Movies
Tom Holland Remaking His Own ‘The Beast Within’
In 1982 Fright Night and Child’s Play director Tom Holland got his start when his screenplay for The Beast Within was put into production.
Directed by Philippe Mora, the film followed a teenager that is experiencing growing pains of a most shocking kind in this all-too-real story of a human-into monster transformation.
Fangoria caught up with Holland, who reveals that he’s currently developing a remake because some of what he wrote couldn’t be filmed for the 1982 release.
That’s why “I am now preparing a remake,” he tells the site. “Cicadas were a large part of the script I wrote; their 17-year transformation foreshadowed what was happening to Michael [the afflicted young hero played by Paul Clemens]. You couldn’t work with insects then, couldn’t capture what I wrote, but CGI now does make that possible.”
He points out, however, that he would not want Michael’s climactic shapeshift into a monster to be done digitally. “Michael’s transformation should still be old-school, done in-camera. The lure of a remake is to finally be able to do what I originally wrote.”
In the original, 18-year-old Michael MacCleary (the progeny of an unholy union between his mother and a swamp beast) is on the verge of becoming a man. And as the inherited evil in his blood gnaws at his soul, Michael must return to the swamp to uncover the terrifying identity of his father: before his nasty natural tendencies force him to feed on the locals!
Holland’s 10 O’Clock People has been in development for years now. His Twisted Tales hit video this year, and his last feature was the 1996 Thinner.
Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 psychological horror movie Possession is getting a remake from Smile writer/director Parker Finn, and Deadline reports that The Batman actor Paul Dano has joined the cast.
No word at this time on character details, though.
The original film starred Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill as a married couple in Cold War-era West Berlin whose relationship spirals into a supernatural nightmare. In Finn’s update, Margaret Qualley and Callum Turner will star as the turbulent couple in Finn’s Possession, and Adjani has officially given her blessing on Qualley’s casting.
Parker Finn is writing and directing the new take on Possession.
He’s also producing alongside Jonathan Fass via Bad Feeling, along with Roy Lee and Andrew Childs via Vertigo, and Robert Pattinson. Marc Bienstock is serving as exec producer.
Our own Brian Keiper celebrated Possession‘s 40th anniversary here on BD back in 2021, writing: “Few movies depict emotional turmoil as effectively and daringly as Andrzej Zulawksi’s Possession. It is a challenging and sometimes inscrutable film, both for the mind and the emotions. Zulawski struggles through a number of deep issues throughout the course of the film; issues that speak to some of humanity’s deepest pains and fears. In many ways it is about loss— loss of political ideals, loss of faith, and loss of innocence. But most of all, Possession is about the fear, pain, and anger that comes from the loss of a marriage.”
This will mark Dano’s first horror role. The actor previously appeared in sci-fi hits Looper and Okja.
Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill in Possession
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