Movies
Cult Icons Topline Halo-8’s ‘Godkiller’
Cult icons Lance Henriksen (Aiens, Pumpkinhead), Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Repo!), Tiffany Shepis (Night of the Demons), Justin Pierre, Lydia Lunch, and Davey Havok (singer of A.F.I.) have signed on for the ‘illustrated film’ adaptation Godkiller, written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Matt Pizzolo (Threat) based on the comic book he created with illustrator Anna Muckcracker.
Producer Halo-8 Entertainment will unveil a preview clip at Comic-Con International’s Wondercon in San Francisco during the “Indie Film and Comics” panel on Saturday February 28, 2009
“I’m astonished and excited by the incredible talents who’ll be joining us to bring these characters to life. We want to create something really cool and unique and different from everything else out there… it’s truly humbling to have such accomplished collaborators on the team,” said Pizzolo.
The ‘illustrated film’ Pizzolo is creating for the adaption mixes elements of anime, radio drama, video games, and motion comics. Utilizing the original artwork from the comic book, the ‘illustrated film’ adds motion animation, visual effects, elaborate sound design, music, and voice-acting performances. Halo-8 intends to release limited-edition, serialized, short-form DVDs through the Spring and Summer before releasing the full-length feature theatrically in Fall 2009.
Pizzolo explained “when we decided to make an anime adaptation of the comic book, I couldn’t see how a traditional animated approach would do justice to Anna’s incredibly lush and detailed illustrations. It made perfect sense to adapt the medium to suit her art, rather than vice versa.”
GODKILLER takes place in a dark-future after economic collapse, after nuclear holy war, and after Earth is colonized by alien races. Tommy and his kid sister Lucy live in an orphanage in one of the few remaining city-states, but Lucy is critically ill and desperately in need of a new heart. Tommy’s odyssey to find a new heart for his sister begins when he follows an organ-stealing prostitute named Halfpipe out of the city-state and into the savage borderland known as Outer City. GODKILLER mixes unforgiving brutality, quantum physics, conspiracy theory, and secret history for an iconoclastic hero’s journey like none before it.
Pizzolo and Halo-8 are currently putting together a team for the ‘illustrated film’ based on his comic book “HOW I LOST MY VIRGINITY -BY ALEXANDRA JONES,” as well as other titles Halo-8 has in development.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
You must be logged in to post a comment.