Tag: upgrade

Blumhouse Television and UCP Adapting Leigh Whannell’s 2018 Sci-Fi, Thriller UPGRADE Into TV Series

Blumhouse Television and UCP, a division of NBCUniversal Content Studios, are adapting Leigh Whannell’s 2018 sci-fi, thriller Upgrade into a television series for Whannell to direct.

The series, which Whannell co-created and will executive produce along with showrunner Tim Walsh (Treadstone, Chicago P.D., Shooter), picks up a few years after the events of the film and broadens the universe with an evolved version of STEM and a new host – imaging a world in which the government repurposes STEM to help curb criminal activity.

A writer’s room has commenced to write and adapt the series’ first season. Krystal Ziv Houghton and James Roland, who ran the second season of The Purge, have joined Whannell and Walsh.

The film, which Whannell wrote and directed, starred Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel and Harrison Gilbertson. In the film, after his wife is killed during a brutal mugging that also leaves him paralyzed, Grey Trace (Marshall-Green) is approached by a billionaire inventor with an experimental cure in the form of a computer chip implant called STEM. The implant provides its host with heightened physical abilities, allowing Grey to exact revenge on those responsible for his wife’s death. (review)

The film was produced for $5 million and grossed more than $16 million at the global box office. It was also the recipient of the 2018 SXSW Audience Award.

Leigh Whannell most recently directed The Invisible Man starring Elisabeth Moss for Blumhouse and Universal. The box office smash grossed over $122 million globally and is Certified Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes with a 91%.

Previously, he wrote the first three Saw films, co-creating the lucrative horror franchise with director James Wan. Whannell recently signed a first look deal with Blumhouse for both film and television, after successful collaborations with the studio on the Insidious franchise, Upgrade and The Invisible Man. The Upgrade series is the first project to be developed under that deal.

Jason Blum (Halloween, The Good Lord Bird) and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones from Automatik will executive produce alongside Whannell and Walsh. Whannell and Walsh co-created the series. The series is a co-production between Blumhouse Television and UCP.

Blumhouse Television and UCP previously co-produced USA Network’s The Purge series as well as the upcoming The Wilderness of Error for FX.

Leigh Whannell is represented by CAA and Myman, Greenspan, Fox, Rosenberg, Mobasser, Younger & Light.

Tim Walsh is represented by Paradigm and Pacific View Management.

UPGRADE – Review

Something of an ‘80s throwback, UPGRADE is a peculiar modernist Frankenstein tale. It’s generally more thrilling than chilling but a fun time-waster and is mostly recommended. Logan Marshall-Green stars as Grey Trace, a working-class mechanic in the near future who restores vintage muscle cars. He has no use for current trends in technology though his gorgeous wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo) is employed by a hi-tech corporation run by Eron (Harrison Gilbertson), a creepy Steve Jobs-type tech mogul. After a self-driving car malfunctions, the couple is ambushed by a gang of scary thugs who somehow shoot bullets out of their hands though they don’t appear to be carrying guns. The attack leaves Asha dead and Grey in a wheelchair, a quadriplegic thirsty for revenge. He agrees to sign on as a guinea pig for Eron’s experimental new computer chip called STEM, which is surgically attached to his spinal cord and will ‘upgrade’ his broken body. Soon STEM is not only speaking to Grey Knight Rider-style (voiced by Simon Maiden – though no one else can hear it), he’s controlling his body, getting him up out of that wheelchair. With his new super-strength, speed, and Spidey-senses, Grey is soon tracking down the creeps that killed his wife

There’s not a single original idea in UPGRADE, a pastiche of THE TERMINATOR, ROBOCOP, MINORITY REPORT, and LAWNMOWER MAN combined with the type of Bronsonesque revenge story we’ve seen many times. But Director/writer Leigh Whannell, best known for the Saw and Insidious films, stages the action scenes with enough energy and humor to make us temporarily forget we’ve seen this all before. The first time STEM turns Grey’s body into an ass-kicking machine, with every punch and kick mathematically computed to exact the most harm to its target, is a genuinely startling and crowd-pleasing scene.  As the story progresses, Whannell’s script offers more lofty ideas about technology and the extent to which our bodies are our own. Much credit should go to Logan Marshall-Green who does very well in a tricky and demanding role. Some may find UPGRADE routine and predictable, but keep your expectations low and you’re likely to have a good time.

3 of 5 Stars

Win Passes To The Advance Screening Of Blumhouse’s UPGRADE Movie In St. Louis

The advance screening of the new Blumhouse film UPGRADE, written and directed by Leigh Whannell (Saw, Insidious), is on Wednesday, May 23 in St. Louis.

The film opens on June 1.

All you have to do is just email (for up to 6 seats) conteststl@alliedim.com to RSVP.

SYNOPSIS

UPGRADE is a thrilling and hyper violent vision of the future from the producers of GET OUT and THE PURGE, and the creator of SAW and INSIDIOUS.

After his wife is killed during a brutal mugging that also leaves him paralyzed, Grey Trace (Logan Marshall Green, SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, PROMETHEUS) is approached by a billionaire inventor with an experimental cure that will “upgrade” his body. The cure – an Artificial Intelligence implant called STEM – gives Grey physical abilities beyond anything experienced and the ability to relentlessly claim vengeance against those who murdered his wife and left him for dead.

Rated R for strong violence, grisly images and language.

Visit the official site: www.upgrade.movie