1.  What is Dawn of the Dreadfuls?

It’s the prequel to Quirk Classics’ Jane Austen mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  And it’s very, very funny.

2.  I probably need to read that book first to enjoy it, right?

Not at all.  I didn’t, and I could completely enjoy and follow Dawn of the Dreadfuls on its own.  Probably because author Steve Hockensmith is most likely insane.

3.  Should I at least read Pride and Prejudice beforehand?

Nope, you don’t have to.  I’ve only seen the Kiera Knightley movie, and I have no intention of visiting the original novel.  I’m sure the little bit of knowledge I gained from watching the film probably helped some, but I think all it really did was let me put Donald Sutherland’s face on Mr. Bennett in every hilarious scene.

4.  What’s it about?

The delightful Bennett girls are forced to put aside their ladylike, oh-so-very-British ways and kick major zombie ass.  If that’s not enough for you, it’s got kung fu and romance.  And if that’s still not enough for you, it’s got pictures (by illustrator Patrick Arrasmith).  You sure are picky.  Want a quick pitch?  Imagine Shawn of the Dead set 200 years ago and infused with an irreverent, spot-on lampooning of Georgian-era Girl Power.

5.  That sounds pretty awesome, actually.  How can I find out more about Quirk’s books?

Go to their website!  Dawn of the Dreadfuls hits stores on March 23, 2010, but they’re currently building an entire library of literary monster-mashes that would make your English Lit teacher weep.  With joy.

6.  Will you give me your copy?

Hell, no.  But if you just click here and tell them you saw it on Horror’s Not Dead, you’re automatically entered to win one of fifty Quirk Classics prize packages, which includes…

• An advance copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:  Dawn of the Dreadfuls
• Audio books for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as well as Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters
• Exclusive access to sample audio chapters from Dawn of the Dreadfuls
• An awesome Dawn of the Dreadfuls poster
• A Pride and Prejudice and Zombies journal
• A boxed set of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies postcards

Now, hurry!  The contest ends on March 10. 2010.  All you have to do is click here to enter!

• SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD – Red Band trailer.
• AFTER.LIFE – Liam Neeson hold’s Christina Ricci’s ghost hostage.

Studio News and Attachments

• SPLICE – Warner Brother’s Dark Castle division will be putting out Vincenzo Natali’s well-buzzed sci-fi/horror hybrid SPLICE this June with a few alterations in place from its last screening at Sundance.
• THE DARKEST HOUR – Timur Bekmambetov is producing an alien invasion flick for RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR director Chris Gorak to be shot in Russia but released in the US by Summit.
• ALIEN PREQUEL – Guess how many dimensions the Ridley Scott-directed prequel (which is likely the first part of a new trilogy) is going to be shot in.
• ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER – Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov will be producing an adaptation of the just-published novel by Seth Grahamme-Smith.

Remakes

• PET SEMATARY – Matthew Greenberg, the writer behind 1408, has been hired to pen the remake/readaptation of Stephen King’s classic.

Indie, Foreign and Random News

• THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER – Marcus Nispel is off the Dracula-at-sea project, replaced by COUNTERFEITERS director Stefan Ruzowitzky.
• SOLOMON KANE – Producers of Michael J. Bassett’s solid bit of dark fantasy are hoping to use the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY “Demand it!” ideology.  Not sure it’s going to work, but the movie is worth the 40 seconds it’ll take you to fill it out for your city.
• THE CHILD’S EYE – The Pang Brothers are doing a fourth entry in their popular EYE series.  Curious considering the first entry was, for a good while, my favorite Asian horror movie.
• [REC] 2 – Since Sony has shown no plans of releasing it in the States any time soon, your best bet for (legally) seeing [REC] 2 is one of these import DVDs/Blu-rays.
• THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO POND – Poster and city list for its theatrical run.

