Sam Raimi “presents” this supernatural horror film from dutch director Ole Bornedal (NIGHTWATCH), working from a script by the writing team of Julia Snowden and Stiles White (KNOWING). Allegedly based on true events, the story has a young girl purchase an antique box that houses a demonic entity. As you can imagine, when the box opens, all Hell breaks loose, forcing the girl’s father to re-connnect with his estranged wife in order to battle the evil possessing their daughter. The cast includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan (WATCHMEN), Kyra Sedgwick (PHENOMENON), Madison Davenport, and Natasha Calis.
Lionsgate release the Ghost House Pictures production on August 31, 2012.
Mandate Pictures had the highest bid for the property (in the seven figures), although several companies and studios were interested, including Warner Brothers. Sam Raimi (EVIL DEAD, SPIDER-MAN), whose Ghost House Pictures will co-produce with Mandate, plans to direct.
Apparently, Raimi is a long-time fan of the 1962 motion picture adaptation of the novel, which features an “invasion” of Earth by monstrous, carnivorous tree-like alien life forms.
Raimi’s producing partner Robert Tapert will work on the project with him, along with Michael Preger (who held the rights), and Angry Films’ Don Murphy, Susan Montord, and Mark Gordon.
Joh Wyndham (John Wyndham Harris) was a British author who published under a number of pen-names, selling mainly to American science fiction pulp magazines until after World War II.
His best known novels, The Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed twice as VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED), The Chrysalids, and The Kraken Wakes follow his philosophy of “logical science fiction”, all apocalyptic tales set in contemporary (1950’s) times, generally focusing on England.
In them, alien or man-created organisms threaten our world, and proceed inexorably towards their own aims, sentient or not.. Meanwhile, man’s rationality is a double-edged sword; both as potential aide to combat the alien incursions, but more often a kind of rigid thinking that blinds us to the true nature of the threat.
In the novel, the Triffids are believed to been biologically engineered on Earth, likely by the Soviets, rather than being extraterrestrial in origin. Despite being dangerous if not handled with extreme care, they are used for a kind of vegetable oil, and cultivated around the world. It’s only after a strange green meteor shower blinds a large proportion of the world that they become a deadly menace. Moore, Scott Battle TRIFFIDS
There is no miraculous salt water defense against the Triffids, and the novel ends with the survivors still determined to fight against them, in a world descending into military dictatorships and feudalism.
The film’s tense sequences at the lighthouse with Kieron Moore and Janette Scott were filmed by Freddie Francis (THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN) only after the original version of the film, directed by Steve Sekely (REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES) starring Howard Keel, Nicole Maurey, and Janina Faye, was determined to have run short.
Besides the 1962 film, Triffids has also been adapted as a BBC radio serial in 1957, and as a BBC Television serial in 1981 and 2009.
Director Bryan Bertino
According to Deadline New York Bryan Bertino (THE STRANGERS) has been hired by Sam Raimi’s production company, Ghost House Pictures, to direct their latest horror-come-thriller, THIS MAN. The film was inspired by an Italian sociologist’s website (yes, you read that correctly) for which the company picked up the rights to adapt and have asked Bertino to direct.
THIS MAN centres on ordinary man who discovers that people he has never met have somehow seen him in their nightmares and the aforementioned real-life website helps those who claim to have seen him for real connect with one another. Raimi calls it, “a hair raising story that will be sure to delight horror fans.” THE STRANGERS was a decent film (even if it wasn’t quite as good as the trailers suggested) and the premise for THIS MAN is very original so it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.
THIS MAN is too far off for a release date but THE STRANGERS 2 (which Bertino wrote) is due out sometime next year.
According to EW’s The Ausiello Files ABC Studios/Ghost House Pictures’ LEGEND OF THE SEEKER has been canceled.
The New Zealand-produced syndicated fantasy show, based on Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth book series has run only two seasons.
EW attributes the series’ apparent demise on the fact the Tribune Group’s local stations had dropped the series, and that ABC Studios have been unable to find a new home for THE SEEKER.
Unless an unanticipated white knight appears to save the day, Richard Cypher and Kahlan Amnell’s quest is over. Pictured: Stars Craig Horner and Bridget Regan.
Deadline reports that Mandate Pictures has acquired the film rights for John Wyndham’s 1951 science fiction novel THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS.
According to EW’s The Ausiello Files ABC Studios/Ghost House Pictures’ LEGEND OF THE SEEKER has been canceled.