Movies
‘The Dark Tower’ Still Standing?
Between this and the Arrested Development movie Ron Howard seems to baiting eternal harassment from the fans of projects that are never really going to happen.
Universal Pictures pulled the plug on The Dark Tower last month but producer Brian Grazer is claiming that their (INSANELY HUGE) project will still go forward.
Speaking to The New York Post’s Page Six Grazer insisted that he and Howard are “trying to get outside financing to make it, and distribute it through a major [studio].”
According to Grazer, the current plan is for Howard to shoot the epic three-part tale of Roland Deschain (Javier Bardem is apparently still attached) after shooting the racing movie Rush. This timetable would prime him to return to The Dark Tower sometime around June of next year.
Or, most probably, never.
Even though Grazer suggests that Uni dropping the property has opened them up to other distribution options for the TV Spin-Offs, the likelihood that the Theatrical Features that need to happen first will find the appropriate financing is pretty grim.
And before you cry out, “but what about Lord Of The Rings?” please realize that “The Dark Tower” series of books doesn’t carry the same cultural heft. Also, it’s been 13 years since LOTR was greenlit and A LOT has changed and The Hobbit is only getting made by the skin of its teeth. Blockbusters are more expensive to produce than ever and the scale of The Dark Tower just makes the whole damn thing too prohibitive.
You could pile 10 cash-rich investors on top of each other and still not be able to cover all the bases needed to make it happen.
These days we just don’t have enough crazy people like Bob Shaye around willing to light their money on fire.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallis.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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