Movies
Shudder Sets Zoom-Themed ‘Host’ for July 30th Release
In the tradition of the very first V/H/S and Unfriended, Shudder is answering the call with Host, a new Zoom-based horror film from Rob Savage (Dawn of the Deaf) that will premiere on Thursday, July 30th.
Commissioned, written, produced and set to be released in under three months, Host was shot remotely during quarantine, all filmed by the actors in their own homes.
“Host is the story of six friends who hire a medium to hold a séance over Zoom during lockdown, but they get far more than they bargain for as things quickly go wrong. When an evil spirit starts invading their homes, they begin to realize they might not survive the night.”
The film stars Haley Bishop (Deep State), Radina Drandova (Dawn of the Deaf), Edward Linard (The Rebels), Jemma Moore (Doom: Annihilation), Caroline Ward (Stalling It) and Emma Louise Webb (The Crown), who also operated their own cameras, helped pull off their own practical effects, and lit their own scenes, notes the press release. “Due to social distancing precautions, Savage never set foot in the same room as his actors at any point during production and instead directed them remotely.”
“[Host] is a great horror film that cleverly uses the idea of a Zoom séance to fashion a story that’s uniquely realistic and terrifying, with jaw-dropping stunts done entirely by the actors,” says Craig Engler, Shudder’s General Manager.
Host is written by Savage, Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd; Savage and Shepherd also serve as executive producers. The film is produced by Douglas Cox of Shadowhouse Films, in association with Boo-Urns.
Described as “Ted meets ET,” David Mikalson’s raunchy comedy Goblin is being brought to life over at A24, and Will Forte (“The Four Seasons”) is now in talks to star.
Deadline first reported the news this afternoon.
Kenneth Branagh has been cast to voice the titular Goblin in the upcoming A24 movie, with the character said to be “green-colored” as well as “anatomically correct.”
Skyler Gisondo (Superman) is reportedly playing the Goblin’s human best friend.
The mysterious project sounds a bit like films including A Gnome Named Gnorm and more recently, Frankie Freako, though it’s important to note that it’s not billed as a horror movie.
Deadline details, “After [Mikalson] hatched the idea to make an outrageous buddy comedy about a goblin, using a practical puppet and operating outside the Hollywood system, his script quickly got him a rep team. While others might have eyed the raunchy comedy as a writing sample or planned to wait to see the micro-budget version Mikalson has been directing in Kentucky, A24 jumped all over it. The hot indie essentially has agreed to finance a full feature.”
“There was a lot of interest, but A24 came with what Mikalson really wanted, after spending all his money crafting the puppet title character: they acquired the movie and agreed to let him make it with a significantly increased budget than what he had left after creating the anatomically correct title character,” Deadline’s report goes on to explain.
What does the titular Goblin actually look like? Well, a cake that Mikalson had whipped up for his reps might give us our first look at what to expect. Deadline explains the photo you’ll see down below, “Take a look at the cake he commissioned with Marc Gravelle at Cake Art in West Hollywood, to present to his reps as thanks for making his dream come true.”
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