Non-Theatrical Trailers and Clips

• WOMB GHOSTS – Yes, WOMB GHOSTS.  Well played, Asia.
• THE BUNNY GAME – Clips
• THE POSSESSION OF DAVID O’REILLY – ParaBritishNormal Activity.
• A CADAVER CHRISTMAS – Trailer.
• IN THEIR SLEEP – From the producers of FRONTIERE(S).
• KURT JOSEF WAGLE AND THE LEGEND OF THE FJORD WITCH – A cinema verite spoof from the director of DEAD SNOW will have a form of smell-o-vision.

Well, if you read my review of it you should know by now that was not the case.  I loved it quite a bit, which certainly talking to the man behind it hell of a lot easier to do.  Enjoy.  (And if you haven’t seen THE CRAZIES yet, there’s no real spoilers here, but you might as well go see it first before reading because, well, just go see the movie; it deserves it.)

Nice to meet you.

You too, Peter.  Thanks for the time.

No problem.  I’m actually doing this interview for a site called HorrorsNotDead.com

[Laughs] Spread the word, man. Spread the word.

That was actually sort of the crux of my review, that if horror fans don’t turn out opening weekend for something this good, they’re part of the problem.

I know, I know, let’s get them there. Horror is just inherently smaller movies. You get a Shutter Island every once and a while – whether that’s really horror or not is debatable – but we don’t get the high profile movies so much, and so when they’re not high profile you don’t get the spending budgets in advertising. We’re out spent in all the other movies a hundred times, and so we’re trying to create this grassroots, online way and hopefully people come to support it.

Do you think it worked? Did you like the campaign?

I’ll let you know if worked tomorrow, or Sunday. But yes, I think they did an awesome job. There have been a lot of events, a lot of screenings under the radar, a lot of online presence. Some good ads, some good trailers…

How involved are you with the cutting of the trailers?

They do it. They have a really strong department and send them to me and ask me what I think, sometimes they listen, sometimes they don’t. You know, sometimes I say “You shouldn’t put in that shot, it gives away too much” and they’ll say “yeah…we hear you and we’ll see.” And that means “No, fuck you.” [laughs] But no, they’re great. They know what they’re doing better than I do in that area. Hopefully it worked out.

Do you think there’s anything particular about Romero’s films or horror from the ’70s in general that is ripe for remaking and improving?

It all depends on the movie. Let’s take Romero first…this movie in specific, because I hadn’t thought of remaking any of his others, I thought was really ripe for remaking. First of all, Romero owned the rights. He sold the rights, he made the decision about it being remade. That alone was a big step for me. But more importantly than that, it was a movie I remembered that i liked that had relevance in the day and has real relevance today as well.

I mean, in this post-9/11, post-Iraq world that we live in, we should be getting a big gut check on the openness of the government, the use of the military and the movie is definitely commenting on that. Any of Romero’s early works have in their DNA social commentary and I think I wanted to maintain some of that while at the same time making a movie a broad audience will want to go see because it’s fun, it’s scary, it’s active.

That’s actually one of the things I found to be the lingering scare in the movie; the concept of this all-seeing eye that threatens to go beyond containment.

That’s one of the big differences between ‘73 and now. In ‘73 the ever present eye in the sky, the ability to track and contain a place was not in existence the way it is now. And when I was thinking of the containment in this movie, I was thinking about Iran and all the protest that existed there. And if an entire government is able to almost completely shut off communication to that, you think “Okay, it’s our country, we’re vastly technologically superior…it’s one small town, imagine what they could do if they really needed to cut if off.” It’s intense.

Did you have any consultancy on that front? Actual containment protocols and what not?

No, we had no consultancy with the government; we knew we wouldn’t get that support. We did have consultancy with the CDC, we had a lot of discussions about the disease itself, how it would be created, the containment protocol. I did a lot of research on what the people would be wearing, the different type of MOP4 military suits and other containment / biological control suits. So there was a lot of research going into that.

How did you come to the project to begin with?

