Time to once again update you on all things wild, crazy and genre-related in indie cinema. How about some vampires? The end of the world by zombies, asteroid and robot domination? Ghosts? Time-travelers? And all with amazing casts? We’ve got it all!

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

Jim Jarmusch fans, guess what? He’s making a vampire movie! (Now, now, don’t worry, he’s no stranger to genre, he did Ghost Dog after all.) The really cool thing here is that one of the stars is Tilda Swinton from last year’s acclaimed I Am Love at SFF (her film Julia also played here at SFF). Also starring is Mia Wasikowska from SFF’s That Evening Sun and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, plus the legendary John Hurt and up-and-coming superstar Tom Hiddleston (also known as Loki from Thor and The Avengers). You might also want to look for Hiddleston in the acclaimed Wallender series starring Kenneth Branagh and in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris playing F. Scott Fitzgerald. (The guy has range!)

The Jarmusch film is titled Only Lovers Left Alive. It’s early days and this one isn’t even slated to shoot until later this year in Germany. And as we in the business know, “Nothin’s nothin’ until…” Meaning, a movie isn’t a movie until you’re out there shooting it for reals. But it sounds so darn cool I couldn’t help mentioning it. And I really, really doubt that anyone’s going to be all sparkly in this one.

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED

Safety Not Guaranteed features SFF alum Mark Duplass (Cyrus) as a man who places the following ad in the personals:  "WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before." Now before you start picturing dinosaurs and aliens and ninjas and what have you, this is not a mondo-budgeted summer tentpole studio film. It’s an indie through and through, a film that uses possible science fiction tropes to deal with issues the characters bring to their table. It’s the idea of what a time machine could do to fix problems rooted in the casts’ pasts that drives much of the story. (But then again, ninja costumes are pretty cheap to make, so you just never know…!)

THE INNKEEPERS

The Innkeepers is the latest offering from director Ti West who gave us the great House of the Devil and is also one of the directors of V/H/S, a film I’ve mentioned before. West is the king of quality slow-burning horror. He delivers atmosphere and mounting dread like no one out there and The Innkeepers is a wonderfully entertaining film about a pair of bored inn workers who set out to prove or disprove the long-standing legend that their place of work is haunted. This movie is available now on Amazon video on demand and is playing a limited theatrical run. And to bring it all around to SFF, alum Lena Dunham is pals with West and makes an appearance in the film as a barista. West next serves as one of 26 directors set to teach us the ABCs of Death and he has a new film in the works with Liv Tyler (daughter of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler—they played SFF!) called The Side Effect. For now, take a gander at The Innkeepers!

THE DOOMSDAY BOOK

Okay, so what’s the dilly with the robot Buddhists? Glad you asked! The image is from The Doomsday Book. This is an anthology film from directors Kim Jee-woon (I Saw the Devil) and Yim Pil-sung (Hansel and Gretel) two highly acclaimed Korean filmmakers unfurling unique stories of human self-destruction in the modern high-tech era. So that means the aforementioned end of civilization by zombies, asteroids and robot takeover. Me, I just want to know when the dancing elephants arrive. But this one does look very promising and way kewl. It screened at the EFM (European Flm Market) in Berlin (along with the absolutely insane looking Iron Skies which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festivale). Who knows where it may pop up next?

The Insider

Wanted by motion picture executives for revealing industry secrets to a public with the Right to Know, "The Insider" has spent over 15 years working behind the scenes in almost every aspect of "The Biz" developing a secret network of contacts, spies, moles, and highly trained counter-intelligence operatives and movie ninjas whose only goal is to inform and entertain you-and help you make this the best year of the Sarasota Film Festival ever!