From the producers of 1408 and the writer & producers of Bone Tomahawk comes a terrifying new vision of Charles Band’s classic franchise. This is Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich.

We told you last year that Full Moon’s Puppet Master franchise is getting a reboot courtesy of Di Bonaventura Pictures and Caliber Media, which was certainly a surprise as well as music to our ears. All the Puppet Master films over the years have been directly made by Full Moon, so the idea of other (more legit) companies optioning the rights and taking over is pretty exciting. Because let’s be honest. As much as we may all love Full Moon, we’d be lying if we said their output in recent years has been, well, let’s just say their best days may be behind them.

The intention is to expand the mythology by producing multiple storylines within a new universe, and Bone Tomahawk‘s S. Craig Zahler penned the script for inaugural universe flick Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich. Via the Dallas Film Commission we’ve just learned that the film will begin shooting on March 27th, the shoot set to continue through most of April.

According to IMDb, Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund are directing.

The storyline for ‘The Littlest Reich’ follows a recently divorced young man who discovers a mint condition Blade doll in his deceased brother’s closet and plans to sell the toy at a convention in Oregon celebrating the 30th anniversary of the infamous Toulon Murders. All hell breaks loose at the Postville Lodge during the auction when a strange force animates all of the various puppets throughout the convention as they go on a bloody killing spree.

Zahler’s completely new take on Puppet Master maintains all of the brutally inventive puppet kills infused with the comedic tendencies that made the original franchise so popular with fans, while expanding upon Toulon’s backstory and developing richer dialogue, characters, and narratives.

“Puppet Master was hands down my favorite, and I had the movie poster on my wall and a giant standee in my bedroom. The chance for us to work with Lorenzo, Zahler, and Band all at once on this new take is simply a dream come true.” Caliber Media’s Jack Heller recently said. “We couldn’t be more excited to take the series in a new direction while embracing all the practical effects and terrifying insanity that fans of The Puppet Master films love.”