I Quit Smoking 18 Years Ago Today

I thought it was funny when the conversation about smoking cigarettes being "cool" again reared its head last week, as I was prepping for this annual post I've been doing for eighteen years now -- if you look it up this conversation pops up about every two years and everyone acts all outraged again. And as I say every year -- smoking is bad for you! I am glad I quit eighteen years ago today! And yet I also think that it's undeniable that it just looks cool -- it's erotic, it's cinematic, it's literally "bad for you" as I just said and I'm of the mind that we'll stop being human beings when we stop romanticizing nihilism. We're always gonna be attracted to the "bad boy" archetype, even when it's Gina Gershon in Bound. (Hell especially when it's Gina Gershon in Bound.) 

Anyway I make some form of that argument every single year so's I can justify this post. Eighteen years of them now! That's wild. And no I don't miss smoking in the slightest, even if I one thousand percent understand the sould-crush that the kids are feeling so they're picking up the cancer-sticks again. I'm not judging anybody -- I get it y'all. The world's on fire -- you might as well lean in and light some drugs up off of it. With that said over the past twelve months I've gathered a ridiculous amount of pictures and gifs for y'all (over 150) so let's get to those. Hit the jump and inhale...

You're a Real Mads Man

(See more photos from this new shoot of Mads Mikkelsen right here) Extremely excellent news today that Pushing Daisies and Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller's deliriously delightful directorial debut Dust Bunny -- the big toothed monster movie starring Mads and Sigourney Weaver -- is indeed getting a physical media release! You never know these days. And it's a 4K disc no less, which drops on April 28th, and which you can pre-order right here. Here's a look at it:

You can read my review of this movie right here -- it's a shame this movie got such a small release because it's so much fun and so inventive and colorful and everythingm we associate with the Pushing Daisies meastro, but now that it'll be available this way I'm hoping, as I said in my review, that it proves to be a cult in the making. It's the perfect gateway horror flick to show your own kids or your nieces and nephews to turn them into psychos and sickos like we are!

I am totally stealing these from @bryanfuller.bsky.social elsewhere but dig these killer photos of Sigourney Weaver bts on DUST BUNNY. Congrats to her on her much deserved Saturn nomination for Best Supporting Actor!

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 8, 2026 at 2:22 PM

Hopping Mads

Heads up that one of 2025's best movies that placed on far far far too few lists of such things has hit VOD today -- Bryan Fuller's deeply dreamy and fantastically fun Dust Bunny! You can rent it right here and I really recommend you do -- as I said in my review (probably to Bryan's chagrin since I know he makes these things hoping for a broader audience) this has all the makings of a beloved cult movie to be and I trust it will find its place in the canon in time. Especially as gateway horror for the kiddos -- this should be a movie like Gremlins was for me; one that will breed horror movie fans for life. Watch the trailer back here if you missed it -- and I have paired all of this information with a nice set of Mads Mikkelsen photos (via) because obviously.

Hey My Review of Dust Bunny is Up Here

I've posted that photo of Mads Mikkelsen before (because of course I have) but I'm latching onto some of its eye-catch to direct said same eyes over to my Pajiba review of Dust Bunny, which went up today -- from our hero Bryan Fuller of Pushing Daisies and Hannibal fame, this movie stars Mads as as assassin who gets hired by a little girl to kill the monster under her bed and, well, tell me that's not already one hell of an idea from the get-go. But then you probably know all of this as I've been following this movie's progress for several years -- the important part is it's out in theaters now and I hope y'all try to go find a screen where it's playing. It's a perfect weird little wonder -- if every weekend the multiplex was stuffed with movies this imaginative and fun and outside-the-box the film industry could be saved. If not financially at least spiritually. Watch the trailer here if you missed it before. And then go throw your money at this magical movie dammit!

I'm Not Mads, I'm Just Drawn That Way

One of my most anticipated movies of not just 2025 but the past several years is out today -- Pushing Daisies and Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller's Dust Bunny which stars Mads Mikkelsen as a hit-man who gets hired by a little girl (Sophie Sloan) who lives in his apartment building to kill the monster under her bed. You should go see it! I mean it! And I will have more words than that piddling bit of sage advice to share in order to convince you, just... not quite yet. My review's a little delayed due to a bevy of unforeseen circumstances (the sprained ankle I'm still dealing with is just one of them but it's had a helluva butterfly effect) but I will indeed be writing about the movie soon. Until then just take my couple of words for it -- it's a delightful, funny, rampaging charmer, clearly destined to be a cult classic for all those people adventurous enough to take a chance and wander into its weird little one-of-a-kind-world. Bryan is very good at making those! Anyway I've shared it before but here's the trailer, and stay tuned for more from me in the next few days on this wonderful, wonderful film.

