Fans of Stephanie Myer going to see The Hunger Games this weekend will be pleased to see the first teaser for The Host. Those of us sitting out the plight of Katniss and her Battle Royale-lite will be able to catch a glimpse of the trailer thanks to Yahoo! Movies.
The Host is the film version of Myers' post-Twilight sci-fi novel, adapted and directed by Andrew Niccol and starring Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, Jake Abel, William Hurt, Frances Fisher, and Max Irons. It will be in theaters March 29, 2013.
The teaser is clearly going for a shocking false-utopia message with a Social Network style photo montage capping it off, but, you know, with extraterrestrial implications. Listen, I don't think it's a rip off of the Social Network trailer. I think it's a rip off of the Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Social Network trailers combined, with Invasion of the Body Snatchers style aliens replacing RE's zombies for good measure.
Rip-off or not, the teaser is impressively put together (sans those cheesy photos, which lack David Fincher's sensitive touch) and the teenage girl in me is really digging the post-apocalyptic synopsis. So long as there's no sparkling vampires or shirtless werewolf hunks, I'm down.
And while you're still here, why not compare the RE: Apocalypse and The Social Network trailer with The Host's teaser and test my theory?
Hollywood Reporter has reported that Friday the 13th (2009) and Freddy Vs. Jason scribes Damian Shannon and Mark Swift have signed a deal with Paramount to write and direct a new, currently untitled horror film. The specifics of the story are being kept under pretty tight wraps, but we do know "it is known to contain a high school setting." Pacific Rimproducer Mary Parent is set to develop the property. Okay, this isn't exactly breaking news. No one's going to be scrambling to their computers to share this piece of information like a Dark Knight Rises viral trailer or Avengers action figure photo, but I think horror screenwriters, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift especially, deserve to have some noise made about their upcoming projects.
While I wasn't totally in love with some of the directions the duo took the Friday the 13th series, their love for the series permeated every inch of their screenplays, respecting the mythology of the series while also striving to address fan expectations. Whether or not they were entirely successful is a debate I leave to the forums, but these guys brought Elm Street and Friday the 13th universes together in a way that made sense (well, slasher movie sense anyway) and pulled the film up out of ten years of development hell.
Franchise fans owe these guys some serious respect, and I thoroughly look forward to their upcoming projects. Extra Tidbit: Monica Keena (above) starred in Freddy Vs. Jason and delivered most of it's cheesiest lines.
Stephen King's Salem's Lot mini sequel, "One For The Road," has received a short film adaptation by director Paul Ward and producer Tim Sullivan. Now, the film's official Facebook has announced it's acceptance at Cannes this year. The film stars Phantasm veteran Reggie Bannister.
Taken from the film's IMDB Page "One For The Road" is "... narrated in the first person by Booth, an elderly resident of a small town that neighbors Jerusalem's Lot, Maine. The main part of the story is set a couple of years after the events of 'Salem's Lot. Booth describes a winter's night years ago, when he and his friend, a bar owner named Herb Tooklander (Tookey), attempted to rescue the family of a motorist named Gerard Lumley, whose vehicle had become stranded in a ferocious blizzard. At first mildly contemptuous of Lumley for driving in such weather, both men are horrified when they realize that Lumley's vehicle is stranded in Jerusalem's Lot. It is widely known that "the Lot" has gone bad, but they still decide to drive out in a snow plough and attempt to save Lumley's family. Instead, they barely manage to save themselves from the man's wife and daughter, who have been turned into vampires..."
Every year, Stephen King options the rights to his short stories out through his dollar baby program. You can catch these at festivals or even online in some cases. Most of these adaptations don't get me too terribly excited, but "One For The Road" ranks among my favorite King stories and Lot among my favorite King novels. With the participation of the always reliable Bannister and the steady hand of Tim Sullivan overseeing production, there's no reason "Road" shouldn't rank among the greatest of King's dollar babies. Also, the score was written and performed by experimental musician (and Fangoria Editor-In-Chief) Chris Alexander, whose haunting, evocative music always elevates the indie horror films for which he contributes. Extra Tidbit: Originally published in King's Night Shift collection (along with the Salem's Lot prequel "Jerusalem's Lot") , "One For The Road" was adapted as a dollar baby in 2010, credited on Wikipedia to director Michael Floyd (there's no IMDB available) and is listed as in post-production.
After delving into historical drama with A Dangerous Method, it's good to see the father of body horror is getting back into science fiction, as shown in this teaser trailer and poster for Cosmopolis. Originally posted on the film's French Facebook page, the trailer shows us Cronenberg's return to a surrealistic form in 34 seconds of gun play, taser play, self inflicted gunshot wounds, limousine sex, giant rats, murder, and more sex.
