Film at Eleven

ComingSoon.net (via) reports that British director David Slade has been hired by Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures to helm the adaptation of the Steve Niles-Ben Templesmith horror comic 30 Days Of Night.

ComingSoon.net spoke to Slade about his vision for the film, which starts shooting in the summer in Alaska and New Zealand. “Brian Nelson’s writing the script, so that means we have a very original take on the genre,” he said. “Indeed, I don’t believe there’s much of the genre left in what we’ve written, but it’s very faithful both to Steve Niles’ writing, and the town and the esthetic–we hope at this point, because we’re not shooting until the summer–will be very close to Ben Templesmith’s artwork. But we’re going to maintain the level of realism.”

According to FilmRot, “Terminator-hater” Michael Biehn will be joining the live humans in Robert Rodriguez Project Terror segment of Grind House, the exploitation double feature that he and Quentin Tarantino are making.

Due for a December 1st release, Tarantino and Rodriguez will each direct a 75-minute horror film with fake movie trailers between the films. Project Terror will be a zombie film, while Tarantino’s section, Death Proof, will be a slasher film.

According to FilmRot, yet another director has been attached to the much discussed, never realised adaptation of Alan Moore’s Watchmen.

Step forward Zack Snyder who brought us the admittedly entertaining Dawn of the Dead remake and who is currently working on bringing Frank Miller’s 300 to the big screen.

AICN quotes Snyder as saying:

If I screw up 300, that would be heartbreaking, but ultimately, it’s not as well known a property. If you get WATCHMEN wrong… well…

Sounds like he’s approaching the film with the right degree of respect. Hopefully, if this is confirmed, this attitude will be reflected on the big screen.

Twitch reports that Belgian director Eric Van Looy, whose Der Zaak Alzheimer made quite a splash a couple of years ago, is heading to Hollywood.

The film, titled “Dream House,” is currently in the development stages. The story follows the oft-used concept of a family moving into a ‘perfect’ country house where strange things begin to happen. We will just have to wait and see if some stylistic Belgian flair can put Van Looy in the rare category of Hollywood directors working in the system, but still turning out pictures with personal style.

We live in hope.

The Hollywood Reporter (via) reveals that Completion Films have picked up Razorwire by newcomer Rob Davis, and attached music video director Little X to helm the urban horror movie.

The script centers on a group of small-time drug dealers who discover that vampires, who also happen to be cops, have been feeding on the disadvantaged people in the ghetto. When the vampire cops start framing them for the murders, the dealers go to war with their new immortal enemies.

Well, it has to be better than the other film about a vampire cop.

True/False West is pleased to announce that Doug Hawes-Davis and Drury Gunn Carr will receive its first annual True/West Visionary award, given to a filmmaker(s) that has placed an indelible mark on the world of documentary filmmaking. Doug Hawes-Davis and Drury Gunn Carr founded High Plains Films in 1992, and have produced and distributed their own non-fiction films for more than a decade. They have co-directed or co-produced, and edited more than twenty films, including features such as Varmints (1998), This is Nowhere (2002), and Libby, Montana (2004).

Their documentaries, which have been screened around the world and have won more than 40 awards, are intended to increase viewers’ understanding of the relationship between human society and the natural world. In addition, Hawes-Davis founded the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in 2003. He is also a faculty affiliate with the University of Montana.

Doug Hawes-Davis will appear throughout the True/False West Film Festival, presenting a selection of their films, including their most recent feature, Libby, Montana (2004).

With the 13th Dead by Dawn fast approaching, the programme is mutating rather nicely and has some seriously unpleasant treats in store.

With the features, they have the world Premiere of Blood Trails - the first ever mountain bike stalker movie. And some of the cast and crew will be on hand to answer for themselves.

There is also Adam Mason’s stunning indie feature Broken - the story of a mentalist survivalist who seems to play by rules that mean only he can win.

In The Last Supper a charming Japanese plastic surgeon revered on daytime telly for being domesticated, good-looking and a damn fine cook turns out to be a hungry little freak. It’s never a good sign when your date has a lockable fridge in his kitchen and girls, it’s really not good news when he says he wants to eat you…

In Haze, Shinya Tsukamoto gets claustrophobic in a big way. Prepare to squirm.

In Severed, a bunch of tree-hugging hippies get it in the neck as the highly toxic, illegal and unnatural chemical experiments of an unethical logging company somehow somehow turns everyone into slavering, flesh-craving zombies. Soon the woods are full of the undead, and what do loggers have lots of? Chainsaws!

The classics programme includes Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, and the welcome return of a little seen movie Grim Prarie Tales starring Brad Dourif and James Earl Jones.

The shorts programme goes from strength to strength too. As ever there’s the Cutting Edge short film competition for debut and emerging film-makers, there’s the main shorts programme and, after the success of last year’s selection, the What You Make It programme returns too. This year so far it includes a mother to make you realise your parents ain’t so bad after all, a WWII game of cat and mouse and a tale of a bogeyman so bad that even keeping your socks on won’t help you make it through the night.

Amongst the other shorts are the quickest protruding-jaw reduction imaginable, a disgruntled Welsh turkey-impregnator with a power tool, self-inflicted cruelty, psychological torture, yet more claustrophobic nightmares and a yogi in a blender. And there’ll be so much more, too!

Dead by Dawn - Scotland’s International Horror Film Festival
- runs from 20th to 23rd April in Edinburgh.

Central Park Media and Ithaca College are to present a joint academic screening of CPM’s forthcoming computer-generated monster movie Negadon: The Monster From Mars on Friday, March 24 at 7:30 PM in Room 138 of Ithaca’s Roy H. Park School of Communications in Ithaca, New York. It is free and open to the public.

The screening will be followed by a discussion led by Ithaca College Professor and Filmmaker Simon Tarr and Ithaca Alum and Central Park Media Assistant Marketing Manager Peter Tatara.

The all new Sepia Films website was launched last week. You can check it out here.

Pervert is coming! The film will celebrate its North American Film Festival Premiere at Midnight on Saturday March 25th with the Silver Lake Film Festival at the beautiful Arclight Cinema in Hollywood.

For those of you not familiar with the movie, the Silverlake Fest website describes it as follows:

Made as an homage and update of Russ Meyer’s classic filmmaking, Pervert! is a shocking tale of scintillating scandal that unfolds around a college student who spends the summer at his father’s remote desert ranch in hopes of repairing their estranged relationship. When the eccentric rancher’s young girlfriend is murdered, the son suspects his father has become dangerously psychotic, but he begins to doubt his initial suspicions after a series of unexplainable incidents that point elsewhere. Who is the Pervert? This modern cult classic is a retro-hip comedy sexploitation flick made to push the envelope of outrageous fun.

The aim of the people behind Pervert! was to create a modern ‘cult classic’ and reignite the Midnight Movie. And it does look like they’re achieving some success.

The film will celebrate its theatrical and DVD release on April 7th and will be playing at midnight every Friday and Saturday at Laemmles Sunset 5 Cinema throughout April.

The Pervert! Premier Edition DVD along with the original motion picture soundtrack will be available exclusively from the film’s website from April 7th.