Movies
Bertino Returns to Write ‘Strangers’ Sequel
We broke the news exclusively here on B-D Back in June that Rogue Pictures was planning a sequel to their summer smash-hit, The Strangers, which racked in over $50 million here in the States. Today the news became official as Rogue has tapped Bryan Bertino to return to write the script. Bertino wrote and directed the first film. Read on for the full story.
Bertino wrote the original and made his directing debut on the film; it’s yet to be determined whether he’ll helm the sequel.
The expectation is that Liv Tyler, along with several of the original villains, will return. Production is being slated for early 2009.
“Strangers” became Rogue’s first breakout hit, and the genre division of Focus Features is approaching the sequel as a franchise that could have the legs of “Saw” or “Scream.”
Budgeted at $9 million, the film grossed $54 million domestically in a highly competitive summer release slot. It has just begun an international rollout that expands to the U.K. this Friday.
Like the original, the sequel will be a co-production of Vertigo Entertainment and Mandate Pictures, with Doug Davison, Roy Lee and Nathan Kahane producing. Rogue is co-financing along with Intrepid Pictures, whose principals, Marc D. Evans and Trevor Macy, will be exec producers.
Bertino is also scripting to direct Black, a character-driven thriller with supernatural elements, and is rewriting to direct the thriller Alone. Both are for Rogue.
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.
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