Movies
Raimi Launches Spooky Pictures with ‘The Substitute’
Sam Raimi’s genre label Ghost House is launching Spooky Pictures as a new banner that will produce thrillers for family audiences. First pic will be The Substitute, a remake of the Danish thriller that Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Day the Earth Stod Still) will helm and Columbia Pictures will co-finance and distribute through a first-look deal with Spooky.
Announcement follows a similar label launch by Disney, which is pairing up with Guillermo del Toro to make scary pics for family auds through Double Dare You (Daily Variety, Sept. 11), and signals the kind of thrillers Hollywood may soon be unspooling at the megaplex. Should the labels find an audience, the shift away from slasher fare and the like, often referred to as “gore porn,” is likely.
Project revolves around a terrified sixth-grade class as the students race to reveal to their parents that their new substitute teacher is an evil alien being.
Derrickson is penning the script with Paul Harris Boardman, who co-wrote “Emily Rose” with Derrickson. The two also collaborated on the redo of Fox’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”
Ole Bornedal originally wrote and directed “The Substitute,” which bowed in 2007.
Spooky will finance, develop and produce its own family fare under Ghost House, which has a deal with Mandate Pictures.
Raimi and Rob Tapert (“The Grudge” series and “30 Days of Night”) will serve as producers of the “Substitute” remake through Spooky, while Russell Hollander and Nathan Kahane will serve as executive producers. Tendo Nagenda and J.R. Young will shepherd for Spooky.
Pic’s original filmmakers, Bornedal and Michael Obel, will produce through their Thura Films banner.
Don Mancini is hard at work scripting a brand new Chucky movie, which will take the franchise is an unexpected new direction according to the voice behind killer doll Chucky.
Don’t expect the new film to pick up from where the series left off, Academy Award nominee Brad Dourif teased at the Creep I.E. Cinema panel hosted by Bloody Disgusting this weekend.
“If I know Don, I would say what he’s going to do is something completely different that I hadn’t thought of, that nobody had thought of,” the actor tells the audience.
It’s worth noting that the upcoming film is still in early development. So much so that Dourif has heard multiple different ideas for the ninth film in Mancini’s Chucky universe. “There is actually going to be another film made,’ Dourif explains, “I’ve heard maybe three pitches —that’s not a detail, and I’m not saying what they are—but they’re all different.”
Emmy nominee Fiona Dourif was on hand to prevent her dad from spoiling any plot details, of course.
As we reported back in April, Don Mancini is aiming to make Chucky scary again in the brand new Chucky movie that will finally bring the (original) killer doll back to the big screen. Mancini’s plan is to return the franchise to the tone of Curse of Chucky as well as the first two original Child’s Play movies, once again dialing back the comedy and hijinks.
Brad Dourif voiced Chucky in all of the original Child’s Play movies as well as more recent installments Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky, and all three seasons of the TV series. And Dourif doesn’t plan on giving the character to anyone else anytime soon. He recently told the crowd at Spooky Empire, “Nobody’s doing Chucky but me.”
Stay tuned for more updates on all things Chucky.