With all the big studio films that come out each month, we need to remind ourselves to keep an eye out for smaller, indie films that deserve attention. One of these is the upcoming horror/comedy The Revenant.

Winner of the Best Director and Audience Awards at last year’s Fantastic Fest, writer/director D. Kerry Prior stars David Anders (Alias and The Vampire Diaries) and Chris Wylde (The Ten). Here’s a bit on the story from the official sysnpsis:

This breakout horror comedy centers around a fallen soldier who somehow finds he has joined the ranks of the living dead. Bart Gregory (Anders) has just recently been laid to rest – so why is he still up and walking around? The only person Bart can turn to for answers is his best friend Joey (Wylde), and before long the two pals have surmised that blood is life. In order to survive, Bart requires a steady supply of it.

Convinced that no one will miss the drug dealers and killers who have transformed LA into a swirling cesspool of crime and vice, the two friends decide to do law enforcement a favor by cleaning up the streets while collecting the precious blood needed to keep poor Bart from withering away into dust!

Check out the red band trailer (and some bonus clips because we love you) after the break. Look for The Revenant via VOD and in select theaters on Friday the 24th.

The CW has aded its shows to the mix today and has announced its full Fall schedule of programming. For the new season, the network is adding 5 new drama series which, in addition to its returning shows, will be “strategically” rolled out starting in early October.

The new shows, Arrow, Beauty And The Beast and Emily Owens, MD, will debut in the fall. The remaining dramas, Cult and The Carrie Diaries, will arrive midseason. In addition to its new shows, the network is also making some changes to its existing ones.

Supernatural is moving to Wednesday and will air following the new drama Arrow. America’s Next Top Model is moving to Friday to give Nikita a new lead-in. The rest of the changes can be found in the new schedule.

Click through for the full CW schedule, some videos and descriptions of the new series.

It seems the popularity of vampires would be winding down with the over-saturation of the market, but Hollywood is moving away from your modern vampire, as seen in Twilight, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries, and seems to be looking toward the past to keep the craze going. There has been a sudden explosion of projects based on the classic vampire, Dracula. Names ranging from Adam Sandler to Park Chan-Wook are involved in some kind of story about the classical bloodsucker.

According to Deadline, Sony has purchased a pitch from writer Jason Keller that will tell Dracula’s origin story, with Joe Roth and Palak Patel set to produce. Sony would only admit that they intend to start a period franchise, and with Keller credited for the upcoming Snow White re-imagining Mirror Mirror, that might put two franchises on his plate.

Now that NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox have announced their Fall schedules, we’re getting the other, smaller, networks and all of their info. This time around its The CW and their slate of new and returning shows.

CW’s fall schedule includes 3 blocks of shows from top producers, with One Tree Hill being held for midseason. There will be a Josh Schwartz/Stephanie Savage block on Monday, with new medical drama Hart of Dixie airing after Gossip Girl.

Kevin Williamson takes over Thursday night with new teen witch drama The Secret Circle following The Vampire Diaries, and McG is the man for Friday with Nikita taking over at 8 PM for Smallville with Supernatural still at 9PM. 90210 is moving from Monday to Tuesday to help launch the new Sarah Michelle Gellar drama Ringer.

As sad as we were to see Smallville go its nice to see Gellar return to TV. Let’s hope her new show does her justice. It won’t be Buffy (obviously) but let’s hope its good.

Here’s the full release from the CW as well as the schedule and descriptions of the new shows:

The CW Network will unveil the schedule for its 2011-2012 season today at its annual upfront presentation for advertisers, affiliates and national media from Jazz at Lincoln Center. Electro hip-hop group LMFAO will stage a rousing flash mob dance and performed their hit song “Party Rock Anthem” to open the show. The announcement was made by Dawn Ostroff, President of Entertainment, and Mark Pedowitz, the new President of The CW.

“We’re thrilled to present the most exciting primetime schedule The CW has ever had, comprised of shows that feature bold concepts, proven TV stars and up-and-coming, breakout talent,” said Ostroff. “In just five years, we’ve built an instantly recognizable brand that resonates with both viewers and advertisers and is known for being smartly provocative, culturally current, emotionally authentic and a leader in digital and social media. This upcoming season will continue to establish The CW as a premier destination for our viewers, especially women.”

If you were one of the millions of fans anxiously awaiting the return of Smallville or Supernatural tonight, you’re just going to have to wait a bit longer. The network that carries those shows, The CW, has decided to push back both show’s premieres, which were to take place tonight, by another week.

Now, both shows will return next Friday at their regularly scheduled times. Why is this happening? Reportedly, it is to give the network’s winter debuts of The Vampire Diaries and Nikita extra time to build an audience and ratings by showing them again this week in the time slots usually reserved for Smallville and Supernatural.

While I can understand the decision from a business perspective, it is still a rather crappy thing to do to fans eagerly awaiting the return of Smallville and Supernatural. I know The CW wants to give its newer shows as much of a chance as possible, but they also need to keep in mind that shows like Smallville, and its fans, are one of the reason the network is still in business.

Oh well, I guess we can wait one more week, right?

While attending the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour to promote The Vampire Diaries, writer Kevin Williamson gave us some updates and the current status of Scream 4:

“I’m almost done with the first draft of Scream 4. I’m trying to get that together for Wes Craven. We’ve got to get going on that, during the hiatus. We have Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and Dave Arquette. I was always holding out hope because the pitch was about those three characters. I didn’t want to have to re-route the whole story. We don’t have to do that. I can do it exactly the way I want wanted. The story is going to be told the way I originally conceived it.”

The immediate good news for fans of Scream are that all the principals are back, hopefully this will mean Wes Craven will return to direct. Films like this do best when you can bring back that core creative element. Of course, few of the other characters survived the first three films to return anyway.

Some may wonder if jumping back into the world of Scream is a good or bad idea. The horror genre has changed considerably since the first Scream movie came out in 1996. Scream 3 alone is ten years old. The big money makers these days are franchise films like Saw and unexpected indie hits like Paranormal Activity. The closest films to what Scream was would be the recent Halloween reboots, and even that’s a stretch.