Before helming The Midnight Meat Train and the awful No One Lives, Ryuhei Kitamura delivered the Japanese indie Versus as well as Godzilla: Final Wars.
Now, he’s been tapped to helm Vessels, a supernatural thriller based on the legendary history and hauntings aboard The Queen Mary, Bloody Disgusting learned.
Vessels is the first in a slate of films for Ubiquity Studios, whose team will finance production. The script is from Gary Dauberman whose credits include Annabelle.
The Queen Mary has a storied and legendary haunted past. Larger than The RMS Titanic, the Queen Mary was the Cunard Line’s flagship until being commissioned as an allied troop transport in 1936. Nicknamed “The Grey Ghost” for its uncanny ability to avoid Nazi U-Boats, the craft was so vital to war efforts that Hitler offered $250,000 and the Grand Iron Cross to anyone who could sink it. Despite this, the Queen Mary would make exactly 1,000 ocean crossings before being retired in 1967 with the record for most people ever transported on a single vessel at one time. The great boat did suffer its share of tragedy, though. In 1942, she jackknifed her own escort ship, but due to the presence of U-Boats, had to flee without a rescue mission leaving 239 soldiers to perish in the freezing waters. Later that year, a ninety-five foot wave hit and nearly capsized the Queen Mary while 16,000 soldiers were aboard, an incident that inspired the original Poseidon Adventure which was shot on the Queen Mary in 1971.
Vessels will be shot on-location aboard the ship in Long Beach, CA, as well as at Ubiquity’s studio in Irvine, CA.
Brett Tomberlin of Ubiquity is producing with Andrew Trapani (Haunting in Connecticut) and Brian Gilbert (Wrong Turn) of Nine/8 Entertainment and Mali Elfman (Before I Wake). Ubiquity’s Chris Carmichael and Connie Jordan are Executive Producers.
Vessels will begin filming in early 2016.