A hand-animated version of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is coming in 2027, and Dark Sky Films just dropped the first official still.

The project uses rotoscoping, artists tracing the 1974 original frame by frame, entirely by hand. No AI. The goal is to preserve Tobe Hooper’s performances and intensity while creating something visually new.

Leading the animation is Paul Beck, a Richard Linklater regular who worked on Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly, and Apollo 10½. He’s joined by animators Max Peake, Nate Bayless, and background artist Jeremy Martinez.

Fans get an early peek during Texas Chain Saw Day on August 18, when the original film returns to theaters nationwide in 4K. Attendees will see exclusive behind-the-scenes footage showing the rotoscoping process and early clips from the new version. Only in theaters.

There’s also a four-minute audio prologue created by Dread Central and the horror podcast Creepy, narrated by Jon Grilz. It recreates the August 18, 1974 murders before the chainsaw ever starts. Also theater-only.

Special Q&As are happening in LA with original cinematographer Daniel Pearl, and in Austin with cast members Teri McMinn and Allen Danziger.

Texas Chain Saw Day is now officially recognized as a holiday by the National Day Archives. Tickets are available through Fathom Entertainment.

Before Saturday Night Live, before SCTV, there was a scrappy Toronto production of Godspell that somehow assembled comedy’s future royalty in one place.

Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber as a hippie Jesus, and Paul Shaffer as musical director. The 1972 show was supposed to run a few weeks. It went for over a year and a half.

While the show was still running, Martin and Levy joined the original Second City Television cast. Garber left to star in the Godspell movie. A few years later, Lorne Michaels was building SNL and cast the first person he remembered from that Toronto production, Radner. The rest is history.

Nick Davis’ documentary You Had to Be There captures the whole unlikely story through interviews with the surviving cast, plus Stephen Schwartz, Dan Aykroyd, Mike Myers, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Executive produced by Judd Apatow, the film makes the case that this one musical was the petri dish for the comedy revolution that followed.

The doc opens September 18 at Film Forum in New York. For indie filmmakers, it’s a reminder that lightning-in-a-bottle moments happen when the right people collide at the right time.

A location scout spends six years navigating New York’s apartments, rooftops, and pet stores. Then she makes a movie about it.

Paula González-Nasser’s debut feature THE SCOUT follows Sofía, a young location scout hunting down perfect interiors for a TV pilot. Over the course of one day, she slips in and out of strangers’ homes, adjusting her personality to connect while juggling mounting parking tickets and impatient crew commentary. It’s a quiet portrait of invisible labor, the kind that makes television possible but rarely gets acknowledged.

González-Nasser knows this world intimately. She scouted locations for High Maintenance, Russian Doll, Search Party, and Kelly Reichardt’s NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS before stepping behind the camera. That experience shows. Critics are calling THE SCOUT “deeply, witheringly funny” (The Playlist) and comparing it to Wim Wenders’ PERFECT DAYS for its contemplative style.

The film premiered at Tribeca 2025 and earned González-Nasser a spot on Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces in Independent Film” list. She’s also produced work that landed at Sundance and picked up Slamdance nominations.

THE SCOUT opens September 25 at Film Forum in New York. For indie filmmakers grinding through unglamorous production roles, it’s a rare chance to see their reality reflected on screen.

Warren Ellis is getting weird again. The writer behind Transmetropolitan and Netflix’s Castlevania has a new graphic novella dropping this November from Image Comics, and it sounds delightfully unsettling.

Ghost Drive Station teams Ellis with Grammy-nominated artist Lordess Foudre, who’s done album art for Soccer Mommy and Kasablanca. The story follows a cynical investigator sent to figure out why a research station in the desert has gone dark. What he discovers is an immortality experiment that’s gone catastrophically wrong.

Ellis describes the protagonist as a “haunted investigator with no time for the modern world,” which tracks. The press release name-drops True Detective, Event Horizon, and the Backrooms, so expect noir grit mixed with cosmic dread.

It’s also deeply personal for the main character. The whole thing kicks off on the anniversary of “the worst thing that ever happened to him,” which suggests the investigation will cut deeper than a typical mystery.

Ellis has been relatively quiet in comics lately, so this marks a solid return. Foudre’s music design background should bring some visual texture to the desert horror vibes.

Ghost Drive Station hits shops November 18 and will be available digitally across all major platforms. For fans of Ellis’s darker, weirder work, this one’s worth watching.

Image Comics had a strong showing at last night’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards in San Diego, taking home wins across multiple categories.

Deniz Camp and Eric Zawadzki’s Assorted Crisis Events won Best New Series, continuing the breakout hit’s momentum. Martin Simmonds picked up Best Painter/Multimedia Artist for his work on The Department of Truth.

Jordie Bellaire won Best Coloring for her work across multiple Image titles, including Assorted Crisis Events, The Department of Truth, Exquisite Corpses, W0RLDTR33, and G.I. Joe. Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou took home Best Lettering for the Author Immortal series and other projects.

The awards are voted on by comics industry members and presented annually at San Diego Comic-Con. For creators working in indie comics, the Eisners remain one of the most respected honors in the medium.

Copies of the winning titles are available at Image’s SDCC booth #1915 for fans attending the convention.

The wins underscore Image’s continued influence as a major publisher of creator-owned work, where artists and writers maintain ownership of their properties, a model that’s become increasingly important to independent creators looking for alternatives to work-for-hire arrangements.