Movies
Influential ‘Castle’ Getting Big Screen Treatment
One of the most influential writers of our time is about to take filmgoers to a horrific journey into We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as Michael Douglas’ Further Films is developing Shirley Jackson’s novel into a feature film. Jackson penned “The Lottery,” “The Haunting of Hill House,” among many other classic tales. Beyond the break you can read about Castle and see what they plan on doing with the adaptation.
Further Films is developing the novel “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” Jackson’s 1962 tome about a reclusive, potentially murderous family. it will be penned by Mark Krueger (“The 4400”).
“Castle” revolves around the Blackwood family — primarily of sisters Merricat and Connie and their uncle Julian — who have been forced into seclusion after the mysterious lethal poisoning of several of their family members six years earlier. Merricat is the younger sister, caring for the agoraphobic Connie, while the ailing Julian increasingly is in the grip of his own obsessions.
The plot is further complicated by the arrival of a dubious, long-lost cousin who seeks to secure the family’s fortune.
“Castle” has never had a big-screen treatment but was adapted for a short-lived Broadway run in the 1960s. Those familiar with the feature take say it will combine literary and genre elements in what producers hope will transcend the more high-concept commercial horror stories that studios and their labels are making.
Horror gurus like Stephen King have cited Jackson as a prime influence on their work. The author, who died in 1965, probably is best known for her short story “The Lottery,” a 1948 tale originally published by the New Yorker. That story tells of a secret ritual stoning in a small American town. Initially controversial, it has become a staple in U.S. classrooms.
Several of Jackson’s novels have been made into films, including the Elizabeth Parker-toplined “Lizzie,” the 1957 split-personality thriller based on Jackson’s novel “The Bird’s Nest,” and “The Haunting,” a 1963 Robert Wise pic based on the gothic tale “The Haunting of Hill House.” In 1999, DreamWorks turned that novel into a Liam Neeson-Catherine Zeta-Jones starrer, also titled “The Haunting.” The film went on to earn $180 million worldwide.
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.
The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallis.
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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