Movies
[AFM ’12] Elijah Wood To Topline ‘Saw’ Writer’s ‘Cooties’!
Synchronicity Entertainment, the new genre film production and international sales label launched by Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel’s The Solution Entertainment Group has unveiled its debut slate of three new feature films including: the horror film Cooties from the co-creator of the Saw franchise and Insidious writer Leigh Whannell and Paranormal Activity producer Steven Schneider; the thriller Due Process starring Golden Globe nominee John Cusack; and the completed psychological thriller Smiley.
Starring Elijah Wood (pictured in Maniac), Cooties is produced by top horror film producer Steven Schneider, who is behind the hugely successful Paranormal Activity franchise including the latest installment, Paranormal Activity 4.
Cooties is written by horror powerhouse Leigh Whannell, who penned and executive produced the Saw films and wrote Insidious. Whannell co-writes Cooties with Ian Brennan –writer and co-creator of Fox’s “Glee.” To be directed by Ace Norton, “The film begins when a mysterious virus hits an isolated elementary school, transforming the pre-adolescent children into a feral swarm of mindless savages. An unlikely hero must lead a motley band of teachers in the fight of their lives against the monstrous pupils.“
Wood is also set to produce Cooties with partners Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller under his new horror film production company, The Woodshed, which recently announced the films Toad Road and A Girl Walks Home Alone Tonight.
Set to start production in April 2013, Cooties is executive produced by The Solution who arranged the financing. Writers Whannell and Brennan are also executive producers on the film. Paradigm is handling North American rights.
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.
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