I was approached by Michael Aguilar and Dean Georgaris who were the producing team. They’d gotten the rights from Romero himself, they had a first draft with Scott Kosar. I was approached about it, shown the draft. I liked the draft, liked the source material obviously. I had a different point-of-view on it than they had done in that draft. That’s when we hired Ray Wright and got this draft, which is what we shot.

Didn’t Kosar’s draft have a lot more military involved?

Yeah, and that’s what the studio wanted at the time. I think they wanted more of a Bourne Identity kind of movie, which felt like absolutely the wrong movie to me to do. It was a good script though, it just had a major element that I just wasn’t into.

So there was no hold up on the producer’s end that you had no horror experience beyond your “Fear Itself” episode?

No, I hadn’t even done “Fear Itself” at that point. This was over three years ago. I think originally because it was going the Bourne kind of way that’s why I came in and then I pitched as a much more horror, more streamlined, smaller movie. And they really liked the pitch so that’s how I got the movie.

And then I had the ability to do “Fear Itself”. For me it was a good…I wanted to do it as a warm-up, to flex some of those muscles before I got on the floor for this one.

Do you plan on going back to any TV work?

I like pilots, I enjoy doing pilots. For the right pilot I’d certainly do it, depending on how my schedule worked out.

I’m just curious, do you know if there are any US release plans for Thoughtcrimes?

No and it’s a bummer. You know, obviously Thoughtcrimes was a two-hour backdoor at USA. It was the highest rated show in the history of USA when we did the testing and the just before they were making a decision USA got sold to NBC and NBC scrapped all the material. I was so bummed, that could have been a really good show, I think.

What do you think of the current slate of horror remakes? And what did you specifically say “I’m not going to do this…” in order for The Crazies to stand out?

I wanted to make a movie that isn’t just a commercial movie. I think a lot of the horror remakes hit all the right buttons of “How do we make money?” We have the hot girl, we have the sex. We have this kind of character and here’s the silly guy and here’s the cool guy and here’s the urban guy and we’ll just kill ‘em off one by one by a formula. And by the way, those movies seem to make a lot of money opening weekend, but for me it wasn’t about that. I didn’t want to make a movie that was being made just because of the name recognition.

That’s the mistake of remakes. That’s why there’s this kickback, understandably, from people who say “You’re just making movies to exploit the title.” And in a way, The Crazies is a terrible title. If there was no original The Crazies and we named this The Crazies, well, that’d be Crazy. It’s not like the title is very well known and it’s helping sell the movie. It’s not Friday the 13th or Halloween, so I wanted to make a movie that stood on its own and was just a good movie.

Was there any push back, then, from the producers to originally head in that direction?

We discussed the title a million times. Everyone wondered if we should change the title, if we should change this or that and we went back and forth, back and forth. In the end, I think rightfully so, they went “It’s a weird title, but it’s a good title. Let’s keep it.”

One of the things I really liked about it was how restrained the gore was, how it wasn’t slaptastic or jokey. But then there’s also these outstanding set pieces like the knife and the car wash and I’m wondering if there was anything you self-censored? Anything you thought people wouldn’t buy because it didn’t fit the tone?

Oh, yeah. My self-censorship is only based on what I wanted to see. There’s a pretty horrific idea in the movie, and I don’t want to give away stuff, but there’s a horrific idea in the movie with the character that’s the father and there’s this “What’s dad doing?” moment. The results of that could be really disturbing in a bad way if it were shown too much. So I inferred more and decided to show less on that. Whereas other times you may have seen it a bit more graphically, so that was one place where I self-censored.

But at the same time, I didn’t want to hold any punches. There were times I wanted the movie to go for it, whether it was a bone saw or a pitchfork, or a hand or a knife. It’s a careful balance to thread and we were kind of threading the eye of the needle.

Were there any nods to the original that fans might not have seen beyond the bike lady and the whistling of the song?

