Rushing Halloween 3D right into production on the heels of the underwhelming box office performance of Halloween 2 seemed like a bad idea. Apparently the Weinsteins have come to the same conclusion, because news is now circulating that pre-production on the film has been temporarily halted.
Deadline Hollywood broke the news last night and director Patrick Lussier has confirmed it. The reason for the delay? Lussier’s schedule is a little cramped at the moment. He’s slated to make Drive Angry with Nic Cage early next year. Because of that, plans were for the filmmaker to begin shooting Michael Myers’ next outing this November. That was doable, at least in theory, since Todd Farmer’s script has been turned in. Apparently, though, the Weinstein’s felt this was too fast and would create too much of a strain on Lussier and could compromise the quality of the finished film. They’ve now decided to wait until Lussier is free, which would be sometime next year after he finishes with Drive Angry.
This is the first thing the Weinstein’s have done in the past few months that actually makes good business sense. I’ve no clue if Halloween 3D can save their cinematic empire (or even be a catalyst in moving them back toward profitability), but there’s no denying that Lussier will be able to turn in a better film if he’s able to work on it without the pressure of a second project hanging over his head the whole time.
In other Halloween news from that same article, H2 is getting a re-release for the holidays. Plans are afoot to bring Zombie’s Halloween 2 back to theaters for midnight showings on Halloween night. Savvy marketing or a desperate attempt to wring a few more bucks out of film that radically underachieved at the box office? You be the judge…
To call this story anticlimactic would be a bit of an understatement. We’ve all known Resident Evil: Afterlife was in the works–we’ve heard rumors for months, and we started having guys like actor Boris Kodjoe breaking casting news on Twitter last week. It’s the worst kept secret in Hollywood.
Screen Gems has now confirmed the obvious–Resident Evil: Afterlife is coming. Highlights of the press release include news that Milla Jovovich is returning as Alice, Ali Larter is reprising her role as Claire Redfield, Paul WS Anderson will write, direct, and produce the film, and in a first for the franchise, Afterlife will be shot in 3D.
One of the cruelest of this year’s April Fools pranks came from Twitchfilm.net. They claimed (going so far as to make a mock cover…) that Criterion was in the process of bringing Guillermo Del Toro’s Mimic to DVD in a special collector’s edition. A lot of people (and sites) were fooled and it was a real letdown when the news came out that this was a hoax.
Yet, it turns out that it really wasn’t. The Twitch story was made up, but Criterion is bringing us a Director’s Cut of Mimic as well as Cronos. Yay for self-fulfilling prophecies.
“CRONOS is evolving nicely. We are including a NEVER-SEEN-BEFORE version of GEOMETRIA (1987) the short that I made for 1 thousand bucks and that I was never able to finish the way I wanted it. NOW I re-finsihed it for this disc (dont worry, no CGI or fancy stuff) and I like it- I never did before- but now I do.
CRONOS has never looked so beautiful and we found dozens of photographs of the making of the device, etc
MIMIC is looking fabulous. Some of the negative had been lost but we found alternatives and are finishing the Director’s Cut. VERY HAPPY!!”
No word yet on a release date, but I’ll let you know as soon as it’s announced.
Saw VI’s October 23rd release date is less than a month away…and I wish I cared more than I do. I keep trying to muster up some enthusiasm for Jigsaw’s sixth outing but, to be honest, I’m just not that interested. It’s not like I’d prefer to go to the dentist or anything that extreme, but the Saw series’ constant onslaught of sequels and convoluted storytelling has just worn me out.
Anyway, if you’re one of the people who still get excited at the mere mention of Tobin Bell (and I know there are still lots of you out there), this is for you.
Lionsgate has opened the official Saw VI website. The site has the usual trailers, downloads, galleries, and all that jazz up and running. It also has some other things that aren’t available yet. These “coming soon” items include “bloodlines”, “Jigsaw’s Wheel of Death”, and “Become Jigsaw’s Apprentice”. Sounds like they’re games to me–so that might make it worth your while to visit the site often so you don’t miss out when those things go live.
Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist must be trying to set a record for being an art film with more poster versions than most mainstream studio flicks. Seems like every time I turn around, there’s a new one.
The latest was designed specifically for the film’s Fantastic Fest appearance. It’s a marked departure from what we’ve seen up til this point and I’m still not sure if I like it or not. The old-school book page thing is pretty cool, but I guess I’m just used to the posters that have come earlier in the film’s run. I think this one’s gonna grow on me though.
Antichrist, which stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as grieving parents who experience very bad things when they go to their cabin in the woods to mourn the death of their child, will appear (apparently edited) on IFC’s VOD service right before Halloween.
Overture Films has released the first official poster for Breck Eisner’s (this has nothing to do with the story, but every time I type “Breck Eisner” I have to double check it because my brain wants to type “Brock Lesnar” instead…Brock Lesnar directing a horror film remake might be interesting) remake of George Romero’s cult classic flick The Crazies.
Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, and Danielle Panabaker join an ensemble cast in this story of a small town gone murderously mad after a plane carrying a secret biological weapon crashes in their area and contaminates the water supply. The Romero version is very good (one of his more underrated films that gets forgotten because most people only want to talk zombies when discussing the Romero oeuvre) and I hope the remake faithful to the ideas and themes of the original.
The Crazies is set to infect theater patrons on February 26th.
If you’ve ever wondered (and god knows there have been nights where I’ve pondered this very thing…) what would happen if you crossed the period horror aesthetics of Hammer’s classic cinema with the more inventive and slapstick stylings of Sam Raimi, I’ve got the answer for you: you’d wind up with something that looks a lot like Glenn McQuaid’s I Sell the Dead.
This humorously macabre period piece captures the cheap ambience of countless Hammer flicks and deftly mixes it with the inventive camera work, bizarre characters, and ghoulish humor of Raimi’s Evil Dead films. Add in a cast filled with solid actors (and cult favorites like Angus Scrimm to appeal to the horror geek contingent) and you have the recipe for one of the more entertaining independent horror films emerge this year.
[Rec] 2 is currently making the festival rounds (it played at Toronto and has now moved on to Fantastic Fest) and Sony’s announced that they’ve acquired the rights to release it here in the States at some point. Director Jaume Balageuro isn’t resting on his laurels though–he’s still out there promoting his film.
He posted the newest still photo on his blog (which is in Spanish, or I’d tell you what he said to go along with it…). We’ve seen a lot gruesome photos from this film–I’m getting a good vibe.
The sequel picks up fifteen minutes after the end of the first film. A camera-equipped SWAT team is sent inside the quarantined building and one would assume disastrous results follow. No word on an official US premiere date, but I’ll bring it you as soon as it’s announced.
Bloody-Disgusting has some interesting news this morning about the Robert Rodriguez-produced, Nimrod Antal-directed Predators. According to people at the Horrorfind Weekend, Danny Trejo (Mr. Machete himself) is telling folks that he’s been cast in the film. No word on who Trejo will play, but this isn’t a particularly huge surprise. Trejo’s always involved with Rodriguez projects and it would probably be more newsworthy if he somehow didn’t wind up in the film.
The latest film in the franchise finds humans on the Predator world for a change. It’s slated for release next July.
The first trailer for Platinum Dunes’ remake of a Nightmare on Elm Street wasn’t supposed to be unveiled until this Friday (it’s attached to Zombieland), but the internet is a wonderful thing, so we can all see it today, several days ahead of schedule.
MySpace has the official debut, which sees Jackie Earle Haley donning the glove made famous by Robert Englund. I’d love to comment on the trailer in depth, but it’s getting hammered so hard at the moment that it runs like a slideshow every time I try to watch it. I did see that it appears as though they’ve recreated the bathtub scene from the first film.
Haley looks good as Freddy, but I’m not sold on the voice. It’s not as WTF-inducing as the first time we heard Heath Ledger as The Joker, but I’m so used to Robert Englund’s Freddy voice that this was a shock to me. I’d never even considered how a different voice would affect my perception of the character when the film was announced.
Anyway, NOES hits theaters next April. I’m sure I’ll have at least a billion stories about it between now and then.
