Film at Eleven

Richard Matheson’s classic science-fiction novel, I Am Legend has been turned into a film twice - as The Last Man on Earth in 1964 and as The Omega Man in 1971.

And now Warner Bros is doing it again, this time with Will Smith in the lead role.

Set in a post-apocalyptic USA, I Am Legend tells the tale of a lone survivor in a world infected by a virus that has turned the population into vampires. As the infected inhabitants begin to build a new society, the hero slowly realises that it is he who has become the monster.

Production is scheduled to start in the autumn.

Bill Wheeler is currently writing the script for a film adaptation of Robert Greenfield’s book Timothy Leary: A Biography for Miramax.

A former psychology professor at Harvard University, Leary went on to become a father figure for the burgeoning west coast hippie movement, championing the therapeutic value of LSD and setting up his own religion, the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. Labelled “the most dangerous man in America” by no less an authority than Richard Nixon, Leary was jailed for marijuana possession in 1970, fled to Algeria but was later captured and re-incarcerated.

Shooting for the film is expected to begin later this year, although casting has not yet been announced.

Central Park Media have announced the release date for Japanese CGI monster movie, Negadon: The Monster from Mars.

The film will be available on DVD in the US and Canada on July 11, 2006.

Freak Out, Christian James‘ camp vegetarian serial killer film will be hitting UK stores on May 29th.

And you can already pre-order it from Amazon.

German based RAW Tempel are organising a festival and are looking for fantastic short films for the first DYSTOPIA - European Fantastik Short Films Festival which is planned for summer 2006 in Berlin.

The festival is not a commercial one and is aimed, instead, at amateur filmmakers and those passionate about fantastic films.

For more information, you can contact “ju” at parasite@riseup.net

For anyone who hasn’t already done so, take a moment to check out the brand new website for Pervert!. The site has been recently redesigned and there’s a whole lot of new stuff up there.

If you like Russ Meyer, cult comedy, grindhouse gore, cheesy ’70s sexploitation, way out wild exploitation midnight drive-in movie freak outs and good old fashioned American fun, then you’ll simply love Pervert!

And it stars former CA candidate for governor Mary Carey.

International NoBudget VideoFilmfestival Weimar - Deadline 15th of May

WE want to show YOUR work!

WE = the different festival for independent filmmakers from everywhere.
This year’s motto GELD SPIELT KEINE ROLLE (~money is not an issue) is the key to our expectations of art and quality
YOU = filmmaker of narrative or documentary films, independent in mind & approach, who wants to spread his original ideas among an enthusiastic audience

Be quick and send us your work! You’ll find the entry form and more details on our homepage.

And good luck.

Guillermo del Toro, whose fantasy horror Pan’s Labyrinth will be one of the leading candidates for the Palme d’Or in Cannes next month, is putting together Chilean horror project The Call of the Sea.

Written by Jorge Olguin, who will also direct, the film is based on a legend about a ghost ship that navigates the cold waters of a mysterious Chilean island in search of the souls of local fisherman. The story centers on a marine biologist who discovers that many of the legends are related to her family’s past.

Del Toro - who will will serve as executive producer - became involved in the project after reading the screenplay and deciding that the film was an important entrant in the Latin American horror/fantasy oeuvre.

Bumba Atomika is the drink-fuelled story of four guys who discover that they can make a living selling corpses over th internet.

Serial killers, sensual necrophilous women, siamese twins, visions, partisans and continuous surreal deliriums: and their story develops towards a mad ethilic epilogue.

Bumba Atomika is the definitive movie about the (ab)use of alchoolic drinks, the final splatter of red wine.

The film, from an original screenplay by Senesi Michele is the first full length feature from PALONEROFilm.

Besides, Bumba Atomika is an independent effort to reanimate Italian contemporary cinema, dead many decades ago, trying to evocate the great past of the B-movies cinema.

And the producers have just posted a series of very psychedelic set shots from the film which give an excellent idea of what to expect in the final film.

This could be a lot of fun.

(via Twitch)

San Diego filmmaker, DJ Summitt, has been awarded a Career Development Fellowship by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and South Carolina Educational Television and will be travelling to Taipei, Taiwan in May to attend the INPUT 2006 Conference.

His second short film, Clarinet has screened in Turkey and Mexico where he was awarded Best Video at the Baja California Film Festival. His first film, the critically acclaimed Doomed to Failure was released on DVD by Troma Entertainment.

Clarinet is his first film with longtime friend Zac Hayes. The two met in high school where they began writing scripts and studying films. Hayes lives in North Carolina where he is currently working on writing the duo’s next feature film, Don Kyoto.