Movies
Three Films, Three Directors Tells ‘Reaper’ Story
U.K. pubcaster Channel 4 is moving forward with a trilogy of films revolving around the hunt for the notorious Yorkshire Ripper serial killer. The trio of crime films being made by Revolution Films for Channel 4 are based on three of the four books in British novelist David Peace’s RED RIDING QUARET, which is set in Yorkshire, England in the 1970s and early 1980s. Read on for more details.
The storylines involve examinations of police corruption and perversion of justice in the dogged hunt for the Ripper.
Three different directors, all of whom have previously worked with Film 4 on features, are on board to helm the ambitious project which is budgeted at $10 million in total.
Julian Jarrold (“Becoming Jane”) will direct “Nineteen Seventy-Four,” James Marsh (“Man on Wire”) will direct “Nineteen Eighty” and Anand Tucker (“And When Did You Last See Your Father?”) will direct “Nineteen Eighty-Three.”
Selected elements from Peace’s second book — “Nineteen Seventy Seven” — will be woven into the three pics.
The films, commissioned by Liza Marshall, head of drama, Channel 4, are being made as a TV series with a U.K. theatrical release likely to follow. Pics will carry the Film 4 banner outside the U.K. where they will be sold for theatrical release.
Tony Grisoni, who wrote the screenplay “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” has adapted the three Peace books.
Wendy Brazington and Anita Overland are producing for Revolution. Revolution’s Andrew Eaton is exec producing.
Peace is becoming hot source material for Brit filmmakers. A bigscreen version of his “The Damned United” tome, about legendary (and wildly unpredictable) soccer coach Brian Clough, is currently shooting. BBC Films’ “United” was adapted by Peter Morgan (“The Queen”) and stars Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent and Timothy Spall.
Casting for the Ripper pics is currently underway.
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
You must be logged in to post a comment.