We All Need a Little Mads Sometimes

We got a trailer for Bryan Fuller's film Dust Bunny last month along with word that the film is coming out on December 5th -- now we have a clip! Watch it above -- or don't because watching clips from movies out of context is usually a bad idea. I allow people to make up their own damn minds. I am just happy to take the chance to remind you that Dust Bunny is coming and that's a good thing to look forward to. We need those. I myself am seeing it next week at the Brooklyn Horror Fest and you will surely hear my opinion then, so stay tuned for that. 

5 Off My Head - Brooklyn Horror 2025 Time!

Starting next week we'll be entering the annual "very quiet round these parts" portion of the calendar as I plunge head-first into the fall film fests -- first it's the New York Film Festival, then there's the autumnal edition of NewFest, and then kicking off on October 16th there's the Brooklyn Horror Fest, which I've been covering since year one. This is year ten! By the time Halloween comes I'm always completely blown out but it's worth it every time so I keep it up anyway, despite the years of my life I've no doubt lost to cinematic exhaustion. Anyway today BHFF announced their new line-up and you can see the entire thing right here, but I'm going to zero in on a few titles (five specifically) that I'm most excited about seeing. A few of the movies they're showing I've already seen at earlier fests this year (Tina "daughter of Geroge" Romero's queer zombie flick Queens of the Dead is a hell of a lot of fun) -- in fact one of them I've even reviewed! You can read my thoughts on the brilliantly surreal head-trip Buffet Infinity right here. But let's get to the rest!

5 Brooklyn Horror Tiles to Devour

Dust Bunny -- Obviously! Duh! This kiddy horror flick from Pushing Daisies and Hannibal genius Bryan Fuller screened at TIFF yesterday and they also dropped the trailer (right here) -- it stars Mads Mikkelsen and Sigourney Weaver and I haven't shut up about it for a very long time. And it looks like this will be my first opportunity to see it before it hits theaters on December 5th!

Boorman and the Devil -- This documentary about the making of John Boorman's disastrously-received Exorcist sequel just premiered at Venice last week and got a really good reception. Also the queer horror community being as small as it is we here at MNPP know some people who worked on this (including director David Kitteredge) and we've been hearing about its making for what feels like forever! Put it in my eyeballs!

This is Not a Test -- Although the official page for this (the Opening Night) movie on BHFF's website doesn't mention its queerness, Variety's article on the line-up does -- either way we dug director Adam MacDonald's former feature Pyewacket a lot and we're always on board a high-school-set zombie movie. 

Tinsman Road -- A new found-footage horror film from homosexual director Robbie Banfitch, director of the found-footage freak-out The Outwaters. I was slightly mixed on that one (although it has some excellent scares and atmopshere) but we support our people! Meaning "gays" but also "found footage horror movie lovers."

Violence -- Looking forward to this one mainly because it stars Rohan Campbell, who was done dirty by David Gordon Green's Halloween Ends. He was good in a terrible role, and we're giving him a second chance. Does it hurt that he's hot as hell? Of course not. We are but human.

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There are a heap more movies worth seeing so make sure you scan the entire line-up at the link, and if you're in NYC between October 16th and 25th then you owe it to yourself to celebrate the Hallow-season with some of these frights! Badges are on sale right now; individual tickets go on sale this Friday at Noon!

Behold the Dust Bunny Trailer!

A long long long awaited happy day here at MNPP HQ as Pushing Daisies and Hannibal creator and friend-of-MNPP Bryan Fuller's feature-film directing-debut Dust Bunny is premiering at TIFF tonight! No as I just said in my previous post I'm not in Toronto so I'm not there to see the movie yet but I'm still psyched for our friend and can't wait to see this myself. Starring Mads Mikkelsen as a contract killer who's hired by a little girl named Aurora (Sophie Sloan) to murder the monster that lives under her bed, we all don't have to feel as if we're missing out on seeing the movie tonight in Canada -- they just dropped the first trailer! Watch:

Goosebumps! It looks fuckin' incredible. Pushing Daisies meets The Matrix! Even better we-ve got a release date too and it's so much sooner than I expected -- it's out December 5th! Holy shit! It all looks spectacular but most of all I cannot wait to see what the monster that Bryan created looks like. This man's imagination is unparalleled. Also -- hey Sigourney...

Dust Bunny Lift Off

This news has been a long time coming -- Bryan Fuller's directorial debut Dust Bunny has given us our first official look and a release date! There you'll see stars Mads Mikkelsen and Sigourney Weaver -- down below you'll see the full image with child actor Sophie Sloan who I believe is the actual lead of the film. Anyway it's definitely serving some Pushing Daisies realness with all of the hyper-saturated pageantry on display, which obviously makes us very happy -- anything that makes us think of Pushing Daisies is gonna do just that. See all of my previous posts on this movie here -- the news had trickled to a slow drip for a long time which I do believe had to do with one studio getting swallowed up by another yadda yadda boring business shit I will not bore you with. All we need to know -- it's hitting theaters on December 12th! Draw a bouquet of flowers on that calendar square because we're getting gifted!

