Exclusives
[Interview] Director Douglas Rath Discusses His New Series ‘Il Sonnambulo’
Last year director Douglas Rath starting to make some noise in horror circles with Shock Value, a feature film about a struggling B-movie director who blackmails a serial killer in order to make him the star of his next film. Rath followed that up with Il Sonnambulo, which as of now is a 3-part mini-series that follows a photographer made famous by crime scene photos relentlessly pursuing the shadowy killer who brought him his gory renown. The series stars Dean Christie (The Trial), Elizabeth Moynihan (TV’s “Vikings”), and Ross Mullan (“Game of Thrones”, “Doctor Who”).
Rath was kind enough to take a few minutes to throw a few A’s back at my Q’s.
Bloody Disgusting: Where did the idea for Il Sonnambulo come from? Was there anything specific that served as the inspiration?
Douglas Rath: We wanted to create something that was truly horrifying but not gory or gratuitous. My wife/ writing and producing partner Hannah and I went to Venice, Italy last summer and came away inspired to do a story originating there. We are both big giallo fans and we were mesmerized by the city’s dark undercurrents. Venice feels untouched by time largely because there are no cars. Water is everything, its picturesque but powerful – as a carrier of death (like the cholera in Thomas Mann’s ‘Death In Venice’), as a way to disappear, as something that both nourishes and destroys – and it lent itself to our story in a very portentous way. ‘Il Sonnambulo’ defines a world with the atrocities he commits and our troubled hero (or anti-hero) Atticus Hurst must exist there. We were interested in the effects of trauma on him and the other characters in the show. We shot the majority in London and Los Angeles but ‘Il Sonnambulo’ will always return to Venice…
BD: As of now it’s a three part mini series. Was this format the original intent?
DR: Actually it was not, originally it was going to be a more traditional short-format web series but as the project evolved we realized it could serve as a kind of pilot in three parts for a television series. The web series is part of a much deeper mythology that we will be exploring further in other projects revolving around this character.
BD: How did the teaser on Eli Roth’s Crypt TV come about?
DR: It came off the back of them having seen my feature ‘Shock Value.’ Eli Roth then asked me to do a short for his ’13 Director’s of HalloVine’ last year. Hannah and I were putting ideas together for ‘Il Sonnambluo’ already so we ended up filming the first bit for the HalloVine, which he and Jack Davis teased on CryptTV.
BD: What’s next for Douglas Rath? How do you follow up Il Sonnambulo?
DR: I have a number of different projects in various stages of development but right now, Hannah and I are focused on turning ‘Il Sonnambulo’ into a full-fledged series. We are writing the first season and are talking with a number of different people about producing it next year. We have been approached by a couple of different networks and are looking to find the right home for it. In addition to the series we are building a world around ‘Il Sonnambulo’ that includes two forthcoming novels, a radio play and a graphic novel.
A hospital stay grows more nerve-frazzling when memory loss distorts reality in our exclusive clip from This Tempting Madness, inspired by a true story.
The mind-bending psychological thriller will be released in select theaters and on demand on June 12 via Vertical.
Simone Ashley (“Bridgerton”) stars as Mia, who awakens from a coma, grievously injured, her memory fractured. As she puts the pieces of her past together, she starts to question her own actions and her perception of reality.
In This Tempting Madness, “Mia awakens from a coma grievously injured, her memory fractured. As she puts the pieces of her past together, she starts to question her own actions, and her perception of reality.”
Jennifer E. Montgomery makes her feature directorial debut from a script she co-wrote with director of photography Andrew Davis, inspired by Montgomery’s first-hand experience with tragedy involving her best friend.
“Months before the incident, there were signals that her world was unraveling,” says Montgomery. “I could feel the pressure building, though I didn’t know what form it would take. I never could have known what violence would come, and I certainly never imagined making a film about it.”
Austin Stowell (“NCIS: Origins”), Suraj Sharma (Happy Death Day 2U), Mojean Aria (Reminiscence), Amol Shah (“For All Mankind”), and Zenobia Shroff (“Ms. Marvel”) round out the cast.
Smoke Jumper Films and Mango Monster Productions produce in association with Catchlight Studios (Heretic, The Blackening).
This Tempting Madness is rated R for “language, violence/bloody images, and brief sexuality.”