Movies
Believe the Hype, ‘The Horde’ Selling Like Hot Cakes
We’ve been pushing on you dear readers a French film by the name of The Horde, which is being produced by Frontier(s) director Xavier Gens. While there are a slew of new French horror films in production, Horde is the ace of them all and we’ve had a gut feeling that it will be something special. While we’ve yet to hear any real buzz (expect something out of Cannes next week), the film has already started to sell like hot cakes. Read all about it beyond the break.
Paris-based sales and financing company Films Distribution has licensed Gallic genre pic “The Horde” to Italy (Fandango), the U.K. (Momentum), Germany (Square One) and France (Le Pacte).
Hopefully we’ll hear of a US sale soon!
Set in a high-rise apartment block in Paris, “Horde” is a cop/gangster shoot ’em-up, which suddenly sharp turns into a zombie munch fest. Genre blender created buzz off a one-minute teaser at Berlin.
From Gallic TV producer Capture the Flag, and co-financed by France’s Backup, Le Pacte and Films Distribution, “Horde” marks the feature film debut of two young French genre auteurs, Yanick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher.
“Horde” underscores Films Distribution’s growing genre commitment: It’s also handling international on Spaniard Daniel Monzon’s prison thriller “Cell 211.”
In a rare venture into animation, Films Distribution has international rights to English-language toon pic “Eleanor’s Secret,” the highbrow tale of a magic library targeting 6-10s. Films Distribution is also repping Hong Kong-shot erotic fetish drama “The Red Nights,” helmed mostly at night by French scribes Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud, harking back to the style of Italian ’60s movies directed by Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Carbon and Courtiaud have co-written films by Johnnie To and Tsui Hark.
“In these tough times, you have to innovate. We are but we’re essentially staying true to ourselves. We’re not going to take on board huge animation movies or Japanese actioners,” said Films Distribution partner Nicolas Brigaud Robert.
Brendan Fraser is back for the upcoming fourth installment in The Mummy franchise from directors Radio Silence, and Michael Johnston (Obsession) is now in talks to join him.
The Hollywood Reporter lets us know tonight that Michael Johnston is in “early talks” to join The Mummy 4, which will release in theaters on October 15, 2027 via Universal.
Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, and John Hannah will reprise their iconic roles as Rick O’Connell, Evelyn O’Connell, and Jonathan Carnahan in the upcoming movie.
Radio Silence duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett (Ready or Not, Scream 5-6) are directing from a script by David Coggeshall (Orphan: First Kill).
Plot details are being kept under wraps at this time, but the brand new sequel is expected to disregard the events of the third movie, in which Rachel Weisz did not appear.
“It’s just really beautiful and scary and sweeping, and it’s awesome,” Gillet teases. Bettinelli-Olpin adds that the film “has all of the heart and the character that you could hope for.”
A remake of the classic Universal monster movie that took an action-adventure approach, The Mummy was released in 1999 and grossed $417 million worldwide. It was followed by The Mummy Returns in 2001 and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in 2008.