Movies
Rumor Spreading That Long-Lost ‘London After Midnight’ Has Been Found
You’ve seen the above image countless times, but I guarantee you’ve never seen the movie.
A few years before directing Dracula and Freaks, Tod Browning made a silent horror film titled London After Midnight. Starring Lon Chaney as “The Hypnotist,” the 65-minute film was distributed by MGM in December of 1927; though audiences saw it upon release, it’s likely that everyone who did is no longer with us. Sadly, the last known copy was destroyed in the infamous MGM vault fire of 1967, which tragically resulted in the loss of many silent and early sound films.
But maybe all hope is not yet lost.
*UPDATE: LOOKS LIKE THIS IS ANOTHER FALSE ALARM. SIGH.*
Producer Robert Parigi (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) just took to his Facebook page to share a very exciting rumor that’s apparently swirling around the film community. Parigi wrote:
I’m noticing chatter that a 7-reel print of long-lost Tod Browning/Lon Chaney film LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (featuring Chaney’s iconic “Man in the Beaver Hat” Vampire) has been discovered in Spain! I had long heard rumors of a print in Cuba. Is this perhaps that print, now sent to Spain? 20 years ago, I heard rumors of a print in the U.S., and contacted the supposed owner offering to transfer it to (then state-of-the-art) D1, but when it came time to produce the print he backed out.
London After Midnight, remade by Browning himself as the Bela Lugosi-starring 1935 film Mark of the Vampire, was reconstructed back in 2002 using film stills and the original script, but it’s been decades since anyone has actually laid eyes on the original film. If the rumors are true, this would be HUGE news in the world of horror cinema, and in the film world at large.
In the film, reconstructed below…
The abandoned home of a wealthy man who supposedly committed suicide five years earlier is taken over by ghoulish figures – could they be vampires?
It’s now been five years since the release of sequel Happy Death Day 2U, Christopher Landon’s sequel to the Groundhog Day-style slasher movie from 2017. Both films star Jessica Rothe as final girl Tree Gelbman, and director Christopher Landon had been planning on bringing the character – and the actor – back for a third installment. So… where is it?!
We’ve been talking about a potential Happy Death Day 3 for several years now, with the ball in producer Jason Blum’s court. Happy Death Day 2U scared up $64 million at the worldwide box office, a far cry from the first film’s $125 million. But with a reported production budget of just $9 million, that first sequel was profitable for Blumhouse. So again… where is it?!
Chatting with Screen Geek this week while promoting her new action-thriller Boy Kills World, franchise star Jessica Rothe provided a hopeful update on Happy Death Day 3.
“Well, I can say Chris Landon has the whole thing figured out,” Rothe explains. “We just need to wait for Blumhouse and Universal to get their ducks in a row.
Rothe continues in her comments to Screen Geek, “But my fingers are so crossed. I think Tree [Gelbman] deserves her third and final chapter to bring that incredible character and franchise to a close or a new beginning.”
Back in 2020, Christopher Landon had revealed that the working title for the third installment was Happy Death Day to Us, said to be “different than the other two films.”
In the meantime, Christopher Landon is directing a mysterious thriller titled Drop for Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes, along with a werewolf movie titled Big Bad for Lionsgate.
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