Archive for May, 2007
Posted by Horror Grinder on
May 30, 2007
Variety reports Wes Craven has found a writer and director for the remake of his first pic, The Last House on the Left, which he is producing for Rogue under his Midnight Pictures shingle.
Midnight is finalizing a deal for Dennis Iliadis to direct the redo, with Adam Alleca on board to rewrite. Craven is producing with Midnight cohort Marianne Maddalena and Sean S. Cunningham. Latter produced the 1972 original.
Craven said the remake will retain the spirit of the original, about killers who inadvertently seek refuge with the parents of one of their victims, but aim for a more realistic tone.
“The first one was arch — especially in relation to the killers,” Craven said.
He said they chose Iliadis because they found his pic Hardcore “so compelling and real.”
Alleca has another project in development at Midnight called Home, and had previously approached Craven about revisiting The People Under the Stairs, his 1991 pic. There are no plans yet for that to be remade, but Craven hasn’t ruled it out. He recently revisited his 1977 pic, The Hills Have Eyes, in a sequel for Fox Atomic.
“It’s kind of working its way back,” he said. He said part of the reason he’s revisiting earlier films is that those are ones over which he had more ownership control, and partly it’s because he figured, “Why not?” Craven expects to begin production on “The Last House on the Left” early next year.
Craven formed Midnight a year ago with the mission of finding new voices for horror pics with budgets of less than $15 million.
Stabbed first by Really Scary: Horror Movie News, Video Games, Comics, Books, Music, Art and TV
Posted by Horror Grinder on
May 15, 2007
According to a UPI report, the next generation of Hammer horror films should go into production soon now that the firm behind the British movies was sold to a private equity consortium.
Hammer Film Productions, known for it gothic horror fare of the 1950s and ’60s, was sold Thursday for an undisclosed sum to a group led by Holland-based Cyrte Investments, the investment vehicle for Dutch media mogul John de Mol, the Western Mail said Friday.
De Mol and his group said they had about $50 million available to re-start production. The team said it would target “a new generation of horror lovers” through Web and mobile technologies.
Simon Oakes, a member of the new management team, said the deal has been in the works for about a year. “Hammer is a great British brand and we intend to take Hammer back into production and develop its global potential,” Oakes said.
Stabbed first by Really Scary: Horror Movie News, Video Games, Comics, Books, Music, Art and TV
Posted by Horror Grinder on
May 15, 2007
Virginia Madsen (Candyman, 23) will star in the supernatural thriller A Haunting in Connecticut.
The film tells the true story of a family forced to relocate near a clinic where their teenage son is being treated for cancer. There, they discover that the home they have rented is a former mortuary with a dark history that might account for the extraordinary manifestations of the boy’s illness and the supernatural events that threaten the family.
Peter Cornwell is directing the Gold Circle Films project. A late summer start is being eyed.
Stabbed first by Really Scary: Horror Movie News, Video Games, Comics, Books, Music, Art and TV
Posted by Horror Grinder on
May 15, 2007
Variety reports Sony Pictures has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Winged Creatures, the Rowan Woods-directed ensemble drama that stars Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson, Jackie Earle Haley and Guy Pearce.
The Roy Freirich-scripted drama revolves around a group of survivors of multiple murders in a diner, who come together to try and overcome their trauma. The film just completed filming in L.A., with Robert Salerno producing. Pic also stars Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning, Embeth Davidtz and Jeanne Tripplehorn.
Stabbed first by Really Scary: Horror Movie News, Video Games, Comics, Books, Music, Art and TV
Posted by Horror Grinder on
May 6, 2007
A couple of Ain’t It Cool News readers got a preview look at 1408, a new movie based on the Stephen King short story. Starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, this King adaptation appears to be getting some good reviews. Check ‘em out here.
Stabbed first by Really Scary: Horror Movie News, Video Games, Comics, Books, Music, Art and TV
Posted by Horror Grinder on
May 6, 2007
THR reports (via SciFi Wire) that Liv Tyler will star opposite Edward Norton in Marvel Studios’ The Incredible Hulk, signing on to play Betty Ross, the longtime love interest of Dr. Bruce Banner/the Hulk.
Louis Leterrier is directing the movie, which is being produced by Avi Arad, Gale Anne Hurd and Kevin Feige. Ross, a classic Hulk character from the comic book’s beginning in 1962, is Banner’s fellow scientist and an ally in his quest to rid him of his lurking monster deep inside. The movie will unfold with Ross estranged from Banner (Norton), but with the pursuit of the Hulk heating up and Banner on the run trying to cure his condition, Ross finds herself swept back into his life.
Jennifer Connelly played the character in the 2003 movie Hulk, directed by Ang Lee. Filming on the new Hulk is slated to begin in the summer in Toronto. Universal Pictures is distributing.
Stabbed first by Really Scary: Horror Movie News, Video Games, Comics, Books, Music, Art and TV
Posted by Horror Grinder on
May 6, 2007
Variety reports Frank Miller has sold Warner Bros. another of his graphic novel classics for movie adaptation. With film successes of his other works - Sin City, 300 and technically the latest Batman origin flick is a takeoff of all the Dark Knight Returns stuff he did, a Sin City 2 is already in the works and now we’ll get Ronin. In the story, a ronin, or disgraced samurai warrior, bears the shame of allowing his master to be assassinated by a shape-shifting demon in 13th century Japan. When the master’s sword is unearthed in mid-21st century New York, the ronin and the demon are brought to life and battle gangs of mutants and thugs to try to take possession of the mythical sword. The graphic novel was published by DC Comics.
Stabbed first by Really Scary: Horror Movie News, Video Games, Comics, Books, Music, Art and TV
Posted by Horror Grinder on
May 6, 2007
Variety reports Peter Jackson will make his next movie at DreamWorks. Committing at least $65 million, DreamWorks in association with Film 4 has won the bidding for Jackson’s bigscreen adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-selling 2002 book The Lovely Bones.
Jackson is set to begin lensing in October in Pennsylvania and New Zealand from a script he co-wrote with Lord of the Rings collaborators Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh. Paramount, which owns DreamWorks, will distribute “Bones” worldwide, with Jackson promising to deliver the film by the fourth quarter 2008.
Bones is closer in tone to Jackson’s 1994 “Heavenly Creatures than the epic Ring series or King Kong. Sebold’s book tells the story of a 14-year-old who has been raped and killed, and now watches over her family and killer.
“When you read an emotionally magical story that cries out to be turned into a major motion picture, you hope its winding path can find its way to the door of your own company,” DreamWorks’ Steven Spielberg said.
Stabbed first by Really Scary: Horror Movie News, Video Games, Comics, Books, Music, Art and TV