Yeah, yeah. I’ve got to remember now… I’m glad you caught the whistling of the song, nobody yet has mentioned that to me. There’s a nod in the very beginning; I’m a massive Kubrick fan. I think the greatest horror movie ever made was The Shining, for me. I just love Kubrick, so there’s a little bit of a nod to Dr. Strangelove at the beginning of the movie. Nobody has picked it up yet and that drives me crazy. It’s a musical nod, let’s put it that way.

And there are a few little things in there. Another audio nod, and a couple other Romero winks, but I want people to discover them in the movie. There’s also some hidden code in the movie that no one has found yet, so I’m hoping they’ll find ‘em.

Well I’m definitely going to see it again, so I’ll keep an eye out.

Yeah, check carefully the graphics in the movie. There’s some stuff there that you can link back to online and figure out.

For those who haven’t seen the original 1973 film, THE CRAZIES is about a small town held under brutal government quarantine after a plane carrying an insanity-inducing, water-born virus crashes into the county water supply.  That’s it, really.  Whereas the original film was a jumbled-up mishmash of an outbreak film that was as much about a few town folk as it was the govies’ inept handling of the situation, this new evolution of THE CRAZIES has abandoned the latter part wholesale.  Instead, it focuses entirely on the town Sheriff (Timothy Olyphant), his wife (Radha Mitchell), his deputy (Joe Anderson) and his wife’s co-worker (Danielle Panabaker) as they try to survive the arrival of this colossal government fluster cluck.

Not only do they have to contend with a ‘contain at all costs’ military presence, but the rest of the townies pose an even more lethal threat.  The virus, which carries over the original film’s codename of Trixie, has the effect of transforming the infected into hideous killers swarming with varicose veins.  They’re not mindless, though.  Depending on the stage and severity of incubation, the Crazies can still talk and plot, they’re just crippled by poor impulse control.  That last bit makes for an exciting and fresh variant of dread we don’t see often in Hollywood horror: human in thought, zombie in action.

That loss of control is the theme that runs throughout the film thanks to a script from Scott Kosar (THE MACHINST) and Ray Wright (CASE 39) that may just be the best horror remake script to reach production since the ’80s.  What makes it so outstanding isn’t how drastic of an improvement it is over Romero’s original, though that obviously doesn’t hurt, but how respectful it is of the audience’s intelligence.  There are zero cringe-inducing moments of, “Now why would anyone do that?” going on.  Every character has been written from the ground up to propel the storytelling through justifiable action and not clawing exposition.  We learn the mysteries of Trixie as the characters uncover them along their way out of Ogden Marsh, and the characters only ever come across the information organically; which is to say never does the script enter the standard issue “here’s where we explain everything” phase.

As strong as the script is, however, it would fall on deaf ears were it not for the cast, all of whom warrant serious investment from the audience.  No one ever appears above the material, instead each actor plays their role with the straightest of faces.  That may seem an odd compliment as that’s kind of their entire job, but it’s worth mentioning considering how easy it is to imagine other actors not giving their all to ‘just another horror movie remake’.  The chemistry between Olyphant and Mitchell makes for such a natural, genuine marital bond that when Olyphant tells a fellow detainee pleading for him to not rock the boat, “How about you don’t ask why I’m going back for my wife and I won’t ask why you aren’t,” you feel the considerable brunt of his determination all the more.

And as much as I am a fan of their work together, my hat is off to Joe Anderson as the scene stealing deputy.  I can’t stress enough how impressive Anderson is here.  His work in THE RUINS proved he has what it takes to sell emotion no matter the material, while his work in THE CRAZIES proves what he can do when a script keeps him walking and talking past the first reel.  He bestows the role of Olyphant’s loyal deputy with a protective edge I can’t quite place my finger on, but suffice it to say, no matter what kind of success this film ends up finding, Anderson possess the rare talent that allows an actor to vanish entirely into a role; a talent that almost always leads to becoming a household name.