Good Morning, World

All I have in me today is energy for Mads, stache, and pie. 

So thankfully these two pictures exist or else I'd be shit outta luck.

I Quit Smoking 17 Years Ago Today

I keep doing these posts every May 5th -- marking the anniversary of when I quit smoking cigarettes back in 2008 with a constantly ballooning collection of photos and gifs of actors and the like smoking their sexy asses off -- even though, well, it's been 17 years yo! What else do I have to say about any of this? I haven't missed a cigarette since then -- that Chantix shit I took really did its job and then some. But then the fact hasn't changed that whenever I see an image like this...

... I swoon. It just looks cool. I can't help the rules. I'm not saying it's good -- people love violent action movies because people look cool killing people too. It just is what it is and I'm not out to rewire the human brain. I'm just here to lay the horn on the pleasure receptors as we all sink into the abyss. So come with me into this sexy smoky netherworld of seventeen smoke-free years after the jump...

The Year of the Dust Bunny

I keep forgetting to direct y'all to Bryan Fuller's Instagram where he's been sharing a steady stream of Dust Bunny set photos of Mads Mikkelsen & Co -- the Pushing Daisies and Hannibal creator's feature film debut, click here to read my previous informative posts about Dust Bunny, which I've gathered is a childhood imagination horror film a la Pan's Labyrinth or my beloved Paperhouse. But I only know vaugely, as I'm trying to keep myself unspoiled. Still no release date on this but I can't imagine a world where it's not out this year. Hell I can't imagine us not having a trailer in the next few months. Oh and did I mention it co-stars Sigourney Weaver? Be excited!

The Promised Spy

The curse of the January-February doldrums continues with Matthew Vaughn's unremittingly bleak new "entertainment" Argylle out in theaters today -- click here to read my thoughts on this D.O.A. P.O.S. that stars Bryce Dallas Howard as a spy novelist, Henry Cavill as the spy she dreamed up, and Sam Rockwell as the real spy who blah blah blah who even cares. The movie can't even be bothered to make Henry look good so I'm not going to further waste my life on it. You'll be far better off seeing the new Mads Mikkelsen movie The Promised Land if it's out in your place -- that one's terrific. Here is the trailer for that:

Nobody Puts Madsy in the Corner

Well it's that time! What time? Time for me to head off to places unknown (read: my couch) for five straight days. It's a holiday weekend here in the U.S. and I'm off until next Wednesday. I put in the work this past week though -- I reviewed the new Indiana Jones (here), I reviewed the new Jennifer Lawrence (here), I reviewed the new Rock Hudson bio-pic (here), I reviewed the new Wes Anderson (here), and I reviewed a forthcoming Jude Law (here). Oh and I answered the question of which role of Harrison Ford's was the hottest right here. PLUS I have a big piece that has not been not published yet which I will update the site with a link to over the break. That's a lotta goddamned writing y'all and I ready for that goddamned couch.

But like I did just say -- I will be updating the site a little bit over the break; not just that coming piece (heh I said "coming piece") but there's our annual July 4th ridiculousness as well, which will land on (you guessed it) July 4th. So come back and visit over the break for these and perhaps other surprises! Or per usual keep your eyes on my social media accounts -- it's not like I'll be off of those for longer than five seconds. Have a happy 4th, y'all! And even more importantly -- Happy 11 to Magic Mike!

So What's Your Destiny

Let it be known that I went into Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with exceedingly low expectations -- the second that James Mangold was announced as director all my hopes melted away like that one Nazi's face at the end of Raiders. I found Logan vastly overrated and was nearly bored to literal death by Ford v Ferrari, and so I figured this was gonna be a disaster. And yet here we are -- I actually thought Dial of Destiny was pretty fun! Click here to read my review at Pajiba where I get into it. It's got some issues but it's better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- Ford is wonderful (of course he was) and I love love loved Phoebe Waller-Bridge in it. I also loved the go-for-broke ending, and there's a really weird scene where Antonio Banderas shows up with a boat full of shirtless muscle-bound sailor-men that is totally gratuitous aka made for me. And made for any of you reading this, I'd wager! PS in related news if you missed it earlier today I ranked Harrison Ford's hotness at Mashable, which you might also appreciate. 

