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Now that THE MUMMY has made $44.7 Million Dollars, let's look at a couple of HORROR projects that would do similar biz!
Alright everyone. I went back, and took a second look at THE MUMMY with a Saturday Night Audience that just ate that film up. And you know what I started thinking? Real live HORROR films with a large scope and big budgets could very well be the wave of the future. Gone are the Teen Slasher films, and now... Real Horror is in. Horror/Adventure films are in. (And you know what Hollywood? I've been telling you this for 3 damn years now!)
There are a couple of projects that just scream to be made now. Strangely... Three of them are in the hands of Guillermo Del Toro... MEPHISTO'S BRIDGE, LIST OF SEVEN and HELLBOY. I've had the privilege to be allowed to read these three scripts and... folks if you liked THE MUMMY... heh... You ain't seen nothing yet. Just watching the effects in THE MUMMY and how that would translate in the vastly superior script of LIST OF SEVEN scares me. I mean... Jesus, this film is a grand period Horror Adventure film just SCREAMING TO BE MADE! You folks that have read the novel know what I'm talking about. I'm just praying that Hollywood doesn't think that the reason THE MUMMY made $44.7 million is because of Brendan Fraser... A guy I like, but FOLKS.... The Mummy is why THE MUMMY made so much damn money! The fact that an A-Budget was spent on the film, and that the movie wasn't shorted in any areas (although arguably the script is up for discussion).
Another film is I AM LEGEND... An utterly amazing script by Mark Protosevich, a film that could have been out already had Warners not scattered in terror.
And lastly.... There is the big daddy for me. Stuart Gordon's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. Here.... Take a look at these images from some back issues of FANGORIA magazine and an old Full Moon calendar. This is quite possibly the greatest Horror film never made. WAKE UP HOLLYWOOD! Big Budget Fantasy/Horror/Adventure is here! Get up and open the door. Trust your horror filmmakers. Give them the budgets to make our nightmares a reality. These nightmares don't shoot guns, instead they become slippery monsters.... Something that noone can allegedly emulate! Bring it on!!!!
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Greets!
I read The List of Seven novel a couple of years ago, and was really taken by it. Although I am not overly familiar with the Sherlock Holmes stories, I will probably pursue them now (for those of you not familiar with the story, The List of Seven is a story about Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Holmes books, and his travelling companion Jack Sparks on whom he based Holmes) I didn't know they were going to make a movie about it, but I can see how it might work. None the less I don't know if they'll be able to pull off the same degree of mystery the book had, involving the whole Sparks character deal, and leave me with the same impressions I had reading it, but we'll have to wait and see.
On a side note, I recently read the sequel to this book, called "The Six Messiahs" (both books are by Mark Frost). I didn't find it as satisfying on the whole, but it did have some interesting characters and a few good scenes. -
Screw all this "I know what you did last Ramadam" sequels shite!
I remember this poster from Fango years ago. I always thought they made it. I hope the girl was real, her tits are great... Don't tell me she was CGI...By the way whatever happend to Charlie Band? -
Just an aside here; The List Of 7 (original novel) was written by Mark Frost, co-creator of Twin Peaks with David Lynch. That project sounds okay, but Del Toro's version of Mignola's Hellboy is a much more exciting prospect. Beyond all that, I'm still waiting for the big screen adaptation of George R.R. Martin's "The Armageddon Rag"
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There is a 64 page comic coming out this June titled 'Myth Maker' which would be signalling the return of REAL Horror, and the pulp flavor that everyone seems to be rediscovering. It is by Cross Plains Comics and they are also planning to put out adaptations of Lovecraft. Robert E Howard's horror related work is the theme of the first issue.Check out the CPC website and the impressive lineup of talent in 'Myth Maker'.
