At first, the Variety Asia Online report today about Andrew Lau teaming up with Media Asia to adapt Chinese classic Water Margin seemed like lukewarm news, one of those we’ll-have-to-wait-and-see-how-good-it-will-be affairs. But then Lau goes on to say it will be a trilogy, and while he’ll direct the first film, the second will be helmed by ... Johnnie To.

Now that just sounds sizzling hot.

Says Lau:

“This is a story that everyone in China knows well,” Lau said. “We (see) this as a three-part franchise with me directing the first movie and Johnnie To doing the second and me acting as producer.”

Upcoming Norwegian horror anthology 5 Gross has slipped under the radar for a remarkably long time - it releases November 2nd and the trailer only appeared now - and seems to be largely flying incognito - there isn’t even an entry for it at the Norwegian Film Institute - which makes finding accurate information difficult but it’s worth talking about nonetheless.  Why?  The trailer is very strong and the five contributing directors - Susanne Falkum Løvik, Pål Jackman, Marius Soma, Therese Jacobsen, and Bobbie Peers - are some of the country’s best and brightest young talents with an impressive wall of hardware between them for their earlier short film work.  Peers, in particular, is mighty intriguing to these eyes, his Sniffer absolutely bowling me over when I first saw it, a sentiment the Cannes judges agreed with, awarding it a Palme d’Or in 2006.

While best known internationally for producing films by arthouse faves Pen-Ek Ratanaruang and Wisit Sasanatieng Thai production house Five Star Productions were clever enough to realize a good while back that the art houses don’t pay the bills.  And so they’ve turned to producing some of the countries better horror films, the latest of which is about to have its world premiere at the American Film Market.  A complete English language website has just gone up for former Pang Brothers’ assistant Songsak Mongkolthong’s The Screen At Kamchanod has just gone online, and good thing.  It’s packed with fascinating information on the project, which is based on an actual event that took place in the rural countryside, where outdoor film screenings are still common, eighteen years ago.

In 1987, four movie screeners stumbled upon a chilling event as they were hired to screen a movie in the forest of Kamchanod, Udon Thani Province.

The screeners were wondering why they had no audience at all yet. Yet, as the movie was about to end, a group of people emerged from the forest and lined up in front of the screen. To the screener’s surprise, the audience also began to disappear as mysteriously as they had appeared out of nowhere.

This mystery became a legend which a group of medical professionals had banded together to prove impossible, with a theory that if those film reels were to be found and projected in the same location, it would be a way to bring back the apparition that had appeared on that fateful night.

Stumbling upon clues, the curious group unknowingly falls into a situation that had occurred 18 years ago, endangering their own lives for the sake of proving a haunting legend.

[Many thanks to Don Brown from Ryuganji for passing along some key details on this.  Thanks to him it is now bigger, more detailed, more accurate and more nutritious.  Go Don!]

The man behind The Taste of Tea and Funky Forest is nothing if not prolific.  Prolific and strange.  And now Katsuhito Ishii - via his production company Nice Rainbow - is back with something new, the straight to video project Rabi Pappa.  Which features a man dressed in a big bunny suit.  At the helm is Miki Shunichiro, a partner at Nice Rainbow and one of Ishii’s collaborators on Funky Forest while Kimura Yoshino - most recently in Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django, next in Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness stars.  And I don’t see him in any of the production stills (the trailer is downloading slowly as I type) which raises the possibility that he’s the man in the suit which - considering that he’s a very pretty man and talented to boot - I find enormously amusing.

With word breaking a couple weeks back that the release of big budget Russian horror film Viy - a remake of the film of the same name, based on a novel by Nikolai Gogol - had been pushed back to 2009 to coincide with Gogol’s 200th birthday one thing was sure:  all of the old promo materials needed to be re-done.  And they have been, which isn’t that exciting in most cases but it does mean a new trailer, filled with new shots.  This one - like the last one - is dominantly in English, which tells you all you need to know about their marketing plans, and once again shows off the bizarre, yet compelling, blend of high end production values and raw camp.  I still have no idea if this is going to be brilliant or a horrible mess but I can’t wait to see it.

How THE HELL did we miss this?  Sure, it’s a fresh project and not due for release until 2009, but still ... It’s the new project from Cube helmer Vincenzo Natali, a local hero for us Toronto based Twitchers, with Guillermo Del Toro in the producer’s chair and Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody slated to star. 

The story explores a dark vision of the world of genetic engineering in which two young scientists (Polley and Brody) become superstars by splicing different animal DNA to create fantastical new creatures. They ignore the legal and ethical boundaries and introduce human DNA into their experiment. The screenplay was written by Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor.

Production begins in November and Dread Central have gotten their hands on pre-production artwork.  Yum.

And, also, this is what happens when you serve beer in the theater to a crazy little Spaniard.  Only at Fantastic Fest.  And only with Nacho.

They may still be young over there but Magnet Releasing - the new genre arm of Magnolia Pictures - have quickly built a quality lineup of titles and that line just got a little longer with word that they have picked up all North American rights to Franck Vestiel’s Eden Log, a film we’ve been following closely in these pages.  Watch for a theatrical release in 2008.

