Movies
First Look at ‘Devil’s Playground’
London-based film finance and international sales company, Intandem Films has picked up worldwide rights to the thriller DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND. The film, written by Bart Ruspoli stars Danny Dyer (Severance, Adulthood, Straightheads, The Business, Football Factory, Doghouse), Craig Fairbrass (The Bank Job, Far Cry, White Noise 2), Jaime Murray (“Dexter”), Myanna Buring (The Descent, The Descent 2, Lesbian Vampire Killers, The Omen) and Colin Salmon (Punisher, Alien vs Predator, Resident Evil, Tomorrow Never Dies, Exam). Directed by Mark McQueen with Freddie Hutton-Mills and Jonathan Sothcott producing, the film has Suki Dulai, Martin Halls and Gary Smith of Intandem Films attached as Executive Producers.
DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND is a chilling horror film set in London in the not too distant future. A leading drug company’s new product has failed spectacularly causing severe illness in all 30,000 of its test subjects, with the exception of one user – a pregnant woman named Angela. As the drugs flow through their bloodstream the victims become infected, incredibly violent and unable to feel pain. One bite and you join them in the Living Dead. The company employs Cole, an ex-mercenary to hunt down Angela and find out why she is immune. As Cole stalks through the London streets and battles the fast-moving, diseased hordes, he finally finds Angela with a group of survivors and discovers that their only hope of getting out alive is to fight their way to the last remaining helicopter out.
DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND commenced principal photography in late 2009 and is currently in the final stages of post-production.
Producer Freddie Hutton-Mills claims: “As we were making the film, we really felt that we were meshing a number of different audiences into one and giving each one everything they’d expect – plus a bit extra. The idea of using free-runners as the quick and acrobatic zombies, combined with Danny Dyer in the lead, all piggy-backed off an already established genre. We think we have a mix that will excite the audience and definitely cause a few ripples.”
Billy Hurman of Intandem Films further mentioned, “It is a real thrill to be working on such a unique project. It’s easy to think a free-running zombie film like this could be a gratuitous horror gore-fest, but we all felt that the script had much more to offer. We saw an emotional story with well-developed characters that you really want to see get through the impending doom. It is also a pleasure to be working with such a great team and with a cast that has a real value in this successful genre.”
Director Mark McQueen remarked: “DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND is a story following a man with a dark past on a mission of redemption to find something he can do to repent all of his previous sins. When an outbreak of a fatal infection happens at the company where he was head of security – a company he had tortured, killed and stolen for to benefit them – the opportunity to do good for once arises. That opportunity is to find and save the one person who holds the cure for the expanding outbreak that is turning people into these wild infected beings.”
Additional genre titles recently picked up by Intandem includes Neil Marshall’s THE GHOST OF SLAUGHTERFORD.
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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