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Fresh Progress From Hell: ‘Constantine’ Sequel Still in the Cards
I’m pretty sure my balls shriveled up inside my body while talking to legendary producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who received the Producer’s Showcase Award at Thursday night’s Saturn Awards. I approached her in the press room backstage with just had one question on my mind – ‘will Constantine 2 ever move forward?’ – and she…kinda answered me. Put a cup on and peruse on inside.
“I hope [it happens]. I want to,” she said. “We tried it, we always got there, and then we had a few bumps in the road. Keanu was involved with us, everybody was. We just had a few bumps in the road.”
The project isn’t dead in the water yet, though: “We’re gonna try again…we heard a good take,” she told me before brushing me aside, presumably on her way to enjoying a blood-soaked, extra-rare steak dinner at some swanky Beverly Hills establishment. At least, that’s what I envisioned in my own head.
The 2005 Francis Lawrence directed film was an adaptation of the DC/Vertigo comic book “Hellblazer”. It told the story of irreverent supernatural detective John Constantine (Reeves), who has literally been to hell and back. When Constantine teams up with skeptical policewoman Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) to solve the mysterious suicide of her twin sister (also played by Weisz), their investigation takes them through the world of demons and angels that exists just beneath the landscape of contemporary Los Angeles. Caught in a catastrophic series of otherworldy events, the two become inextricably involved and seek to find their own peace at whatever cost.
A gnarly infection threatens to claw its way out of a moving camper in the first trailer for Shudder’s claustrophobic Hellcat.
The feature debut of writer/editor/director Brock Bodell, who previously edited the Fantasia title Ultrasound, makes its debut on Shudder on August 14.
In Hellcat, “Lena wakes up in a moving camper trailer with a horrifying wound. She’s warned by the driver that they have one hour to get to a doctor, or she’ll succumb to an unimaginably awful fate. As the pain sets in and reality begins to fray, who should really be afraid?”
Dakota Gorman (Natural Disasters) leads the cast that also includes Todd Terry (“Breaking Bad”), Liz Atwater (The Other People), Jordan Mullins (The Bikeriders), and James Austin Johnson (“Saturday Night Live”) in a voice role. Bodell also produces alongside Andrew Duensing and Nate Eggert.
Hellcat made its world premiere last summer at Fantasia. I wrote in my review, “Hellcat is a bit of a Trojan horror that defies easy classification, by design. Bodell’s sneaky debut feature is occasionally too sparse in its worldbuilding in its bid to preserve the mystery, but not enough to detract from the thrilling road thriller that transforms into a completely left-field type of horror we don’t get nearly enough of. The stripped-down tribute to a classic horror staple catches you off guard in more ways than one, marking Bodell as one to watch.”
In other words, there’s a lot more than meets the eye to Hellcat‘s simple infection setup, delivering plenty of surprises along its bumpy road of horrors.
Check out the trailer and poster below and add Hellcat to your watchlists asap.
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