Movies
Twisted Pictures and RKO Preps Their Slate of Remakes
It has been talked about for months now, RKO Pictures and Twisted Pictures (Saw I-V, Dead Silence) have teamed up to bring you four remakes of classic films from the ’30s and ’40s. Previously announced are remakes of I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, THE BODY SNATCHER, BEDLAM and FIVE CAME BACK. Inside you can read a bit more about the deal and what you can expect from the upcoming feature films.
Andy Fickman has made a deal with Roseblood Movie Company and Twisted Pictures to godfather four remakes from RKO’s horror heyday, including three that were produced by horrormeister Val Lewton. Fickman will direct at least one of the films.
Roseblood is the horror/thriller division of RKO Pictures, and Twisted is the horror division of Evolution Entertainment, financiers and producers of the “Saw” series. The companies will co-finance the films.
The remake properties are the Jacques Tourneur-directed “I Walked With a Zombie” (1943); the Robert Wise-directed Bela Lugosi-Boris Karloff starrer “The Body Snatcher” (1945); the Mark Robson-directed Karloff starrer “Bedlam” (1946); and the John Farrow-directed Lucille Ball-John Carradine starrer “Five Came Back” (1939).
The first three pics were produced by Lewton when he ran the horror division of the original RKO. Lewton co-wrote both “Bedlam” and “The Body Snatcher” under the pseudonym Carlos Keith.
RKO chairman Ted Hartley is producing the remakes with Twisted’s Mark Burg, Oren Koules and Carl Mazzocone. Jonathan Marshall is executive producer.
It’s the second recent multipicture deal for Fickman, who recently made a first-look deal with Disney, where he directed “The Game Plan” and is currently wrapping “Race to Witch Mountain.” Fickman became steeped in monster lore while working as a Universal tour guide and was intrigued with the way Lewton scared up fright hits on relatively small budgets.
“After Frankenstein and the Wolfman came Lewton and RKO, and what they lacked in budgets they made up for with atmosphere, imagination and great directors making horror with psychological flair,” Fickman told Daily Variety. “It was on the heels of WWII, when Nazi Germany showed that the scariest enemy might be the person who looked like your next door neighbor. It didn’t have to be some creature.”
Said RKO’s Hartley: “I have never met a filmmaker who has the level of appreciation and passion for films that Andy has for Lewton’s incredible creations.”
RKO last produced “Are We There Yet,” a remake of the 1946 RKO Cary Grant comedy “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,” and produced the upcoming “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” with Michael Douglas, to be released next year by After Dark Films.
Twisted Pictures next releases “Saw V” on Oct. 24, followed by the Nov. 7 release of the horror musical “Repo! The Genetic Opera,” starring Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton and Paul Sorvino. Lionsgate distributes both pics.
In addition to Leigh Whannell’s upcoming Universal Monsters movie Wolf Man, Julia Garner (The Royal Hotel) has also joined the cast of Weapons, THR has announced tonight.
Weapons is the new horror movie from New Line Cinema and director Zach Cregger (Barbarian), with Julia Garner joining the previously announced Josh Brolin (Dune 2).
The upcoming Weapons is from writer/director Zach Cregger, who will also produce alongside his Barbarian producing team: Roy Lee of Vertigo and J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules of BoulderLight Pictures. Vertigo’s Miri Yoon also produces.
The Hollywood Reporter teases, “Plot details for Weapons are being kept holstered but it is described as a multi and inter-related story horror epic that tonally is in the vein of Magnolia, the 1999 actor-crammed showcase from filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson.”
Cregger was a founding member and writer for the New York comedy troupe “The Whitest Kids U’Know,” which he started while attending The School of Visual Arts. The award-winning group’s self-titled sketch comedy show ran for five seasons on IFC-TV and Fuse. He was also a series regular on Jimmy Fallon’s NBC series “Guys with Kids” and the TBS hit series “Wrecked,” and was featured in a recurring role on the NBC series “About a Boy.”
Weapons will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
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