Movies like The Haunting of Molly Hartley remind me that even just reviewing genre films means I’m going to sit through an inordinate amount of crap. I knew I was screwed when this thing opened cold (ice cold, even-I don’t think anyone saw this thing early), but even that knowledge couldn’t have prepared me for the ineptitude on display in this Halloween offering.
Variety reporters Ben Fritz and Michael Fleming are reporting that four studios are currently engaged in a bidding war to snap up the rights to Electronic Arts unannounced game Inferno (tentative title).
Paramount, MGM, Universal, and New Regency are the studios still in the hunt (after Warner Bros. dropped out earlier) for film rights to the game, which will reportedly be a modern updating of Dante’s epic poem. There are no real details about the game out there at this point–aside from what seems obvious given the inspiration (hard to imagine it being about anything other than players fighting their way through Hell…)
It is interesting to see a bidding war over a videogame–particularly a game that’s not even been officially announced, let alone released. If I were an optimist, I’d say this might be the beginning of a new age wherein Hollywood finally understands the value of games and is interested in converting interesting videogame narratives into just as interesting films. I’m a pessimist, though, so I really imagine this is just a case of four studios (as opposed to the usual one) wanting to churn out not only a horror flick but a videogame one as well. That’s two demographics covered in one film! Think of the money!
More on this as details emerge.
I’d take this with a grain of salt, but HKFlix now has a preorder listing up for the highly anticipated Pascal Laguier film, Martyrs. If the site is correct, we’ll be getting our Dimension Extreme DVD release of the French horror film on February 24th of 2009.
It would make sense for Dimension to get the film out sooner rather than later (given the current hype the film is generating and with Laugier’s name being bandied about as the writer/director of the Hellraiser remake the company is planning), but it seems awfully soon. That being said, this is one rumor I hope turns out to be true.
Here’s the plot synopsis HKFlix has up–just in case you’re not sure what the film is actually about.
“Lucie, a 10 year old girl, is found wandering in the streets, bruised and bloodied. Unable to say who did this to her, or why, she is placed in a hospital where she meets Anna, another young girl who had been abused. Fifteen years later, with Anna’s help, Lucie sets out to get revenge on her attackers. When she believes she has found the couple who abused her, she confronts them . . . and that is when the terror truly begins.”
A double dose of horror gaming goodness today–you can tell it must almost be Halloween.
First up, Square-Enix has announced that Parasite Eve: The 3rd Birthday is headed to the PSP. The first two games in the modestly popular horror series appeared on the original PlayStation. Fans have clamored for a third installment for years, and they’re finally getting their wish. Originally slated to be a cellphone title, the game is making the transition to the more gamer friendly PSP in the not too distant future. No concrete release date yet, but check out these photos from 1Up.com to tide you over in the meantime.
In other news, the teaser trailer for long-awaited Splatterhouse updating is now online. It doesn’t offer much in the way of actual game footage, but if you watch closely you can see some bodies being ripped apart. I loved Splatterhouse back in the day, so I’m eagerly awaiting this new version. Check out the trailer below.
All of the sudden, it seems like it’s Jack Ketchum adaptation season.
With cinematic versions of his novels The Girl Next Door (excellent) and The Lost (not so excellent) already available, and productions of his classic hillbilly cannibal books Off Season and Off Spring on the horizon, it’s as if the filmmaking community has finally discovered one of horror fiction’s best kept secrets. The latest Ketchum offering to make the jump from the page to the silver screen is Red-which may be the best film based on the author’s work to date.
This is great news indeed–although given Preacher’s tumultuous track record in Hollywood over the years, I’m not exactly lining up to buy tickets yet…I will say that Sam Mendes is an interesting choice to direct. He gives the film a level of respectability that most comic adaptations haven’t had.
Anyway, The Hollywood Reporter had this news about Preacher finally hitting the big screen:
“Columbia Pictures has picked up the rights to “Preacher,” the popular 1990s Vertigo series, for an adaptation to be directed by Sam Mendes.
Neal Moritz and his Original Films banner are producing with Kickstart Prods.’ Jason Netter.
Created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, “Preacher,” which ran from 1995-2000, told the story of a down-and-out Texas preacher possessed by Genesis, a supernatural entity conceived by the unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon.