Based on the novel by Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis posits "New York City, not-too-distant-future. Eric Packer, a 28 year-old finance golden boy dreaming of living in a civilization ahead of this one, watches a dark shadow cast over the firmament of the Wall Street galaxy, of which he is the uncontested king. As he is chauffeured across midtown Manhattan to get a haircut at his father's old barber, his anxious eyes are glued to the yuan's exchange rate: it is mounting against all expectations, destroying Eric's bet against it. Eric Packer is losing his empire with every tick of the clock. Meanwhile, an eruption of wild activity unfolds in the city's streets. Petrified as the threats of the real world infringe upon his cloud of virtual convictions, his paranoia intensifies during the course of his 24-hour cross-town odyssey. Packer starts to piece together clues that lead him to a most terrifying secret: his imminent assassination."
The film stars Twilight heart throb Robert Pattinson as the yuppie bad boy Eric, a role that will likely turn heads in how far removed it is from his iconic Edward Cullen. It may come as a surprise to some, but the guy has always been a competent thespian in my book and Cosmopolis looks like a perfect opportunity for him to show his range. Eric seems like the sort of unhinged antihero perfectly suited to Cronenberg's nihilistic brand of weird storytelling. A supporting cast including Samantha Morton, Jay Baruchel, Paul Giamatti, and and Juliette Binoche doesn't hurt matters either.
Though containing sci-fi elements, Cosmopolis doesn't appear to be a straightforward return to Cronenberg's specific brand of body horror. It does seem to be in line with the psychologically driven character pieces he's gained mainstream adulation for. That's fine with me, as films like A History of Violence and Eastern Promises tend to cover the same dramatic territory as The Fly or Videodrome-- they are all about characters being destroyed from within to macabre results, with or without tons of prosthetics and buckets of goo.
Body horror, psyche horror-- it's all gravy when David Cronenberg's involved.If Cosmopolis ishalf as crazy, inventive and disturbing as it looks, then it should leave all audiences satisfied.
The film opens May 23rd in France. There is no release date for the U.S., U.K., or Canada announced. Check out the official site here for more information, stills, and a higher quality version of the trailer.
Extra Tidbit: Samantha Morton played a Marilyn Monroe impersonator in Mister Lonely (2007) as seen above.
Variety has reported Dr. Dre (aka Andre Young), rapper, music producer and CEO of Aftermath Records, will be producing the upcoming horror thriller Thaw.The film is being developed under the banner of Dre's Crucial Films company and is based off a story by partner Daniel Schnider. Screenwriter Vik Weet will be writing the film, which is about "an ancient evil that emerges from the rapidly melting ice in the Yukon."
If made, Thaw will be Dre's first film producing credit since the 2001 comedy The Wash, in which he also starred. Otherwise, Dre's filmmaking experiences have been limited to directing music videos (including N.W.A.'s "Bitch Please") and grabbing supporting roles in movies like Training Day and Set It Off.
Dre has a reputation as a music studio perfectionist, a method that often generates epic results but extremely prolonged waiting. Case in point-- his upcoming album The Detox, has been in the making since 2001. That's eleven years, kids. Not quite Chinese Democracy, but damn close.
We'll have to wait and see whether or not this mentality will delay production on Thaw, but keep in mindDre's company signed a first look-deal with New Line back in 2007. That was one year before New Line was consolidated into Warner Bros, but still-- that's five years without a movie released. Playing devil's advocate, this careful consideration, however overboard it may seem, also means Dre isn't producing stuff like Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror. (We don't love them celluloid hoes, Snoop. No one does.)
Meanwhile, screenwriter Vik Weet is having another horror script about the Dyatlov Pass incident fast tracked by Renny Harlin. That film, still untitled, is about "a mysterious incident in 1959, when nine experienced hikers were found dead." As last updated, shooting was set to start this March. If all this comes to pass, 2012 should be a big year for Vik Weet.
And hey, remember Ben Folds' cover of "Bitches Ain't Shit"? I bet Dre does.
Extra Tidbit: Y'all motherfuckers act like you forgot about Folds.
News has broken that British filmmaker Robert Fuest has passed away at the age of 84. Fuest, best known as the director The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again, was active in the film and television industry until 1990.
