Movies
‘Keepers’ Uncovers a Lighthouse of Secrets
Gerard Butler (300), Joe Alwyn (Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk) and Peter Mullan (Tyrannosaur) will lead Danish director Kristoffer Nyholm’s (The Killing) psychological thriller Keepers, reports ScreenDaily.
Set on an uninhabited island off the Scottish coast, the film follows three lighthouse keepers (Butler, Alwyn, Mullan) who arrive for their six week shifts. As they settle into their regular routines, they stumble upon an unexpected and life-changing secret.
Sales agent Protagonist Pictures has boarded the project and will introduce to buyers at this week’s American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica.
Cross Creek Pictures (Hacksaw Ridge) is fully financing the film, which is set for an early 2017 shoot in the UK.
Andy Evans, Ade Shannon and Sean Marley are producing for Wales-based outfit Mad as Birds with Alan Siegel for G-BASE, Brian Oliver for Cross Creek and star Butler. Jason Seagraves will exec produce and Reg Poerscout-Edgerton will co-produce and is casting.
Aside from directing 12 episodes of the original The Killing series, Nyholm’s credits also include UK miniseries The Enfield Haunting and forthcoming period adventure Taboostarring Tom Hardy for FX and BBC.
Celyn Jones and Joe Bone co-wrote the film’s screenplay.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut, “Salem”) and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut, Kalifornia) penned the script. The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallace.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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