Given immense powers, the preacher teamed with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire and set out on a journey across America to find God — who apparently had abandoned his duties in heaven — and hold him accountable for his negligence.
Getting a “Preacher” project off the ground has long been a favorite among the comic book literati in town, though none has been blessed to see completion. The project was previously set up as a one-hour series at HBO but was put into turnaround. Mark Steven Howard wrote a pilot which Howard Deutch was attached to direct.
A previous movie version, to have been produced by Kevin Smith’s View Askew, among others, got to the casting stage, with James Marsden attached for the title role and a reported budget of $25 million.
The new “Preacher” has no writers on board, though Mendes will lead the search while putting the finishing touches on his drama “Revolutionary Road, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and due Dec. 26.
While comic book movies might seem as common as Joker Halloween costumes, CAA-repped Mendes directed one of this century’s early comic adaptations, 2002’s “Road to Perdition.”
Moritz and Netter are working adapting another Ennis comic book, “The Boys,” which also is set up Columbia.“
Sony has unveiled the front and back packaging for the upcoming Resident Evil: Degeneration. You can check out the front cover (pictured above) and the back (down below). I don’t know why, but the zombie above the “s” on the front cover cracks me up–the way his head is tilted makes me think he’s saying some corny catch-phrase like “oh no he di’nt”. I clearly have way too much time on my hands.
Resident Evil: Degeneration is a CG animated feature that takes place seven years after the destruction of the game’s fictional Raccoon City. The film follows Leon and Claire as they travel to an American airport where a plane has landed with a deadly cargo that’s turning people into zombies.
The film has premiered in Japan already and will play two separate one night showings here in the States before hitting DVD on December 30th.
The guys over at Shocktillyoudrop.com have been busy little beavers. They’ve got multiple interviews and set reports up today from their recent visit to the Friday the 13th set. I highly recommend checking it out if you’re at all interested in the latest on Jason’s return to the big screen.
You can read their set report piece (talking with the writers and producers) here.
For an interview with star Jared Padalecki, check this link out.
And if that wasn’t enough, point your browser here to read what new Jason Derek Mears thinks about the new flick.
That should keep you all busy for awhile.Â
I first encountered the work of filmmaker Douglas Buck while watching films for possible inclusion in my book on great gore flicks. Buck’s film, Cutting Moments, blew me away, Not only was it gory, it was also heart-wrenching and painful (emotionally as well as physically). I knew then and there that this guy was a director to keep an eye on.
Yesterday, news about the director’s latest film emerged–an eco-horror film entitled The Broken Imago. Above is the teaser one-sheet for the movie.
According to the Metaluna Productions website, the film’s teaser trailer is ready to debut at various film festivals and the film’s MySpace page sometime next month.
The Broken Imago tells a tale about “a vengeful nature has unleashed a powerful virus from the world’s diminishing rainforests. Transmitted through air and touch, the virus physically assaults the doomed infected, violently twisting their bodies into strange intolerable shapes. Within weeks of the first reported outbreaks, the members of an elite Catholic boarding school on a remote island lose communication with the outside world. Facing the terrible possibility of the end of the world, they begin to struggle amongst themselves. The virus hits and they realize they were wrong. Civilization isn’t ending. Only the adults are dying. The children have begun to change.“
Check out the Metaluna website for production stills and more.
MTV has some photos from Sam Raimi’s return to horror, Drag Me to Hell, up on their site today.
I’m excited about Sam’s return to his genre roots (he’s been gone far too long), but come on…Justin Long? I’ve gotta watch that douchebag in this movie? The guy who almost ruined Live Free or Die Hard? I’m still in line on day one to see this, but please Hollywood, stop cramming this guy and Shia LaBeouf down my goddamn throat already. I know there’s a void left by Heath Ledger’s passing (and the deification of Ledger is a topic for another day…) but this guy ain’t gonna fill it. He’s not even the best thing in those goddamn smarmy Apple commercials, for christ’s sake.
Now that I got that out of my system…
Drag Me to Hell stars Alison Lohman as a young loan officer hexed by an angry old woman. She seeks the aid of a seer to reverse the curse and finds out just how far she’ll go to regain her old existence.
Check out the rest of the photos here.