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Irony of ironies!!! Years ago Variety announced that List of 7 was set up by Del Toro and Mark Frost at... (drumroll) Universal!!! Later, in San Diego's Comicon Del Toro said Universal had passed early on claiming they wouldn't do "period adventures" for they wouldn't do bussines, Del Toro asked them to explain what the INDIANA JONES series was... Since then List of 7 has been bumped around "almost set-up" at different studios at different times. I own a copy of an early draft. It contains about 3 or 4 types of creatures and monsters that are not in the book and the action is at a larger scale and geared more towards scary rather than pyrotechnics. A concept of a "Victorian" James Bond would be discarded now in lieu of WWW, but the movie would still be scary as hell. There is a scene between Doyle and Sparks (the Holmesian character) and a band of reanimated corpses that just screams to be filmed. All that said I would also like to see HELLBOY, now THAT's a grand horror-action blend...
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...With plenty of room to roll over in. As intriguing as these pictures are, Harry, Stuart Gordon is to H.P. Lovecraft what Iron Maiden is to H.P. Lovecraft. He has shown too many times that he doesn't have enough respect for Lovecraft's work to make a proper film adaptation. What he makes are hack cheese-fests with a Lovecraftian backdrop.
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you know, I'm 29 years old, I gave up reading Fangoria because 1) it got too expencive and 2) all their coverage over films that will never get made like "Shadows over Innsmouth" Artwork and porceline statuettes are great, test makeup photos make us geeks drool in eager anticipation, but to what end? Bait me with great photos for a movie that will never get made? Who cares really. Report on films IN DEVELOPMENT (as opposed to "IN DEVELOPMENT HELL") I'd rather not see all the glorious, super oober cool artwork on "Innsmouth" Fangoria is driving me crazy with a great looking meal I can never eat!! What I want is EVIL DEAD 4, Phantasm 2000 and Twilite of the Living Dead. Make these movies!! McK.
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I simply can't see "List of 7" in contention for production attention when there are so many decades' worth of better material that has been (perhaps TOO patiently) waiting on the shelves. I have given up on anyone doing justice to Lovecraft, although "Innsmouth" is probably the most *filmable* of the stories. ("The Resurrected" is, in my opinion, the best film translation of his stuff so far.) But if HPL is a lost cause, what about Machen's "Great God Pan"? How about an abridged version of Hodgson's "The Night Land"? "I Am Legend" has already had two shots on the screen - I'd rather see something else get a shot, even if it ends up disappointing. I'd much rather see something along the lines of "The Abominations of Yondo" done on an art-house budget than yet-another high-budget remake of Universal's stable of mummies, Dracula, Frankenstein, and wolfmen. "List of 7"'s apocalyptic clap-trap runs too close to the "Omen" syndrome of two decades ago. Lets try out something NEW: OLDER material.
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Night Land?!? You don't think small, do you? The thing would be a DP's worst nightmare (or wet dream, depending on which DP we're talking about) and some of the plot elements would have to be, um... updated (I'm trying not to use 'PC' here, and I'm failing) but... yeah, I could almost see it. It'd take someone with the artistic vision of a Proyas, but yeah. Yeah. I'm starting to like the idea. Who's got dem rights?
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I hope that James Cameron gets off his ass and makes Spiderman. With him in the Directors chair, that movie would kick ass!!!! I hope HOLLYWOOD takes care of the rights to make the movie and gets it done as soon as
possible. -
"The Mummy" a "horror film"? Did you and I see the same movie? I haven't seen a movie that fucking goofy since "The Matrix". "The List of Seven" is an exceptional novel and I shudder to thing what would happen if it were to be given the "Hollywood" treatment.
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Its all good and well saying we should welcome H P Lovecraft's work as horror films but to badly make them, I agree, defeats the purpose. Clive Barker is without a doubt the greatest horror writer since Edgar Alan Poe, but look at the total abortion made of his excellant book 'Rawhead Rex'. Some of the thoughtfulness that was put into some of better horror flicks around should be churned back into some of Barker's 'Books Of Blood', he should not be stereotyped for the failure of 'Rawhead Rex' or the Hollywood hype of the 'Hellraiser' series. Is this just a pipedream, or is it just a fact that some works of horror only work as you fearfully and with shaky suspense, turn the page on the book? Answers on a postcard...
