Movies
Seth Rogen And Evan Goldberg May Write A Horror Movie After ‘The Apocalypse’
This simultaneously my most and least favorite kind of news. It’s my most favorite because I love wondering what this kind of project might ultimately look like. It’s my least favorite because this might as well be filed under “jumping the gun”. But here goes… the writing team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad, Pineapple Express) may be writing a horror movie.
Per The Playlist, “a desire to take on new territory… has led Goldberg to one of his next endeavors — writing a full on, straight ahead horror movie. “Seth [Rogen] and I have been talking about doing a horror idea that we came up with, and I don’t like horror movies. It’s interesting to me that I don’t like horror movies and I’m interested in doing it,” Goldberg revealed. “I used to just think, ‘Anyone who likes horror movies is sick or [more] likely to kill me in my sleep than my friends who like comedy.’ But movies are therapy for a lot of people, and it’s good for people to get things out. Maybe there would be more serial killers because they get it out with the horror movies, or maybe it makes people serial killers, I don’t really know. But I’m interested in this whole area now, and I never really was before.”
And while Goldberg is keeping further details close to the chest for now, he does cite one recent franchise for spurring his curiosity, and he hints that comedy could possibly find its way into the story. “We do assume that by making it funnier, we can make it scarier, but people don’t love ‘Paranormal Activity’ because it’s funny,” he said. “If it was a bit funnier, and more realistic, maybe it would’ve been even better — and I did think it was a fantastic movie, I actually really liked that movie. That was the one that kinda drew us into discussing this, because we just thought it was so innovative.””
This is so far off that the world might literally end before I see it, but I’m a fan of theirs so it’s fun to think about. Meanwhile, they start shooting The Apocalypse (seemingly retitled from Jay And Seth Vs. The Apocalypse) soon. To see the fake trailer they made a few years back (the new script differs significantly) hit the jump.
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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