Movies
‘Orphan’ Prequel to Tell the Origins of ‘Esther’
One of the more underrated horror-thrillers is Warner Bros./Dark Castle’s 2009 Orphan, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and starring a young Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther, an adopted 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.
As it’s revealed, “Esther is actually a 33-year-old woman named Leena Klammer. She has hypopituitarism, a rare hormonal disorder that stunted her physical growth and caused proportional dwarfism, and has spent most of her life posing as a little girl.” (Wiki)
In an interesting turn, Sierra/Affinity is launching sales at the EFM in Berlin on Esther, a prequel to Orphan that will be directed by William Brent Bell (The Devil Inside, The Boy, Brahms: The Boy II), reports Deadline.
In it, “Lena Klammer orchestrates a brilliant escape from a Russian psychiatric facility and travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family. But Lena’s new life as “Esther” comes with an unexpected wrinkle and pits her against a mother who will protect her family at any cost.”
Orphan‘s big selling point was the shocking twist that changed the way you viewed the intense and immensely uncomfortable events of the film. It will be interesting to see if the prequel can conjure up the same kind of suspense with the audience already being in on the Esther’s secret. It’s unclear if Fuhrman will return, although it’s extremely unlikely.
The prequel, expected to start in the third quarter, is written by David Coggeshall.
Dark Castle Entertainment’s Alex Mace, Hal Sadoff and Ethan Erwin will produce with James Tomlinson. David Leslie Johnson will serve as an executive producer and Jen Gorton and Josie Liang will oversee for eOne.
Exclusives
‘Diary of Pamela Voorhees’ – ‘Jason Lives’ Director Reveals His New ‘Friday the 13th’ Screenplay [Exclusive]
The writer and director Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Tom McLoughlin is a huge fan of the Friday the 13th franchise, so much so that he’s been hungry for many years to get a new Friday project off the ground. Of course, the franchise is shackled at the bottom of a lake due to legal issues at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped McLoughlin from writing scripts.
As you may recall, McLoughlin chatted with us back in 2020 about his concept for Jason Never Dies, a screenplay for a direct sequel to Jason Lives that he recently put together.
Bloody Disgusting can exclusively reveal that Tom McLoughlin has also come up with an entirely different screenplay for a Friday project, this one titled Diary of Pamela Voorhees.
McLoughlin worked alongside James Sweet on the concept, a screenplay for a theatrical feature/limited series that he’d love to someday get the chance to bring to life.
McLoughlin tells BD, “Keeping this under wraps for almost a year now, the fan side of us thought it’s the ONLY Friday the 13th this year. And the day of Jason’s birth. If there’s a day to announce, can’t think of any better. And YES, we are heartbreakingly aware that our script, as reported yesterday by CNN, has currently no chance of getting made due to the rights settlement far from resolved. And who knows, maybe whoever finally gets the shared rights might only want to make a hockey masked Jason.”
“When James mentioned wanting to do a story that starts with the birth of Jason, my head exploded with so many episodes and character events we can create,” he continues. “We both just took off on it. The objective was also to reveal how they became the iconic horror legends they are. In fact, we created so many characters and storylines we realized we had a Limited Series as well as a feature length movie.”
Here’s the idea for Diary of Pamela Voorhees, straight from Tom McLoughlin…
Diary of Pamela Voorhees is of course based on Victor Miller’s characters of Pamela Voorhees, and her young son Jason. The story takes place in Post-World War 2 Middle America. People are uncertain, afraid of the unknown, and untrusting. This is the world Mrs. Voorhees and Jason must face. On the night of June 13th, 1946, an abused 16-year-old Pamela gives birth to a facially disfigured, mentally challenged, boy she names Jason.
Over the next ten years we see the painful life this shunned single mother must survive to raise and protect her Jason who most of all these people treat as a freak. Her psychopathic mind turns darker, then vengeful as she brutally kills any detractor of her son. They then move on, Pamela fantasizing on finding some place that’s truly theirs. Both the film and limited series conclude with their arrival at Camp Crystal Lake May 19th, 1956. (The rest we know.)
McLoughlin explains, “Pamela’s diary allows us deeper insight into how she feels. It’s particularly even more unsettling as we hear her psychopathic and sociopathic thoughts and plans. I wanted to approach this as if this was a true story. Every event and character are believable. No supernatural aspects. As extreme as her murders are they are passion kills. Serial killers like Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron in ‘Monster’) are more emotionally horrifying being connected a belief or honest rationalization. There’s also a deeply disturbing and creepy aspect seeing the child Jason watching, maybe learning from his mothers’ savage murders. Blood splattered; Mrs. Voorhees embraces her son with a genuine mother’s warmth. Gently explaining to him why these wicked people need to die. ‘If we don’t kill them, Jason, they’ll keep hurting more people like us. There’s no God who will punish them. Only us, Jason.’”
“So, we will all continue to wait for the outcome of the settlement. And James and I will keep tinkering and tweaking the script,” McLoughlin finishes out his chat with BD. “Meanwhile…Happy Birthday, Jason. And Happy Friday the 13th to all you Friday Fans. And keep making those Fan Funded Films. You guys may truly be the future of the Voorhees Family.”
Happy Friday the 13th indeed. Check out McLoughlin’s concept poster below!
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