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May 10, 1999 5:59:15 PM CDT
Movies are the best thing that has ever happened to us.
by futuremoviesman
cool
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Id absolutely love to see Lovecraft filmed on a large scale but also consider that the primrary element of practically every one of his stories involved the central character losing his mind at the end. Hollywood is NOT going to make this type of ending, the closest to this was Carpenters In the Mouth of Madness, which didnt exactly have stellar box office receipts.
A more realistic candidate would probably be The Dunwich Horror.
If it means Hollywood would ham up the stories with a BS ending i dont want to see it under the banner of Lovecraft. The whole premise is that 90% of his protagonist were not super human action heroes, but rather ppl who when exposed to horrific situations, lost their grasp on reality.
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First off: Yojimbo, not to nitpick, but it's Richard Matheson who wrote I Am Legend (along with several of the best episodes of the original Twilight Zone). Tim Matheson was Otter in Animal House. That said, I'd like support Stonelove in his opinions re: Clive Barker. Barker doesn't necessarily write horror though. The Books of Blood are predominately what might be classified as horror stories, but his later works mostly qualify as adult fantasy epics. Weaveworld, The Great and Secret Show, Imagica. These novels create whole worlds and populate them not just with horrible abominations but also with sublimely beautiful apparitions. I personally would give a kidney to see Weaveworld made into a film that could do the novel justice. Also, if you can find it, George R.R. Martin's The Skin Trade, a novella I originally read in a horror anthology, is one of the coolest werewolf stories ever.
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Anybody but me notice that the recent MUMMY remake is nothing more than an uncredited remake of a largely forgotten western called MACKENNA'S GOLD(1969)? Many key scenes including the entire ending are right out of MACKENNA'S. I'd like to know if anyone else caught this.
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But I do love that damn movie
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1. It didn't have Will Smith or a crappy rap song.
2. No advertising
Hollywood, make movies not advertisments or tie-ins (and would please someone put an end to Seth Green's career!) -
Perhaps Universal will look into the vaults and remake/update some other Horror Classics. While I don't think we'll see 'Dracula' or 'Frankenstine' remade,how about "The Wolfman"? Oh How about ORION who wons the old AIP Library? how about a remake of "masque of The Red Death' or 'House of Usher' and let's not forget Hammer Studios-perhaps their versions of Drac or Frankie might do the trick...Heck,let's get Christopher Lee back in 'Dracula 2000!'
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Nitekatt, jeez, look how many "Dracula"s and "Frankenstein"s we've had in the last 15 years - there's a new one every other week (or so it would seem). And both "Pit and the Pendulum" and "Masque of the Red Death" have both been "remade" recently. Now, the bumblers are at it again, remaking (of all things) "House on Haunted Hill" and "Haunting of Hill House". (Won't THAT confuse the marching morons of society....) Now, "Night Land", yes, there's some real possibilites there....
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... CLIVE BARKER!!!!
His books are shit scary and if he got enough money and freedom to make things as he want, it'll be the scariest movie ever! -
Hollywood hacks have no idea what to do with H.P. Lovecraft. They can't seem to film one of his stories and do it justice (the only good one I can think of is Stuart Gordon's RE-ANIMATOR -- and even that was loosely based on the Herbert West stories). Remember the atrocious version of THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE? No? That's because it went under a different title: DIE, MONSTER, DIE (ooh how original). This hack job features Boris Karloff, at the end of his career, in agony, suffering from arthritis, back pains, and whatever else he had at this point, still trying to prove he's the master boogeyman. Then you have Hollywood kiss ass hanger-on Nick Adams (look at photos of every major star from the late 1950s to mid 1960s -- this guy partied with 'em all) as the "hero." What was a scary, tight Lovecraft tale has become a muddled mess in the hands of director Daniel Haller. MST3K should do a show on this piece of shit. It gets worse. Hack Haller returned to Lovecraft with THE DUNWICH HORROR. Again this film trashes the original story, and goes off in its own direction. Who has the lead? Sandra Dee. Sandra Fucking Dee. If that's not enough to keep you away from this turd pie ... Other Lovecraft stories have been bastardized on their way to the screen, but unfortunately, I can't think of anymore off the top of my head, as their titles and plots have changed. Although RE-ANIMATOR was a breath of fresh air, I still prefer the original stories published monthly by Lovecraft in the early twenties. They rate among his best, and are hilarious.