But not only does THE CRAZIES have a smart script and an adept cast, it also announces the arrival of a great genre director.  I know Breck Eisner has been on the scene for a while now, but as enjoyable-in-a-fluffy-way SAHARA was, I’ve seen nothing from Eisner that screamed he’d be the right match for this material.  His “FEAR ITSELF” episode didn’t exactly help expectations for THE CRAZIES either, yet here we are with one of those rare, dime a decade remakes that just hums with quiet efficiency.  The plot of THE CRAZIES may be simple in description, but that’s not to say it lacks complexity.  In turn, Eisner was able to balance the delicate character work with the requisite quotients of gore and spectacle one expects from a studio horror movie.  I’ll not get into specifics so as to avoid spoilers, but there are three big sequences here that are guaranteed to get the audience squirming and buzzing in all the right ways.  And that’s not to mention the myriad of smaller gags, thrills, and earned (but not cheap) jump scares that contribute to the consistent aura of doom that hangs throughout.

THE CRAZIES is the kind of horror movie that just sneaks up on people.  Even though I’ve sung its praises quite strongly here, I wager you’ll still be surprised by how uniformly good it is.  Even as you read these words, I bet you’re thinking, “Nah, it can’t be all dead on, can it?”  Well, it can.  I’m honestly having a hard time finding anything all that negative to say about the whole production.  THE CRAZIES is just fantastic; a kind of mini-wonder that doesn’t come along all that often.  Please see this movie, good horror is too rare to neglect at the box office.

This isn’t so much a review as it is a discussion of the film watching process.  You’ve been warned.

SHUTTER ISLAND is maddeningly brilliant and the maddening part isn’t the film’s fault at all.  We as viewers have grown accustomed to a certain breed of film from Hollywood whenever the words “psychological thriller” can be appended to a film’s description.  Anyone who watches even a normal amount of movies and is over the age of, say, 16, should have a sixth sense for plot twists by now and can become bored when a film’s big revelation is as painfully clear as it is slow to arrive.  When a film focuses on a Federal Marshall (Leonardo DiCaprio) sent to investigate the inexplicable disappearance of a patient at a mental institution for the criminally insane and the increasingly (and rapidly) bizarre behavior and hallucinations that surround him, you begin to concoct a certain conclusion in the back of your brain.

As the Marshall’s investigation begins to waver even further under mysterious influence it becomes abundantly clear what direction the film is taking.  Normally this would be fine, but such telegraphing becomes undeniable around the 45 minute mark.  In fact, the film’s end game becomes so clear at this point, that I was ready to mentally check out of the film.  Then Laeta Kalogridis‘ screenplay (adapted from Dennis Lehane’s novel) introduces a hypothetical that completely rejuvenates the film.  It hits like a cold shower, jolting the viewer back into the intrigue of the Marshall’s undertaking.  But unfortunately this awakening doesn’t last long and the film falls back in line with its telegraphed agenda.

What’s so maddening about that is that what’s being telegraphed is indeed brilliant.  The last twenty or so minutes of SHUTTER ISLAND aren’t just masterful, they’re downright immaculate.  The fact that you saw the revelation is rendered inconsequential by the tragic beauty of it all.  You’ll want to take the trip back to Shutter Island again.  You’ll want to play detective along with DiCaprio all over again.  You’ll want to be ushered through the haunting corridors of the Ashcliffe insane asylum by Robert Richardson’s hypnotic cinematography and Robbie Robertson’s nerve jangling score (which was not actually written originally for the film, but is an assemblage of classical pieces into a sort of Frankenstein score that takes on a dark beauty all its own).

No matter how triumphant the ending is, however, I can’t forget that I began checking my watch a third of the way through.  And that sucks.  It really does.  Instead of falling head over heels for SHUTTER ISLAND, as I’m quite sure I will with subsequent viewings, I’m always going to have that caveat; that part of me that remembers how annoyed I was that the film was beyond predictable an hour into it.  Not to mention how stung I was that the diversion it takes midway through (which would have made for an equally fascinating and even more disturbing outcome) ended up being a red herring.

