Movies
[Sundance ’12]: Anchor Bay Has ‘Nothing To Fear’ From Slash!
While Gore Verbinski’s protégé and visionary director Anthony Leonardi III is still prepping Nothing to Fear, described as a “terrifying vintage horror film”, Anchor Bay has snatched up the rights to the film. Nothing To Fear is being produced by Slash’s horror shingle Slasher Films.
Per Deadline, “Anchor Bay Films has acquired Nothing To Fear, the first film produced by Slasher Films, the horror label hatched by former Guns n Roses guitarist Slash and the producing team of Rob Eric and Michael Williams. Anthony Leonardi III is directing. He has been the lead creature artist and storyboard artist for ‘Constantine’, ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean 3’, ‘Rango’ and the upcoming ’47 Ronin’. Slash will be co-producing the score of the movie.
Slash, a longtime fan of genre films, formed the label to make smart horror films. He is a regular at the Sundance Film Festival, where he comes to watch films.”
Starring Anne Heche (“Hung”), James Tupper (“Mercy”), Willa Holland (Legion, Straw Dogs), Rafi Gavron and Jennifer Stone in the film that follows a young family as it tries to reinvent itself by moving to a small town in rural Kansas. The family is tormented by an ancient demon with an insatiable blood lust.
Nothing To Fear is set to begin principal photography in Louisiana on February 13, 2012. 
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut, “Salem”) and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut, Kalifornia) penned the script. The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallace.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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