While we continue to wonder if the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s It will ever get off the ground, Variety is reporting that the California Film Commission has included the New Line production among 13 feature films, also including the studio’s Annabelle 2, for tax credits worth $53.9 million in its latest round of incentives to keep production in California.

This by no means guarantees that the long-delayed production ever gets off the ground, but free money never hurt anyone.

Andy Muschietti, director and producer of Guillermo del Toro’s Mama, is preparing It as two features with plans to shoot this summer. Gary Dauberman has been penning Annabelle 2 since last fall while New Line hunts for a new director.

It was announced yesterday right here on Bloody that Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm: Restored would have its World Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival this March.

J.J. Abrams, who reportedly gave Gwendoline Christie’s character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens the name of Captain Phasma as a tribute to the pic, is behind the new version that’s heading to EFM in Berlin for international buyers.

Phantasm stars recently deceased character actor Angus Scrimm who plays The Tall Man who kills victims with flying spheres.

“When J.J. Abrams came to me with the unexpected and insanely generous offer of using the services of his Bad Robot Productions company to assist with a meticulous 4K restoration of Phantasm, scanned from the original 35mm camera negative, it was literally a dream come true,” enthused Coscarelli in a statement obtained by Variety.

“J.J. has been a fan of the film from way back and wanted to see Phantasm presented to modern audiences in as perfect a condition as technologically possible.”

Fans of the franchise are still awaiting the release of Phantasm Ravager, which is also for sale at the Berlin market.

Toronto-based distributor and sales agent Raven Banner arrives at the EFM with four new titles to introduce to buyers, ScreenDaily reports.

Owen Egerton’s claustrophobic horror-thriller Follow premiered at Fantastic Fest and tells of a painter who wakes up to find a gun in his hand and his girlfriend dead.

Noah Segan from Starry Eyes plays the lead and the producers are Seth Caplan and Chris Colbert.

Jason William Lee’s The Evil In Us (pictured) tells the story of six best friends who fall victim to a terrorist organisation when they ingest a drug that transforms them into cannibals. Dalj Brar and Michael Gyori produced.

Nathan Hendrickson’s The Hollow One is about two sisters who must stop a demonic force unleashed upon a small farm town.

Gaurav Seth’s sci-fi thriller Prisoner X centers on a CIA agent who heads to at a secret underground prison to interrogate a time-travelling terrorist.

Romano Orzari, Michelle Nolden, Damon Runyan, and Julian Richings star, while Avi Federgreen and Robyn Bigue produce.