Movies
MPI Media/Dark Sky Films Finance ‘Frankenstein’s Army’
After the debacle that was Worst Case Scenario, we were immediately skeptical when a promo trailer was released for Richard Raaphorst’s Frankenstein’s Army. Thankfully, this sucker is now officially financed and going behind cameras. Thumbs up!
It was announced today that MPI Media Group, LA-based XYZ Films and Pellicola of Amsterdam have entered into a coproduction deal to produce Richard Raaphorst’s Frankenstein’s Army. Shooting is to begin in the spring in Prague and Amsterdam and will be completed by late fall.
Raaphorst’s Worst Case Scenario stands as one of the great horror films that never was. The Nazi-zombie project whipped up a massive international following thanks to two early promo reels. But due to financing and production difficulties, the project was abandoned in 2009. Now, director Raaphorst will bring his visionary design skills to this new horror movie, to be distributed by MPI/Dark Sky Films in North America.
“Using shocking vintage newsreel footage as his jumping-off point, Raaphorst has hit on a unique and bold premise. Toward the end of World War II, Russian soldiers pushing into eastern Germany stumble across a secret Nazi lab, one that has unearthed and begun experimenting with the journal of one Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The scientists have used the legendary’s Frankenstein’s work to assemble an army of supersoldiers stitched together from the body parts of their fallen comrades – a desperate Hitler’s last ghastly ploy to escape defeat.” More producer details inside.
Director Raaphorst co-wrote FRANKENSTEIN’S ARMY and the film will be produced by Nick Jongerius and Daniel Koefoed (Harry Doright and Dead End) of Pellicola and Todd Brown of XYZ Films. Nate Bolotin, Aram Tertzakian and Nick Spicer of XYZ Films will serve as Executive Producers, and the director of photography will be Gabor Deak (Sextet).
MPI’s Greg Newman, in announcing the production, said: “We are excited to be partnered with XYZ Films and Pellicola in bringing to the screen the next work by one of the truly remarkable filmmakers working today. If the worldwide public clamor for Worst Case Scenario is any indication, Richard’s startling vision for FRANKENSTEIN’S ARMY will thrill viewers everywhere.”
MPI’s Dark Sky Films, known for the large catalogue of respected genre films it distributes, has also become an acclaimed horror producer with such modern highly praised films as, Ti West’s The House of the Devil , Adam Green’s Hatchet II, Jim Mickle’s Stake Land and West’s highly anticipated The Innkeepers, starring Sara Paxton and Kelly McGillis.
Movies
Keanu Reeves Describes Untitled Time Loop Thriller from Director Tim Miller as ‘Groundhog Day’ With Sharks
At one point known as Shiver, Tim Miller‘s (Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate) next movie doesn’t yet have a title, but star Keanu Reeves offers a very intriguing tease this week.
Chatting with Collider, Reeves explains what drew him to the mysterious upcoming project from director Tim Miller. He tells the outlet, “Sharks. Time machine. Groundhog Day.”
That lines up with early plot details that surfaced earlier this year, with the film said to center on a “smuggler in the middle of a deadly double-cross while on a job in the Caribbean Sea.”
That synopsis continued, “Surrounded by bodies, hostile mercenaries, and bloodthirsty sharks, the man finds himself in a time loop and scrambling to break the cycle.”
Callie Cooke (“The Stranger”), Stefan Kapičić (Deadpool), Steven Waddington (Sleepy Hollow), Nicholas Duvernay (“The White Lotus”), Abraham Popoola (Cruella), Anastasia Safonov, and Bobby Holland Hanton (Thor: Love and Thunder) also star.
Ian Shorr (Splinter, Infinite) penned the screenplay for the sci-fi thriller, which had previously been described as having shades of Edge of Tomorrow and The Shallows.
Stay tuned for more on the untitled Warner Bros. project.
‘Jaws’
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