And again, it’s not the movie’s fault, it’s just how I’m, unfortunately, wired to watch movies these days.  I lose interest in a film when I begin to think the filmmaker thinks I’m an idiot.  When it comes to SHUTTER ISLAND, though, I am an idiot.  I’m the chump that assumed that Kalogridis script, which is quite genius in retrospect, and Scorsese’s guidance of it were trying to be coy and failing when the truth is the reality is corrupted on so many different levels in the mind’s eye of SHUTTER ISLAND that I refused to accept it; I stayed vigilante (and thus ignorant) in my pursuit to figure it all out.  I, like DiCaprio’s character, lacked the perspective to see how truly organic it all is.

And that’s the problem.  THE WOLFMAN needs to be complicated.  There needs to be torment behind those eyes in order for the audience to fear the full moon as much as Talbot does should.  Yet this iteration has no such concerns.  In fact, it’s not so much a creature feature as it is a zombie film.  Johnston and company lurch mindlessly from one obvious plot point to the next as though the whole film were operating on muscle memory and the vague knowledge that at one point in its life it had a higher purpose.  And low the purpose fell, the sets and makeup remained, so all involved went through the motions to deliver a horror movie that is entertaining in spurts but largely forgettable.

Universal’s resurrection of its classic monster is riddled with obvious holes in which to insert blame, but its troubled production is hardly the excuse here.  Even if original director Mark Romanek had stayed on board, audiences would still have Benecio Del Toro, who is about as energetic as a pamphlet on lycanthropy.  It’s astounding how uninvolved his performance is considering his love for the 1941 WOLF MAN is what got the project up and running in the first place.  He exerts zero charisma throughout his non-wolf sequences, in turn giving the audience zero emotional interest in seeing him overcome the monstrous Gypsy curse.

This version of Lawrence Talbot doesn’t want to be a werewolf, obviously, but Del Toro’s level of inner turmoil is on par with getting into a fender bender when late for a meeting.  We should be feeling for this man, we should fear his actions when he succumbs to the wolf, but considering the whole ordeal is expressed as little more than an inconvenience for Talbot, there’s never any gravity attached to his actions.

It’s all set off by a listless chain of events that sublimate the anguish of Talbot for buckets of blood and bodily dismemberment.  And for those who are only interested in seeing a few sequences that give Platinum Dunes’ productions a run for their money, that’s okay.  I’m sure there are plenty of people that will be willing to forgive hollow performances and rushed editing (no doubt spurred along by studio intervention) in exchange for some genuinely badass moments of arterial spray, but even a cynic like me thinks most genuine horror fans aren’t so superficially pleased.

However, those who expect pesky things like character development and thrills that aren’t predicated by a clashing orchestra or a barking dog — if I ever see THE WOLFMAN again, it’ll be to count just how many jump scares it foolishly employs; I might need a calculator — will come away sated but not satisfied.  It’s not a dreadful experience, mind you.  The production design is a treat, particularly during the asylum sequence, Hugo Weaving as the detective investigating Talbot is a refreshing antidote to the infectious lethargy that is Del Toro, and even the dreaded CGI transformations are adequately convincing.  But once it’s all said and done, once you’ve carried the one on how many loud jolts Johsnton tries to throw at the audience (his ideal candidate must not go to horror movies often) versus how great it is to see practical make-up work from Rick Baker again, THE WOLFMAN about breaks even.

But breaking even just isn’t good enough, now is it?  Part of me wishes it at least committed to one side or the other, that it would either be a complete disaster or an underdog triumph.  But it’s neither.  THE WOLFMAN is just there, lurking in the shadows like its eponymous creature, waiting not to convert, but to occupy your time with a bit of “Have you ever seen Victorian England this gory?” logic.  At least the breathless, blood-lubricated pace means the run time races by.