A man regains consciousness at the bottom of a cave. Tolbiac has not got the slightest idea what events brought him there, nor what has happened to the man whose corpse he discovers next to him. The only way to escape the creature that pursues him: climb to the surface through a series of paths with the atmosphere of a graveyard, abandoned by a mysterious organization: Eden Log.

Continue on for the full announcement and hit the links below for trailers.

Continue Reading "Magnet Releasing Picks Up Franck Vestiel’s EDEN LOG"...

We are big, big fans of Brazilian vampire film Akai around here - so much so that we are hosting it for download - and have been eagerly tracking its creator, Carlos Gananian, since we first came across him.  He’s got himself US representation now and a fistful of offers on his table but he’d really rather tackle one of his own projects rather than doing a for hire job and he’s just sent us a tease for what he’s currently working on:

It’s an ensemble prison drama with a supernatural twist. Very much a horror film, but with a metaphysical overtone. Hopefully it will deliver the scares, while also featuring some emotional beats and interesting character arcs.

I’ve been able to see a small handful of production sketches for this and they are truly stunning, atmospheric stuff - I’d expect nothing less from the man - but I’ve only got the okay to show you this one.  Click the link below for a large version.

Yes, I’ve stolen Edgar’s method of referring to the upcoming US remake of Spaced because it is much simpler, funnier and accurate than anything I could come up with myself.

Anyway, we posted news yesterday that FOX had bought remake rights to classic UK sitcom Spaced and handed it over to McG and a writer from Will and Grace to Americanize.  There are a few adaptations in the works right now that I’m actually looking forward to but this aint one of them, largely because the people they’re handing it to seem incredibly unlikely to get the subtleties that made the original work so well.  That and, despite hints to the contrary embedded in the press release that went out to the trades, none of the original creators have been contacted in any way as regards the new series.  And now Wright has posted a few words on the subject on his MySpace blog, which I’ll reproduce here because every time I try to follow the link I was sent it insists on taking me to my own MySpace page - which I NEVER use - rather than his:

The above article features this interesting nugget…

“Wonderland’s McG and Granada’s Robert Green will exec produce alongside Barr; the extent of Pegg’s and Wright’s involvement is still unclear. But Johnson likens the effort to NBC’s adaptation of Ricky Gervais’ and Stephen Merchant’s “The Office” for the U.S., with Greg Daniels in charge.”

The interesting part of that is, no-one has been in touch with me at all. Haven’t deigned to get in contact. So my involvement is indeed very unclear.

Would love to know what you all have to say about it.

P.S. I can confirm too, that Simon was never contacted either. I don’t really want to get involved at all, but it infuriates me that they would a) never bother to get in touch but still b) splash me and Simon’s names all over the trade announcements and imply that we’re involved in the same way Ricky & Steve were with The Office.

Also, it’s worth stressing that I will not be profiting from this reversion, nor do they have to get permission from me to make it.

A few days back we pointed the way to the first teaser for the third entry in hugely popular Russian action series Antikiller - synopsis and details here - but at the time the teaser was only available in a low quality streaming format.  Well, we’ve just been sent a much higher quality, downloadable version so while there still isn’t much actually in here - the film is still shooting - you can at least see everything that is nice and clear. 

Michael broke news today that TLA Releasing have acquired all North American and UK rights for Pod Anon’s gay themed hitman drama Bangkok Love Story and we’re now hosting a gallery of seven gorgeous stills from the film.  Yeah, this one looks tasty.

We first covered Norwegian Kill Bill parody Kill Buljo a good long time back and the film has found itself a loving home with US sales agent Imagination Worldwide who are presenting it at this year’s American Film Market.  To help them do that:  a brand new trailer cut for the market and featuring a hilarious - and strangely appropriate - English dub.  This is lower than low brow, but there’s a reason dick and fart jokes will never die.  They’re just funny, okay?  We’re hosting the trailer here.  Enjoy.

The first of his forty or so films to ever receive festival play, Albert Pyun’s Infection sparked a resurgence of interest in the cult director’s work.  An eerily effective single camera, single shot feature tracking the progress of an alien invasion in a sleepy town the film was quickly snapped up by Lion’s Gate who have since retitled it Invasion, given it a truly icky Photoshop cover that looks to have been designed by an unpaid intern, and have announced a December 18th release date on DVD.

In other Pyun news word is BulletFace is mere moments away from locking the final cut and he is scheduled to begin shooting his next film December 3rd.

Just look at Michael C. Hall, staring at you with those sultry eyes.  Don’t you just want to take him home?  Well, you can.  We’ve got a Dexter prize pack to give away, including the complete Season One on DVD, a soundtrack CD and a bumper sticker.  That last thrown in, you know, just in case you want to give Showtime a bit of free advertising.  Want it?  Okey doke.  As I’m sure you’re aware Hall got his big break on Six Feet Under, to win this prize by November 9th naming the new show headlined by the actor who played Hall’s brother on Six Feet Under.  Got it?  Go!