Movies
Michael Bay Talks ‘Friday the 13th’ Twist!
We’ve heard all about the upcoming Friday the 13th over the past few months, and while there has been plenty revealed, there is still one man who hasn’t spoken up. This afternoon Entertainment Weekly spoke to Platinum Dunes producer (and big action director) Michael Bay about the forthcoming return of Jason Voorhees divulging some interesting news about a possible “twist”?! Read on for the skinny.
While talking to Entertainment Weekly, Bay talked a bit about the new plot for the remake, which arrives in theaters February 13, 2009.
“It’s a reconception of the original. We’re introducing a whole group of new kids. What we always try to do is add a little bit of freshness to these movies that were really scary back then and update them for a new audience.”
Bay continues, “I haven’t seen the director’s cut because he’s still cutting, but I know this one will really be scary; it’s also funny, as well. It’s a fun college adventure that goes awry. It’s not a movie I would ever show my mom! (Laughs) We don’t make these for our mothers; we make these for the fans out there.”
He also took the chance to respond directly to the haters of the remake, which are all over the place…
“There are always haters out there, and you can’t get rid of that” he explains. “We try to be faithful, and we’re fans ourselves. It’s like when I did Transformers — I listened to the fans, you know, but you still have to make your own movie by respecting what was done and trying to give it a whole new twist.”
A whole new twist? You might want to get that SPOILER hard hat on before you read the next sentance…
“You’re just not going to believe the first 12 minutes! It’s a twist in itself…”
Watch for more as it comes in. The first image of Jason is rumored to appear as early as this week!
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
You must be logged in to post a comment.