Movies
Principal Photography Begins Tomorrow on ‘Saw VII 3D’
While there was a shred of hope that Kevin Greutert would return to Paramount to get behind the camera for Paranormal Activity 2, it looks as if the director of Saw VI will be reluctantly starting principal photography on Saw VII 3D tomorrow. Greutert made an official comment on the start of Jigsaw’s seventh game that can be read beyond the break. What do you guys think?
“Well, team, it’s hard to believe, but I start rolling high res 3D video on this movie tomorrow morning,” he states on the House of Jigsaw forum. “It’s still an unreal fog to me (the experience, not the 3D video, although come to think of it… well, never mind that for now…), having one week to prep the most expensive SAW film of all. We’ve attempted a comprehensive rewrite on the script since I got here, but it’s tough: the sets are built, the traps are built, the storyline is set, and any major changes mean throwing out existing stuff, and it’s hard to find the time, money and will to do things a different way.
It has not been a picnic, but the crew is working hard, and I am as well. On those rare occasions when I can actually go to sleep, I see images like the World Trade Center collapsing in slow motion, plane crashes, drownings, other bad shit. It’s unhealthy for me, but hopefully the creepy scariness of my life right now is somehow translating into a vibe that will be good for the movie, if they’ll just give me a chance to put my stamp on it here and there. Very difficult indeed…
Thanks for hanging with me, everyone. And send some love to David Hackl, he could use it as much as me, if not more.”
David Hackl was originally slated to direct until Lionsgate exercised their option in Greutert’s contract to force him to return, instead o directing PA2. SAW VII 3D arrives in theaters October 22.
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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