Word is slowly slipping out about Rob Zombie's next project. Thankfully, it won't be another Halloween sequel. (While his directorial effort regarding Michael Myers added the signature Zombie personality, it still was another sequel.)

This new project is Tyrannosaurus Rex, slated to go into production in August 2009. Once again, Rob Zombie's wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, will appear in the film, which will be distributed by Dimension. T-Rex just may be an homage to those larger than life prehistoric dinosaur monster movies a la The Land That Time Forgot.

Then again, Bloody Disgusting has a different take. The site says the movie may be about a wrestler named T-Rex who's on the run from a motorcycle gang from hell. This theory is based on the fact that Zombie co-created a comic book with Steve Niles called The Nail, the plot of which includes said wrestler and the phantom bikers. Oh, the mystery. Zombie and Dimension know how to milk things, don't they?

First, Sony put up a mess of videos on YouTube to promote their upcoming horror film, Quarantine. Today, they put up a blog, The Last Palm Tree, to further infect you with the horror spirit.

The actual idea for the vlog is pretty cool, in a Blair Witch kind of way, although most of the videos have been run-of-the-mill: "Can you tell me where to find a good restaurant" is the subject of one. Another video, "Case 1017," features amateur camera work, but on the street, you'll see something suspicious: Government types wearing Hazmat suits and searching a building. Then -- a shot rings out.

Continue reading "The Last Palm Tree Blog: Quarantine's Viral Marketing" »

Today, Shock Till You Drop is reporting some disturbing news. Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train, which was supposed to hit theaters in May, has been dropped. More upsetting is that Lionsgate hasn't yet offered up another release date, leading to speculation that the movie may go straight to DVD. The worst case scenario? It may never see the light of day (although that's probably unlikely).

According to Shock, neither Lionsgate nor director Ryuhei Kitamura wanted to release the flick against upcoming franchises like The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. That may have signaled certain death for a movie that's well, full of death. The elegantly edited trailer reveals a complex story with some fine scares. But it's not so gruesome that it would prove to be too violent for mass consumption. Plus, Lionsgate never shies away from blood and guts: Just look at the recent Borderland DVD for proof. Here's hoping that Lionsgate will still find a home for Midnight Meat Train in its theatrical schedule. It looks like a perfect film for Halloween.

Empire magazine has some juicy tidbits about the Benicio Del Toro Wolfman movie that's coming up from Universal. In an interview with producer Scott Stuber, some fascinating things were revealed. Sure, Empire is all fanboy about the movie, but that didn't prevent them from finding out that there's complexity plot-wise that wasn't present the original movie. And that the Wolfman's family has some "very dramatic issues....heavy stuff that happened during their childhoods." The article also reveals Del Toro is a huge Wolfman fan, so much so that he has memorabilia throughout his house. And there'll be no CG in the picture.

But the real reason for the interview is to stem the tide of negative press. That came primarily from Ain't It Cool News when director Mark Romanek was replaced with Joe Johnston. Says Stuber, "The great thing about Joe is that he's such a diverse filmmaker. Whether you look at his family films or something like October Sky, which I thought was a great film. Then Jurassic Park III, he did a great job."

Johnston may not have done a ton of horror movie directing, but for the brilliance of October Sky alone, he should be welcomed with open arms by fans.

Fangoria just uploaded the back of the one-sheet for Creature of Darkness (formerly called the far-less-horrific Hunter's Moon). If you squint really hard to read the text, you'll find that the movie actually has an imaginative plot: A boy's nightmares become reality when he embarks upon a road trip. He meets the Catcher, "a skilled and brutal collector of human species for alien science." The Catcher looks like something between E.T. and an anorexic bird of prey. The upshot? It looks like the nature of the ugly character may be strong enough to spawn a sequel or two.

Getting the indie film to this stage has been a trial: The primary financier of the film, a $111 million Powerball lottery winner named Andrew 'Jack' Whittaker, became embroiled in a number of lawsuits and a divorce. According to the filmmmakers (via Fangoria), that divorce stopped the film, which began shooting in 2005. Whittaker was able to provide the rest of the funding for post-production, and the film is now " steamrolling toward the finish line."

There's been some discussion at Cinematical as to whether Train is really a remake of Terror Train. Forget semantics: Train sure looks like a remake. This new red band trailer for the upcoming horror film has already been banned on YouTube (which is where Cinematical linked less than a day ago). The trailer, complete with blood and brief nudity, is now up on MovieWeb.

Train features Thora Birch, who can act with more believability than many young Hollywood actors -- so that's a plus. In the clip, there's a ton of gore, including the removal of an eye. What is it with eye-pulling these days? It's in everything from Borderland to Art of the Devil 3. Frankly, it's not scary, just gross. And that's the general tenor of the trailer: Not scary just gross. Birch might be worth watching, but is viewing the same old torture porn (as is evidenced by the bloody trailer) the best way to spend your movie dollar?  

For the last year or so, Electronic Arts has been touting its upcoming scifi horror game, Dead Space. The console game about a spaceship that's taken over by creepy aliens called Necromorphs will be one of the best games of the year when it's released this fall, says EA. Starz Media must have believed the hype because the game will now be an animated movie as well. 

Reports Variety, "Starz' Film Roman unit is producing a film that serves as a prequel to the game, picking up where a comic that is being made by Image Comics leaves off." It makes more sense to create an animated feature out of Dead Space than it does to make a live action movie: The Dead Space graphics are so incredibly detailed, a movie would require a budget of $100 million or more to pull off that kind of realism.