Movies
Shout! Studios Acquires Remake of David Cronenberg’s ‘Rabid’
Shout! Studios, the multi-platform filmed entertainment distribution and production arm of Shout! Factory, has acquired U.S. rights to writers/directors Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska’s (American Mary) new feature remake of David Cronenberg’s early horror classic Rabid, Bloody Disgusting learned ahead of EFM. This multi-year agreement provides Shout! Studios with digital, on-demand, broadcast, home entertainment, and select SVOD rights to the Rabid feature remake for cross-platform releases in the U.S. Back 40 Pictures will handle the theatrical distribution duties.
The remake will portray Rose, a young woman who, after an accident leaves her scarred beyond recognition, undergoes a radical untested stem cell treatment. While turning Rose into the belle of the ball, the experimental transformation comes at a price.
Jen and Sylvia Soska will direct this new feature from a screenplay they adapted with John Serge from the original Cronenberg classic. Michael Walker, Paul Lalonde, and John Vidette are serving as producers.
Shout! Studios will be working closely with filmmakers and producers in the production process. The Rabid feature remake is currently in the pre-production phase. Principal photography is expected to begin in April.
“It’s a tremendous honor to be re-imaging David’s 1977 body horror classic, Rabid, with such incredible support behind us,” said Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska. “We are not fans of soulless remakes as seems to be the trend these days as they disrespect the fans and the original body of work. Our Rabid is a continuation of the thoughts and conversation David started with his original piece and modernized through a female perspective. This film will truly honor not only the original but Cronenberg’s entire body of work.”
It’s been eight years since Ari Aster came onto the scene and helped usher in a new wave of horror with Hereditary, one of the rare horror movies from the past ten years that still seems to come up in conversation every single week. And it’s back in the conversation this week, with Ari Aster revealing at an event that he’s already written a prequel to Hereditary!
Ari Aster was on hand at the American Cinematheque for Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair last week, a Los Angeles festival that screened all of Aster’s movies to date. The website Gold Derby reports that Aster revealed the Hereditary prequel script during a Q&A at the event, and you can watch the full Q&A conversation below for confirmation on the website’s report.
“I wrote a prequel to this,” Aster told the crowd, referring to Hereditary. “It never feels like the right time to do it. It’s a prequel, not a sequel so I don’t know where this goes.”
Would a potential Hereditary prequel dig deeper into the mythology of demon king Paimon? Unfortunately, Aster provides no further details on his prequel approach at this time.
Aster said of Hereditary during the same Q&A, “I was just trying to make a really good horror movie.” I think most horror fans would agree that he more than accomplished that goal, and the past eight years have proven that Hereditary is an enduring classic of its generation.
We celebrated the fifth anniversary of Hereditary here on BD back in 2023.
Ron Breton wrote, “Hereditary offers a similar emotional resonance to this new generation of horror – my generation of horror– as movie-goers in the seventies when they first saw Exorcist. Much like Aster’s film, we see the incomprehensible evil wear the face of a young girl; the victim of a raw deal she had no say in, as it tears a family to its core. Sure, both films offer so many terrifying visuals that can make the hair stand up on anyone’s neck – but it also depicts intense relationships and emotions that are tangible. Real. Familiar.”
“In that familiarity lies the uncanny, ready to rear its ugly head and force us to confront thoughts and horrors laying dormant and clawing at our psyche,” Breton continued his 5th anniversary celebration of Hereditary. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s been five or fifty years. These horrors are always there, as we become pawns in its horrible, hopeless machine.”
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro star in Hereditary. In the film, “A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.”
That’s putting it mildly, eh?!
You must be logged in to post a comment.