After a stint in the Royal Air Force, Fuest would try his hand as an artist, teacher, and copywriter before becoming an art director on the 1961 spy series The Avengers. He would later parlay his position into feature filmmaking with Just Like A Woman in 1967. The opportunity to direct several episodes of the The Avengers followed in 1968. Fuest would step into the horror genre by partnering with Avengers producers Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell to make the paranoid 1970 classic And Soon The Darkness. A cult item of its kind, the film is arguably the first in a subgenre of backwoods horror films that remained popular throughout the decade. The same year, Fuest would tackle an adaptation of Emily Bronte's gothic romance Wurthering Heights, an AIP production starring a very young Timothy Dalton. That production would be labeled a box office dud, but would go on to earn compose Michel Legrand a Golden Globe nomination for best score.
The director would return to genre in 1971 with The Abominable Dr. Phibes, a classic of surrealist horror. In it, the titular Dr. Anton Phibes (Vincent Price) would take revenge on a group of doctors he believes let his wife die following a devastating car accident. With murder plans inspired by the ten plagues of Egypt, Phibes bumps them off in elaborate, agonizing set-pieces. Phibes and it's sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) have been celebrated for their opulent art deco set designs, black sense of humor, and eye popping use of color. Of Fuest's brief filmography, these are his most celebrated films, influencing Price's own follow-up, Theatre of Blood, as well as the wildly popular Saw series (for more information, see the video review by James Rolfe, below). Fuest would follow Dr. Phibes Rises Again with The Last Days of Man on Earth in 1973, a film which he also wrote and directed for a very low budget. Following its lackluster reception, he would tackle The Devil's Rain, a film noteworthy among movie fans for its eclectic cast (William Shatner, John Travolta, Ernest Borgnine), hammy dialogue, bizarre occult storyline, and wildly over the top, face melting, church exploding ending. While a disappointment, the film's trademark Fuest-ian sets and style combined with a wacked-out screenplay makes it among the most celebrated "so-bad-they're-good" films of all time. Sadly, Fuest would cap his film career off with Aphrodite, a softcore porn film. The director would spend the remainder of the 1980s directing television, including the made-for-TV Return of the Stepford Wives. In a cyclical fashion, he would come back to the source material that gave him his start by directing The New Avengers before bowing out of the business in the 1990s.
Despite a relatively small filmography, Fuest's legacy has been secured among science fiction and horror lovers the world over. Our deepest condolences go out to his friends, family, and associates. May he rest in peace.
Extra Tidbit: Hammer horror starlet Caroline Munro (Captain Cronos: Vampire Hunter, below) makes an uncredited appearance as Phibes' wife in The Abominable Dr. Phibes.
Bloody-Disgusting learned that Robert Hall and his effects studio Almost Human, Inc. will be providing make-up and visual effects for William Brent Bell's mock-doc horror film Wer.
The film, written by Bell and producer Matthew Peterman, focuses on a criminal suspect transforming into a werewolf while inside a police station.
Hall, best known to film fans as the writer/director of the Laid To Rest franchise, has become a major proponent of marrying computer and make-up effects in creating his special brand of movie magic. Wer will continue his movement in this direction: "I've been trying to achieve the perfect balance of digital and practical on my films for years and so many folks have taken notice that we just cant keep it to ourselves anymore...it's growing, and making the company stronger."
Regarding Wer, Hall is excited about the effects opportunity the film will afford for Almost Human, Inc. "I've done several movies with [producer] Steven Schneider and I really loved the script for Wer. Matt, Brian and Morris [Paulson, producer] really know what they want and are not afraid to collaborate. I'm very excited about what we're making together on this picture."
Wer will be William Brent Bell's follow-up to The Devil Inside, a film already considered to be one of the worst of the year by fans and critics alike, sporting a whopping 7% on Rotten Tomatoes and 3.6 rating on IMDB. Before that, the duo collaborated on Stay Alive, a generic teen slasher that flopped in the box office and didn't exactly gain fan adoration, either.Wer sounds like a potentially fun ride, but given Bell/Peterman's creative output to date, I don't hold out a lot of hope.
Then again, I also wasn't floored by Hall'sLaid To Rest, a film which many of my gore geek contemporaries can't stop gushing over (pun intended). Regardless of my opinions of Hall as a filmmaker, it cannot be disputed that he is an amazing effects master who's contributed creature and gore effects to many highly regarded films and television shows. Should we trust his judgement on this one, or is this going to be another case of great effects, horrible movie?
Extra Tidbit: Bobbi Sue Luther (above, also Hall's ex-wife) starred in Laid To Rest.
Fans of Stephanie Myer going to see The Hunger Games this weekend will be pleased to see the first teaser for The Host. Those of us sitting out the plight of Katniss and her Battle Royale-lite will be able to catch a glimpse of the trailer thanks to Yahoo! Movies. 
