Movies
How ‘Annabelle: Creation’ Literally Brought David F. Sandberg’s Dreams to Life
Some of the best scenes in Annabelle: Creation involve a toy gun that shoots a ball attached to a string. Once shot, the ball can be reeled back in with a little wheel on the gun. Lulu Wilson’s Linda wields it against Annabelle herself, and the gun itself is pretty cool looking. Even cooler though is how Sandberg came up with it.
“That actually came from a dream I had” he explained to us during a chat a couple weeks ago. “When we were in pre-production I dreamed that scene pretty much, like I was watching the movie almost before we had shot it and I woke up and wrote that down immediately and then I sent that to [writer] Gary Dauberman: ‘is this something we can put in the movie?’ And he was like, ‘Why don’t I have dreams like that?’”
At this point I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The toy gun stood out to me in the film as something that looked like it could exist as a joke weapon in Fallout 4. Being told that it was brought to life from a dream was awesome. I excitedly asked him to tell me more about it.
“So yeah, we found a place to put it in, which was really cool because the prop guys built that thing which was from my dream and I got to mold it and play with it,” Sandberg explained. “That was the weird thing. I don’t know where that came from in the dream but I’d never seen that, a pop gun with a reel on it, but somehow my brain put that together.”
I think the biggest reason Annabelle: Creation works so well is that Sandberg is so clearly in love with both the genre and the story he sets out to tell; he was coming up with ideas in his dreams, after all! The same level of care resulted in last year’s Ouija: Origin of Evil, so it’s a good thing that Warner Brothers took a page out of Universal’s book and actually put an effort into making a genuinely great follow-up with Annabelle: Creation.
If you want to see the toy gun in action, the full clip is below.
We learned earlier this week that “Hannibal” creator Bryan Fuller is no longer the showrunner of A24 and Peacock’s Friday the 13th TV series “Crystal Lake,” with A24 choosing to “go a different way with the material.” What does that mean? It means A24 is still planning on bringing a Friday the 13th series to life, but the overall vision will likely change.
Kevin Williamson (Scream, Sick) had been on board to write an episode of the “Crystal Lake” series, and Williamson took to Twitter today to tease some of those original plans.
Williamson writes, “Bummin’ hard, so sorry I won’t be a part of what would have been an epic Bryan Fuller show. Your pilot was so beautifully realized. A gorgeous portrait of a mother unraveling in her grief. Not to mention bloody horrific!”
He adds, “I was so looking forward to our hour long chase episode!“
Kevin Williamson is of course known for writing incredible slasher movie chase sequences, including the ones seen in the original Scream and Scream 2, as well as I Know What You Did Last Summer and last year’s Sick. It’s hard not to imagine how cool an hour-long Friday the 13th chase episode could be in Williamson’s hands, but alas, it’s not happening anymore.
The silver lining? Williamson is directing the next installment in the Scream franchise.
The director of Cube, Splice and several episodes of “Hannibal,” Vincenzo Natali also took to Twitter this weekend to give us a taste of the “Crystal Lake” series we’ll never see.
Natali tweets, “I have read the first two episodes. Bryan Fuller’s Crystal Lake was well on its way to becoming another Hannibal-level reinvention that was simultaneously beautiful, sad, poetic, funny and horrifying. I mourn its passing.”
A24 and Peacock are now searching for a new showrunner for the series. Stay tuned.
Peacock had given the project a straight-to-series order in 2022, with “Crystal Lake” being described as an “expanded prequel” to the original Friday the 13th franchise featuring both Jason Voorhees and his mother, Pamela Voorhees. Original Friday the 13th final girl Adrienne King had even signed on for a recurring role in the planned A24 television series.
Bummin’ hard, so sorry I won’t be a part of what would have been an epic Bryan Fuller show. Your pilot was so beautifully realized. A gorgeous portait of a mother unraveling in her grief. Not to mention bloody horrific! I was so looking forward to our hour long chase episode!
— Kevin Williamson (@kevwilliamson) May 11, 2024
I have read the first two episodes. @BryanFuller’s Crystal Lake was well on its way to becoming another Hannibal-level reinvention that was simultaneously beautiful, sad, poetic, funny and horrifying. I mourn its passing. https://t.co/ob0kF4MQHM
— Vincenzo Natali (@Vincenzo_Natali) May 11, 2024
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