Pic of the Day

Writer, now-director, and friend-of-MNPP Bryan Fuller shared this image of himself with his Hannibal leading man Mads Mikkelsen today, captioning it "Back in the saddle with this guy #dustbunny" -- if that hashtag means nothing to you then let me refer you to this post from November of last year where I told you about Dust Bunny, Bryan's directorial debut about "an eight-year-old girl who enlists the help of her intriguing neighbor to kill the monster under her bed that she believes ate her family." Now if you head to the IMDb page an even more intriguing fact if you can believe it reveals itself -- IMDb says that this movie will also co-star Sigourney Weaver? IMDb is the only place I see this reported -- all of the other links when you google it are talking about it being on IMDb. So is this true? I don't know. HEY BRYAN. I know you're directing your first movie right this minute or whatever but come answer my question, please! ETA we have confirmation, via the lips of Sigourney herself! This is from a chat with her a couple of weeks ago at the New York Social Diary:

"The industry finally realized, especially in the last few years, that people are interested in seeing older women in stories, not necessarily about older people, but just as part of a good tale. I’ve never been particular about leads versus supporting parts, so I’ve been able to find such an incredible assortment of roles in the last couple of years. Now, I’m about to go off to Budapest to do a wonderful small movie called Dust Bunny. I play another person who’s not so nice, opposite Mads Mikkelsen, the brilliant Danish actor (‘Casino Royale’), with a really talented writer/director, Bryan Fuller (“Hannibal’). And I have really beautiful costumes!”

We Named the Dog Indiana

Okay baby -- tonight's Indy 5 night! Spin that dastardly Dial of Destiny because this is really happening. Whatever the hell a "dial of destiny" is. I guess I will know tonight. And I'm not sure if I am excited, terrified, indifferent -- we'll see what the movie delivers and decide then. Which is the way it should be, I suppose -- I just wish I could go in anticipating more. I tried to re-watch Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a few weeks ago and, uhh, didn't make it too far. I think I have tried to re-watch that movie like four times since its release and I never make it all the way through? I definitely haven't seen the ending with the spinning alien nonsense since the first watch, even though that shit's burned into my brain. And not in a good way. Anyway stay tuned for my opinion next week, I will be reviewing this one. I'll be off for the rest of the week for Tribeca stuff -- more reviews will be appearing soon enough! Until then have a good weekend...

Happy 10 to Hannibal

I think about Bryan Fuller's Hannibal every night before I go to bed and every morning when I wake up because I have Kevin Tong's Mondo poster (RIP Mondo) for the show seen above (signed by the whole cast!) hanging above my bed. I was thinking about the show on my way to work this morning! And yet it didn't strike me until I just saw it on Twitter this afternoon that today is the 10th anniversary of the premiere of the show??? That's literally insane. Certifiably insane. Impossible cannibal-levels of insane! I can't believe it's been an entire decade. If you weren't here reading the site ten years ago then you probably don't know that the only set visit I've ever done was visiting the set of the pilot of Hannibal -- one of my most cherished memories, that.

I've been dying to do a re-watch of the series but time to "watch things" that aren't work has become so scarce these days -- that said the whole damn thing is on Hulu if you're so inclined, or if I am so inclined once I have the time. There are so many images burned deep into the tasty, tasty meat of my brains that I want to re-visit. I remember being in awe of what Bryan was getting away with on network television every single week. Soon enough we'll get to see what he'll get away with for his Friday the 13th series, which should be something indeed, but until then I'll just wish this brilliant perfect series a happy birthday and then ask the eternal question...

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Pusher (1996)

Tonny: I once ejaculated a girl in the face,

and she wanted me to piss it off.

Frank: Wait a minute, wait a minute.

You ejaculated a girl in the face,

and she wanted you to piss it off?

Tonny: Yeah.

Frank: [laughing] Pervert! That's fucking sick!

Tonny: It is not?

Frank: It's fucking sick, man. Who was she?

Tonny: Your mother.

Oh, do we love a good "your mama" joke. And

Nicolas Winding Refn's Pusher trilogy is full of them. 

A happy birthday to Mads Mikkelsen today! I love

that Hannibal Lecter's birthday's so close to Thanksgiving.

Which is Hotter?

Although they're still withholding the title of the film from us (boo!) Empire magazine has the first information on the fifth Indiana Jones movie -- the first that wasn't directed by Steven Spielberg it should be noted, which gives me pause, especially since I'm no fan of director James Mangold. But I suppose there's plenty of time before it's out next June, and the movie does have an absolutely stacked and killer cast -- Antonio Banderas, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Toby Jones, Thomas Kretschmann, and the villainous two-some of Mads Mikkelsen and Boyd Holbrook, the latter of whom describes his character as, "a lapdog to Mads, and a crazy one at that." Now raise your hand if you wanna see Mads and Boyd dom-sub it up hardcore! Which brings me to my main question...

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