UNFILMABLE: London based Production Company Survivor Films are aiming to improve on the formula started by Brian Yuzna with Necronomicon: Book of Dead, namely, the Lovecraftian horror anthology! The film, Arkham Sanitarium, will consist of three faithfully adapted shorts based on HPL's The Haunter of the Dark, The Shunned House and The Thing on the Doorstep, each set in 1930's New England. Each segment will be connected by an original 'wraparound' story, set in the 1950's, in which Alice Crow investigates strange stories surrounding the infamous Arkham Sanitarium. Shooting is set to begin in May 2011... Check out Dave Wood's amazing poster art below, and watch this space for more... About the film: The Haunter of the Dark - Robert Blake, author and artist returns to Providence to research a shadowy cult for his new book – against the warnings of his friend Ambrose Dexter he tracks down the old church where the cult performed their dark rituals – in the dusty, decrepit ruins he finds an ancient device that summons a monstrous creature intent on destroying him... The Shunned House - Phillip Whipple, a Miskatonic University medical student returns to Providence to help his uncle Elihu move house. Phillip finds his uncle's notes on 'The Shunned House' – an old, crumbling place with a bad reputation. Phillip was trapped there once as a child and saw something he couldn't explain so with his uncle's assistance, the pair seek to uncover why an alarming number of people have died there... The Thing on the Doorstep - Edward Derby, a poet and fantasist, falls for Asenath, a cold but hypnotically beautiful student at Miskatonic University – the pair wed shortly after despite Edward's close friend, Daniel Upton having concerns about the marriage. Daniel's worries are well-founded - Asenath is the daughter of Ephraim Waite – an old man rumoured to be a practitioner of black magic before his recent death...
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FACEBOOK EXCERPTS: (I've been talking with Survivor Films, and here are some interesting things they have to say about it):
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We went through every short story Lovecraft wrote looking for the right ones to adapt before finally settling on 'The Haunter of the Dark', 'The Shunned House' and 'The Thing on the Doorstep' - each presented its challenges and the script was in development for far longer than we anticipated.
I actually think that 'The Shunned House' is the most faithful of the three (The Thing on the Doorstep comes a very close second) - inevitably some changes have to be made to suit the format but whenever we felt we were drifting too far from the originals we reined it back in - as huge HPL fans ourselves we're our own worst critics
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It's a 110 minute feature - each of the HPL stories is around 30 minutes of screen time with the original 'wraparound' story coming in at 20 minutes.
We've done it this way to keep the stories tight and concise and without any padding. In our opinion, too many Lovecraft adaptations attempt to take a short story and stretch it into a feature - as a consequence, they often end up adding scenes and characters that were never in the original - we wanted to avoid this.
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Too early to say - we're hoping to have it in some festivals for October but we need to get the shoot done and then look at where we stand on the post-production side. For DVD/Blu-Ray, early 2012 would be my wildly optimistic shot in the dark
[SIZE= 16px]WEBSITE[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 16px]FACEBOOK[/SIZE]
FACEBOOK EXCERPTS: (I've been talking with Survivor Films, and here are some interesting things they have to say about it):
_________________________________________________________________
We went through every short story Lovecraft wrote looking for the right ones to adapt before finally settling on 'The Haunter of the Dark', 'The Shunned House' and 'The Thing on the Doorstep' - each presented its challenges and the script was in development for far longer than we anticipated.
I actually think that 'The Shunned House' is the most faithful of the three (The Thing on the Doorstep comes a very close second) - inevitably some changes have to be made to suit the format but whenever we felt we were drifting too far from the originals we reined it back in - as huge HPL fans ourselves we're our own worst critics
_________________________________________________________________
It's a 110 minute feature - each of the HPL stories is around 30 minutes of screen time with the original 'wraparound' story coming in at 20 minutes.
We've done it this way to keep the stories tight and concise and without any padding. In our opinion, too many Lovecraft adaptations attempt to take a short story and stretch it into a feature - as a consequence, they often end up adding scenes and characters that were never in the original - we wanted to avoid this.
________________________________________________________________
Too early to say - we're hoping to have it in some festivals for October but we need to get the shoot done and then look at where we stand on the post-production side. For DVD/Blu-Ray, early 2012 would be my wildly optimistic shot in the dark
