Horror / Sci-Fi Round-Up: Patient Zero, Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Jetsons

We're back with another news round-up. This time around we have a casting update on the Matt Smith-starring Patient Zero, special features details for Shout! Factory's 4-disc Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD box set, and news on The Jetsons in-development animated feature film.

Deadline reveals that Stanley Tucci is lined up to play the head villain in Patient Zero, the upcoming horror-thriller from Screen Gems. Tucci will play "a deliciously evil role: a professor who becomes infected, and highly violent. He becomes determined to crash the lab that’s working on a cure and thwart the search for Patient Zero." Matt Smith (Doctor Who) and Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) star and Stefan Ruzowitzky (Deadfall) directs off a script by Mike Le (Dark Summer).

“In Patient Zero, an unprecedented global pandemic of a super strain of rabies has resulted in the evolution of a new species driven by violence. An inexplicably immune human survivor with the ability to communicate with this new species must spearhead a hunt for Patient Zero in order to find a cure to save his infected wife and humanity.”

The laugh-inducing cinematic commentary of Joel, Mike, Tom Servo, and Crow returns in Shout Factory's 4-disc DVD box set, Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XXXII, due out on March 24th:

Press Release – "For spring break this year, skip the boring ocean cruise and instead set sail with Joel, Mike and the bots on a madcap journey aboard the Satellite of Love! On March 24th, 2015, Shout! Factory will release Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXXII, featuring four never before on DVD episodes Space Travelers, Hercules, Radar Secret Service and San Francisco International. The DVD box set is also filled with bonus features, including brand new episode introductions by Frank Conniff, new featurettes Barnum Of Baltimore: The Early Films Of Joseph E. Levine; Marooned: A Forgotten Odyssey; Sampo Speaks! A Brief History Of Satellite News and MST-UK with Trace and Frank; as well as theatrical trailers and four exclusive Mini Posters by artist Steve Vance!

Fans who order this title from ShoutFactory.com will receive free standard shipping to US and Canada, with their copies shipping three weeks before street date. Pre-orders can be placed at ShoutFactory.com

They were four total strangers, with nothing in common, except themselves. A space drama, a sword and sandals epic, a ‘50s spy film and a TV pilot about an airport. Before the experiment was over, they broke the rules and made us cringe in ways we never dreamed possible. In this 32nd collection of episodes from the cult comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000, Joel, Mike, Tom Servo and Crow spend detention aboard the Satellite of Love with a breakfast club of cheesy movies. To our everlasting good fortune, though, they endure the punishment by delivering a steady stream of wisecracks, and it's definitely some kind of wonderful.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XXXII gives us Radar Secret Service, an atomic age bomb of a spy thriller from Sam Newfield and Robert Lippert that features G-Men tracking stolen Uranium ore using radar and an even stealthier weapon — an undercover blonde! Space Travelers, a dramatic, Academy-Award© winning (really!) tale of about astronauts trapped in space that stars Gene Hackman, Richard Crenna, Gregory Peck and Lee Grant; Hercules, the first of the score of Italian Hercules movies, starring Steve Reeves as the legendary strongman who helps Jason retrieve the Golden Fleece and reclaim his rightful throne from his scheming uncle; and San Francisco International, a made for TV movie / backdoor pilot that never got off the ground. Pernell Roberts leads a respectable cast in this “day in the life” story of an airport and its maverick chief of security.

Bonus Features Include:

· New Introductions By Frank Conniff
· Barnum Of Baltimore: The Early Films Of Joseph E. Levine
· Marooned: A Forgotten Odyssey
· Sampo Speaks! A Brief History Of Satellite News
· MST-UK with Trace and Frank
· Theatrical Trailers
· 4 Exclusive Mini-Posters By Artist Steve Vance

About Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory, LLC is a diversified multi-platform media company devoted to producing, uncovering, preserving and revitalizing the very best of pop culture. Founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos have spent their entire careers sharing their music, television and film favorites with discerning consumers the world over. Shout! Factory’s DVD and Blu-Ray™ offerings serve up feature films, classic and contemporary TV series, animation, live music and comedy specials in lavish packages crammed with extras. Shout’s audio division boasts GRAMMY®-nominated box sets, Broadway cast albums, new releases from storied artists, lovingly assembled album reissues and indispensable “best of” compilations. In addition, Shout! Factory maintains a vast digital distribution network which delivers video and audio content to all the leading digital service providers in North America. Shout! Factory also owns and operates Timeless Media Group, Biograph Records, Majordomo Records, HighTone Records and Video Time Machine. These riches are the result of a creative acquisition mandate that has established the company as a hotbed of cultural preservation and commercial reinvention. Shout! Factory is based in Santa Monica, California. For more on Shout! Factory, visit shoutfactory.com"

Also in sci-fi news, Deadline reports that Warner Bros. is moving forward with an animated feature film version of the 1960's Hanna-Barbera series, The Jetsons. Warner Bros. has set Matt Lieberman to write the script. Lieberman also worked on the screenplay of Warner Bros.' in-development Scooby-Doo animated feature.