The French Canadian film had its world premiere last week at the Sundance Film Festival and starting today it will be available via the Sundance Selects program across a number of cable provider’s OnDemand platforms. And while saying 7 Days got under the skin of a hardened horror movie fan sounds like the highest of compliments, I hesitate to consider that grounds for recommendation. Yes, it is difficult to watch. Yes, it is disturbing. Yes, it is made with the utmost craft. Yet I feel it prudent to point out that, while those are qualities we all can agree define a good horror movie, this is absolutely a film not for everyone.

On the surface, it’s the story of a doctor who uses a cabin in the woods to methodically exact revenge on the man the police have accused of raping and murdering his eight-year old daughter. But beyond the torture is a harrowing journey into what happens to otherwise healthy relationships when they’re sundered by the unimaginable. This isn’t a tale of revenge in the Death Sentence tradition. This is an unflinching magnifying glass on what it means to lose everything. It spends as much time lingering on the physical torture as it does the mental; a combination that often times becomes almost unbearable to watch.

Read the rest of my review at HorrorSquad.

• ZOMBIES OF MASS DESTRUCTION – After Dark rolls out a new trailer for their Horrorfest titles.
• HIDDEN – One of the ADF Horrorfest titles I’ve seen.  Not bad, kinda slow.
• THE REEDS – Chalk up another ADF title.
• THE FINAL – One more ADF Horrorfest trailer.
• BURIED – I believe I read earlier today that Lionsgate just bought the Ryan Reynolds trapped-in-a-coffin flick.

Studio News and Attachments

• PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 – Kevin Greutert, who made the surprisingly solid SAW 6, is directing PA2.
• SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL – Sam Jackson and Josh Duhamel may be stuck battling heaven and hell in Boaz Yankin’s Louisiana-set supernatural thriller.
• Spielberg’s new Alien TV show – No title yet, but Spielberg will be throwing down for another Taken-esque miniseries; this time for TNT.
• DREAM HOUSE – Naomi Watts joins Jim Sheridan’s “city folk shouldn’t move to creepy houses in the country” flick alongside Daniel Craig.
• BURKE AND HARE – Casting for John Landis’ graverobbing comedy gets more awesome.  Joining Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis are Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher.
• THE FURTHER – James Wan’s next film to be produced by Oren Peli.
• THE WALKING DEAD – Frank Darabont’s TV-series adaptation of Kirkman’s comic got the greenlight at AMC.
• DRACULA: YEAR ZERO – Alex Proyas is budgeting and scheduling his take on the origin of Dracula.

Remakes

• THE WOLFMAN – Danny Elfman’s score has been re-instated for Joe Johnston’s WOLFMAN.
• PLANET OF THE APES – Despite recent news to the contrary, Fox does indeed still plan on rebooting PLANET OF THE APES.  Again.
• CONAN – Marcus Nispel’s CONAN THE BARBARIAN remake gets its hunk.  It’s that guy from that STARGATE show you never watched.
• FRANKENSTEIN – Not so much a remake as another adaptation, but Danny Boyle will be directing a stage play of the classic tale in London.

Indie, Foreign and Random News

• BLACK SUNSET – The Butcher Brothers, AKA the guys who made THE HAMILTONS and THE VIOLENT KIND, have pegged their next project about a “betrayal-filled nightmare” that plays out during a surfing trip to Mexico.
• BLACK DEATH – Christopher Smith’s movie about the bubonic plague slips a little on its UK release.
• MY NAME IS BRUCE 2 – Bruce will be fighting Frankenstein.  I’d be interested if MY NAME IS BRUCE was anything less than a clunking piece of shit.
• ENTER THE VOID – IFC picks up Gasper Noe’s latest film for US distribution.

Non-Theatrical Trailers and Clips

• EATERS – Italian zombie flick produced by Uwe Boll.