In today’s film news roundup, Orlando Jones will play a horror director, Boyd Holbrook will play a pathologist, four Batman movies will get a re-release and a spider movie gets a release.

CASTINGS

Orlando Jones will star in Lexicon’s horror movie “Dark Forces” with Anthony O’Brien (“The Timber”) directing, Variety has learned exclusively.

O’Brien will direct from a screenplay by Lexicon producers Mark Mathias Sayre and Justin Foia. Production is expected to take place this summer in Romania.

Jones will portray a monster movie director who becomes haunted by creatures from his own films while recovering from brain surgery.

“Orlando’s multi-talented and intellectually stimulating performances speak for themselves; his turn as ‘Mr. Nancy’ on Starz ‘American Gods’ provides a perfect example of this,” O’Brien said. “His contribution to ‘Dark Forces’ will allow the audience to experience a thoughtful energy and voice that old (and new) fans of the genre can embrace.”

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LD Entertainment has signed writer-director Sean Ellis to produce his horror script “Eight for Silver” with Boyd Holbrook, Kelly Reilly and Alistair Petrie starring.

Ellis previously worked with LD Entertainment in 2016 when he directed “Anthropoid” from his own script. “Eight for Silver” is a period piece set in the countryside of France and follows the story of a pathologist (played by Holbrook) assigned to determine if the body of a 14-year-old boy found in the woods is the work of a man or a beast.

Production is set to begin in April in Cognac, France. Mickey Liddell and Pete Shilaimon of LD Entertainment are producers and the studio is fully financing the production.

BATMAN MOVIES

Fathom Events is planning one-night screenings in May of 1989’s “Batman,” “Batman Returns,” “Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin.”

Each “Batman” film will play in more than 600 movie theaters nationwide, beginning with director Tim Burton’s “Batman” on May 4, following “Batman Returns” (1992) on May 6, “Batman Forever” (1995) on May 12 and “Batman & Robin” (1997) on May 14.

“Batman,” starring Jack Nicholson as The Joker, Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, and Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale, is also marking its 30th anniversary.

ACQUISITION

Shout! Studios has acquired North American rights to spider horror film “Itsy Bitsy,” starring Bruce Davison, Denise Crosby, Elizabeth Roberts and Chloe Perrin.

The horror film is written by Micah Gallo, J. Bryan Dick, Jason Alvino, and directed by Gallo. Shout is planning a a day-and-date theatrical launch in 2019 through Shout’s genre entertainment imprint, Scream Factory.

Based on the centuries-old poem, the story centers on a family moving into a secluded mansion where they soon find themselves being targeted by an ancient entity taking the form of a giant spider.