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The Mummy was indeed an SFX wonder. And it should be! The damn thing was in development at least as far back as 1994 -- and from what I knew then, had been with Alphaville (the prodco based at U that produced it) at least a few years before that. It took a movie like The Mummy 7 years (plus?) to hit screens. And why? The technology not ready? We didn't have a Brendan Fraser? Was horror too outdated then and not almost-over as it is now? Who knows? What I can speculate about is that a "horror" project cannot cost a fortune unless it has total crossover appeal (which Mummy has) and is not so esoteric that the story overwhelms the eye-candy. And speaking of eye-candy, no studio is gonna pony-up $XX millions (how much did Mummy cost? 60-80 mil?) unless the story is so BASIC, so a part of the Universal Human Subconscious, like Mummy, that there is no doubt it'll appeal across a broad range of tastes.
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To Mr. Leach: You're ALMOST correct about that assessment-with one exception. Dan O'Bannon did an excellent adaption of 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward' which was called "The Resurrected". The reason you probably have never heard of it is because it was out of theaters in about ten seconds flat. You should be able to find it on video, though. It's definitely worth a look-see.
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May 14, 1999 8:26:27 AM CDT
I will always know what great horrormovies Hollywood made last s
by ellington
My top 10 so far:
10- I Still know (that Love Hewitt is a sexy younger version of Teri Hatcher).
9- Arlington Road (Jeff Bridges gets blown up !!! Oops, spoiler)
8- Psycho (the unneccessary remake).
7- Urban Legend (a whole film based around the campfire scene (in the 10th minute) of "I know what you did last summer").
6- The Faculty (was the waterboiler heavy, Harry ?)
5- Halloween H20 (Jamie Lee chopping off the head finally ends the terror of Michael Myers).
4- I know what you did last summer
(Seeing Buffy flying to her death was stuff that nightmares are made off).
3- Scream 2 (Amazingly, I couldn't figure out who were the two killers this time. RIP, Randy).
2- Scream (The first one logically preveals over the sequel. Take a bow, Drew Barrymore).
1- Bride of Chucky (Give the doll a break, he damn well deserves it.
This one RULES !!)
Sorry guys, I haven't seen the Mummy yet, because it's not out yet in my little country, the Netherlands (over there in Europe, next to Germany). -
There will never be true adaptations of Lovecraft stories. Ever. He did not write his stories with Hollywood in mind. And Hollywood has no love for something it can wrap it's claws around and warp and mold into its own successfuly marketed image. Reasons why good Lovecraft films cannot be made: 1.) Mainstream America is not ready for the cerebral horror of things that should not be. Your average white trash viewer wants to see some cool effects and some big titties on a gal being chased by a big lizard man...not some guy going nuts in an asylum because some BAD shit went down out in Innsmouth. 2.) Marketing. If they don't make it a teenie boobie kill movie, then they'll have to tie in Kids Meals with McDonalds or Burger King. I don't see Burger King putting out a Colour out of Space Kid's Meal, with a little tube that sucks your food up like brains on the toy. 3.) All of Lovecraft's main characters are...well they're Lovecraft, in one way or another. Bookish, thin and pasty. Not men's men by any sense of the word. Audiences want to see Van Damme or Jackie Chan. Although Johnny Depp could do a DAMN fine job...he can actually act AND chicks dig him. Sadly, there is no Lovecraft part suited for Leo diCRAPrio or that Dawson's Creek milkshop...so no Lovecraft film will ever be made. And I for one am kind of glad. I'll always have the stories. End Transmission.
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