Movies
Dark Castle Heads to the ‘Dark Moon’
There are a lot of problems circling multiple “found footage” projects, only this one appears to have a happy ending, so says Heat Vision. Over the weekend, the Weinstein Co. announced that it had boarded the Timur Bekmambetov-produced Apollo 18 and would release the low-budget sci-fi thriller in March. In the wake of that, on Tuesday, Roland Emmerich pulled the plug on The Zone, another “found footage” project that was to have started shooting next week. The site reports that yet another project was shelved — but this time Dark Castle is in negotiating to pick it up in turnaround. Read on all about Dark Moon, from the director of The Fourth Kind.Here’s the backstory: In mid-October, Warner Bros. picked up Dark Moon, a spec script written by Olatunde Osunsanmi, for Akiva Goldsman to produce via his Weed Road shingle. Osunsanmi was also on board to direct the movie, which is in the “found footage” genre.
The genre’s conceit is that the footage purports to be genuine reels, tapes or files found after the person operating the camera expires or disappears. Alien invasion flick Cloverfield kicked off the recent trend, which also encompasses the hugely successful Paranormal Activity movies.
Like Apollo 18, Moon is based on the idea that NASA’s manned moon missions did not stop with Apollo 17. Moon follows a black ops mission sent to explore previously classified lunar discoveries.
But when Warners execs learned Sunday of TWC and Bekmambetov’s project, they got nervous. On Monday, a top Warners exec made calls to the Moon men to tell them their mission was grounded (put in turnaround).
Enter Dark Castle’s Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman. The execs at Joel Silver’s Warners-based genre shingle had read the Moon script and were fans. On Tuesday they brought it to Silver, who liked what he read and authorized the company to pick Moon up.
Negotiations are still ongoing, but Moon will now be financed and made by Dark Castle, with Weed Road still on board as a producer. The project will shoot this winter — ironically, for distribution next year via Warners, as per Dark Castle’s output deal with the studio.
Maika Monroe (Longlegs) and director David Robert Mitchell are reuniting for It Follows sequel They Follow, and Deadline brings us the latest casting news this week.
Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children, A Nightmare on Elm Street), Justine Lupe (Succession), Anna Mirodin (Ivan), Jayne Taini (Unbelievable), Michael Gandolfini (Daredevil: Born Again), Tom Pecinka (Stereophonic), Melora Walters (Magnolia), Ben Krieger (Song Sung Blue), Natalie Shinnick (The Brutalist) and Jan Hoag (The Fabelmans) have joined the cast this week.
Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice) has also been confirmed to join They Follow.
Deadline notes in their report this afternoon, “Plot details for the long-anticipated sequel are under wraps, other than it taking place a decade after the events of the original film.”
They Follow is expected to enter production this Summer. Stay tuned for updates.
In the first movie, Maika Monroe’s Jay Height is a young woman followed by an unknown supernatural force after a sexual encounter. In the sequel, the threat is now EVERYWHERE.
“It’s very dark,” Monroe recently teased. “We’re pushing the boundaries on this one for sure.”
“It’s very different from the original,” Monroe told Discussing Film. “The original is a little more heightened and dramatic, and this is really quite grounded and follows the story of these two women that are mentally dealing with a lot. I thought it was really an interesting take on it.”
NEON and Good Fear Content are producing They Follow.
They Follow will feature a new score from Disasterpeace.
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