Movies
San Diego Comic-Con ’11: ‘The Darkness’ Gives It Another Go
The upcoming San Diego Comic-con usually yields its fair share of announcements and deals about properties being developed as entertainment vehicles. One of the more noteworthy nuggets going into this year’s confab? New life for a movie based on the popular comic book property The Darkness, reports the LA Times.
Mandeville Films, the Walt Disney-affiliated producers behind last year’s Oscar contender The Fighter, has pacted with “Darkness” publisher Top Cow to develop a film based on the dark genre piece. A spokeswoman for Mandeville confirmed the deal.
The graphic novels center on a mobster named Jackie Estacado who discovers he has inherited a murderous power known as “the darkness” that allows him to summon creatures from another realm. Estacado must then find a way to tame the power while vanquishing his enemies within the crime family in which he operates.
Co-created by Top Cow founder Marc Silvestri in 1996, “The Darkness” has yielded more than 115 books and sold 25 million copies around the world, according to the company. It’s also spawned a popular video game, with a sequel set to come out in October.
In case you haven’t noticed, the public domain status of beloved icons like Winnie the Pooh, Cinderella and Mickey Mouse has been wreaking havoc on the horror genre in the past couple years, with filmmakers itching to get their hands on the characters and put them into twisted situations. In the wake of two Winnie the Pooh slashers, well, Pooh is about to battle Mickey.
It’s not from the same team behind the Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey films, to be clear, but Deadline reports that Glenn Douglas Packard (Pitchfork) will direct the horror movie Mickey vs. Winnie for Untouchables Entertainment and the website iHorror.
Deadline details, “The film follows two convicts in the 1920s who escape into a cursed forest only to be dragged and consumed into the depths of the dark forest’s muddy heart.
“A century later, a group of thrill-seeking friends unknowingly venture into the same woods. Their Airbnb getaway takes a horrifying turn when the convicts mutate into twisted versions of childhood icons Mickey Mouse & Winnie-The-Pooh, and emerge to terrorize them. A night of violence and gore erupts, as the group of friends battle against their now monstrous beloved childhood characters and fight to break free from the forest’s grip.
“In a horrific spectacle, Mickey and Winnie clash, painting the woods in a gruesome tableau of blood—a chilling testament to the curse’s insidious power.”
Glenn Douglas Packard wrote the screenplay that he’ll be directing.
“Horror fans call for the thrill of witnessing icons like the new Aliens and Avengers sharing the screen. While licensing nightmares make such crossovers rare, Mickey vs. Winnie serves as our tribute to that thrilling fantasy,” Packard said in a statement this week.
Producer Anthony Pernicka from iHorror previews, “We’re thrilled to unveil this unique take to horror fans. The Mickey Mouse featured in our film is unlike any iteration audiences have encountered before. Our portrayal doesn’t involve characters donning basic masks. Instead, we present deeply transformed, live-action horror renditions of these iconic figures, weaving together elements of innocence and malevolence. After experiencing the intense scenes we’ve crafted, you’ll never look at Mickey the same way again.”
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