Movies
Cult Icons Topline Halo-8’s ‘Godkiller’
Cult icons Lance Henriksen (Aiens, Pumpkinhead), Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Repo!), Tiffany Shepis (Night of the Demons), Justin Pierre, Lydia Lunch, and Davey Havok (singer of A.F.I.) have signed on for the ‘illustrated film’ adaptation Godkiller, written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Matt Pizzolo (Threat) based on the comic book he created with illustrator Anna Muckcracker.
Producer Halo-8 Entertainment will unveil a preview clip at Comic-Con International’s Wondercon in San Francisco during the “Indie Film and Comics” panel on Saturday February 28, 2009
“I’m astonished and excited by the incredible talents who’ll be joining us to bring these characters to life. We want to create something really cool and unique and different from everything else out there… it’s truly humbling to have such accomplished collaborators on the team,” said Pizzolo.
The ‘illustrated film’ Pizzolo is creating for the adaption mixes elements of anime, radio drama, video games, and motion comics. Utilizing the original artwork from the comic book, the ‘illustrated film’ adds motion animation, visual effects, elaborate sound design, music, and voice-acting performances. Halo-8 intends to release limited-edition, serialized, short-form DVDs through the Spring and Summer before releasing the full-length feature theatrically in Fall 2009.
Pizzolo explained “when we decided to make an anime adaptation of the comic book, I couldn’t see how a traditional animated approach would do justice to Anna’s incredibly lush and detailed illustrations. It made perfect sense to adapt the medium to suit her art, rather than vice versa.”
GODKILLER takes place in a dark-future after economic collapse, after nuclear holy war, and after Earth is colonized by alien races. Tommy and his kid sister Lucy live in an orphanage in one of the few remaining city-states, but Lucy is critically ill and desperately in need of a new heart. Tommy’s odyssey to find a new heart for his sister begins when he follows an organ-stealing prostitute named Halfpipe out of the city-state and into the savage borderland known as Outer City. GODKILLER mixes unforgiving brutality, quantum physics, conspiracy theory, and secret history for an iconoclastic hero’s journey like none before it.
Pizzolo and Halo-8 are currently putting together a team for the ‘illustrated film’ based on his comic book “HOW I LOST MY VIRGINITY -BY ALEXANDRA JONES,” as well as other titles Halo-8 has in development.
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
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