare hands, all for the sadistic enjoyment of an elite, voyeuristic society that follows one rule — “Fight or Die.”

For more check out the official Raze website, and "like" Raze on Facebook.

Somewhere deep inside of us there's a spot that still hasn't forgiven director Fruit Chan for what he did to our psyche with his disturbing flick Dumplings (we can still hear that crunching). Will his next flick have the same effect?

Screen Daily reports that Hong Kong’s Golden Scene is producing Chan’s (pictured) first Hong Kong-set feature in almost a decade, sci-fi thriller The Midnight After, based on bestselling novel Lost on a Minibus by Mongkok To Tai Po.

Chan plans to start shooting in June with an ensemble cast including regulars from his previous films like Wong You Nam (Hollywood Hong Kong), Chui Tien You (Little Cheung) and Sam Lee (Made In Hong Kong). The cast also includes Hong Kong stars Simon Yam, Lam Suet, Janice Man, Kara Hui and Vincci Cheuk.

The story follows a group of passengers on a minibus who emerge from a tunnel to discover that every single person has disappeared from Hong Kong. Then the remaining passengers start to go missing one by one.

More on this one soon!

Legendary has released a new image from the set of Godzilla featuring some subway action. No, not the sandwich kind. We're talking mass transit, and as far as we're concerned, this is the only acceptable reason for a train delay.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Richard T. Jones, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, David Strathairn, Patrick Sabongui, Yuki Morita, Brian Markinson, Juliette Binoche, Akira Takarada, Victor Rasuk, and Ken Watanabe star.

Gareth Edwards is directing the film from a screenplay by Max Borenstein, Frank Darabont, and Dave Callaham. Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing with Mary Parent and Brian Rogers. Alex Garcia and Patricia Whitcher are serving as executive producers alongside Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira.

A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, Godzilla will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, except in Japan, where it will be distributed by Toho Co., Ltd. Legendary Pictures is a division of Legendary Entertainment.

Slated to open on May 16, 2014, the film is expected to be presented in 3D.

We first heard about Starry Eyes in March when it added The Innkeepers' Pat Healy to the cast, and it looks like the flick is on the fast-track as word from Cannes today is that production is as of now under way on the Hollywood-set occult tale. Here are more details and the first still.

From the Press Release:
Elevated genre production company Snowfort Pictures and MPI's Dark Sky Films, the preeminent independent producer-distributor of high quality genre films, announced today that production is under way on co-writers/directors Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch's Hollywood set occult tale STARRY EYES. Snowfort Pictures is producing, while MPI will handle international sales at the 2013 Cannes Marche du Film.

Starring ingénue Alex Essoe, the horror story is described as a contemporary take on movies such as Rosemary's Baby. The cast is rounded out by Amanda Fuller (Cheap Thrills, "Last Man Standing" - ABC Television), Fabianne Therese (The Aggression Scale, John Dies at the End), Pat Healy (Cheap Thrills, Compliance, The Innkeepers), Shane Coffey ("Pretty Little Liars" - ABC Television), Marc Senter (Brawler, Red White & Blue), Nick Simmons, and Noah Segan (Looper, Deadgirl).

The screenplay penned by Widmyer and Kolsch was developed with the help of Snowfort's Founder/CEO Travis Stevens, who is producing the film. The writing/directing team previously worked together on Postcards from the Edge: The Chuck Palahniuk Documentary and the horror film Absence. The film is being executive produced by John Jarzemensky, Aaron Koontz, Giles Daoust, and Gena Wilbur.

Widmyer and Kolsch looked to the past for inspiration: "Starry Eyes utilizes the same approach genre films from the 1970's used, where the horror stems from the character and what they are going through and where the horror represents the internal working of a character."

Stevens adds: "We're setting out to make a scary film for sure,-and Starry Eyes is as unsettling a film as you can get. But this is also a film about a generation who feel entitled to fame and an industry that feeds off that desire. And our hope is that the audience will be just as frightened by that dynamic as they are by the stunning special FX make-up."

MPI'S Dark Sky Films brand includes the successful genre films The House of the Devil, Stake Land, The Innkeepers, Frankenstein's Army, Hatchet III, and Stitches. Snowfort Pictures has had a busy year, with two films premiering at SXSW (Big Ass Spider! and the Audience Award Winner Cheap Thrills, both screening at the Marche du Film) and Jodorowsky's Dune that premieres in Cannes as part of the Director's Fortnight program.

Look for lots more soon!

This week’s B-Sides is for all of you 1970’s folk rock fans. The song actually isn’t too bad, to be honest, but you’re probably not familiar with it because the film it stems from is one of the all-time worst.

A New Mexico mineralogist gets conked on the head by a falling moon rock during a meteor storm and now turns into a reptilian monster whenever the moon is full. Track of the Moon Beast should have been so much more fun than the snoozefest it actually turned out to be. Watching it, you’ll fully understand why the film, which was shot in 1972, wasn’t able to find distribution for four years.

One of the highlights - or lowlights - of Track of the Moon Beast, depending on your tolerance for poor man’s Crosby, Stills, & Nash folk rock, is a brief musical interlude in which crooner Frank Larrabee takes the stage to perform “California Lady.”

My voice been getting froggy
I been smoking too damn much
Singing songs to the sun that's rising
Rhyming words I cannot touch
Oh, I been wandering in circles
With just a guitar in my hand
Playing one too many barrooms and drinkin' more than I can stand

California lady, won't you bring your love to me
California lady, she's the one I want to see
My California lady

With lyrics like that there’s nothing left to say but light up a doobie and set your earlobes to mellow.