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Comic-Con ’11: Francis Ford Coppola Plans 30-City Tour for 3-D Horror ‘Twixt’

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Francis Ford Coppola hasn’t been to Comic-Con to promote one of his projects since Bram Stoker’s Dracula, in 1992. But the helmer took the stage in Hall H again, Saturday morning, to discuss his latest horror pic, Twixt, a self-produced pic that stars Val Kilmer, Ben Chaplin and Elle Fanning, and is a story based on a dream he once had.

In the horror flick, “A writer with a declining career arrives in a small town as part of his book tour and gets caught up in a murder mystery involving a young girl. That night in a dream, he is approached by a mysterious young ghost named V. He’s unsure of her connection to the murder in the town, but is grateful for the story being handed to him. Ultimately he is led to the truth of the story, surprised to find that the ending has more to do with his own life than he could ever have anticipated.

See some choice quotes from Coppola inside, courtesy of Variety.
I don’t like watching 3D with glasses,” said Francis Ford Coppola during his presentation for horror pic “Twixt.” He admitted to watching “Avatar” much of the time without the 3D glasses, wanting to only put them on when he thought the scenes required to be seen that way.

I was taken back when all studios said they would make all movies in 3D as if it’s the magic fix. No,” Coppola said. Instead, technology enables directors to experiment in other ways.

Films are digital files and if the director wanted to he could change the experience to suit the audience,” including the music, which Coppola wants to do for a live audience when he travels the country in October. Coppola essentially wants to rollout the pic as a live concert-like tour in 30 cities, where he alters the music as the film plays on the fly.

In a “dress rehearsal,” Coppola used an iPad and computers to demonstrate performance for auds in the 6,000 seat room wearing Edgar Allen Poe masks with built-in 3D glasses. The author appears as a character in the pic, which does not yet have distribution.

Imagine this for 30 nights,” joked the composer after a number of starts and stops.

When a fan asked if Coppola could promise no one would remake “The Godfather,” “I was 29 when I made ‘The Godfather’ and have no legal control over it.

When they remake old films it’s a pity because that money could go into making new films with new stories,” Coppola said.

Twixt

Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts

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In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.

The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.

But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).

Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.

That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.

Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.

Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.

In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”

Abigail Melissa Barrera movie

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