Movies
News Bites: ‘Human Centipede’ Squirms in UK, ‘Fright Night 2’ Talk and ‘Ghost Rider’s Huge Comic-Con Reveal
While I’m sure that IFC Midnight will go unrated with Tom Six’s The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence here in the States, the UK is waiting on some rating confirmation before a distributuion deal is struck. Screen Daily reports that UK outfit Eureka Entertainment is waiting on the BBFC’s (British Board of Film Classification) analysis of Six’s sequel that the director claimed would make the controversial first film “look like My Little Pony” in comparison. Six’s original garnered buzz in part thanks to its shocking premise – the film follows a German doctor who kidnaps three tourists and joins them surgically, anus to mouth, to form a human centipede. Providing it gets the green light from the BBFC, Eureka Entertainment will handle the film’s UK distribution on behalf of Bounty Films. The story line to the sequel has largely been kept under wraps, but the film was shot in London with an almost entirely British cast and will feature a centipede with 12 people involved. The tagline for the sequel is “100% medically inaccurate.”
One of the funniest stories to break this week is Cinema Blend‘s claim that “a source” told them that DreamWorks is thinking “franchise” with their forthcoming remake of Fright Night 3D. Anyone working in the industry will tell you that if a film performs, a sequel will quickly go into development. Not to say this report is shill, it’s just “DUH” times a million (maybe even a trillion). What they add is that if a sequel were to happen, DreamWorks is considering turning the franchise over to David Tennant – who plays Vegas magician Peter Vincent- for Fright Night 2. The followup would take place in a new city where Vincent not only has to deal with vampires, but potentially other unexpected problems. Evil Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plass) wouldn’t be the movie’s villain, they’d go another direction, but Evil Ed will be in it, they claim. The R-rated Fright Night hits theaters August 19.
Those of you attending this July’s San Diego Comic-Con you might want to get in line now (otherwise you won’t get in the over crowded room) to catch the first footage from Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance. Directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor revealed on Twitter that there will be a huge reveal: “can’t wait to reveal the evolved GR…… comicon seems like a year away.” adding, “not sure where the last one came from, but this GR comes from nightmares.” Even with Nicolas Cage reprising his role as Johnny Blaze, the duo promise a much darker adaptation of the popular Marvel comic. The 3-D flick arrives in theaters February 17, 2012.
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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