24. Troll Hunter
Troll mythologies and legends are derived from Norwegian folklore, which shouldn’t come as a surprise for those who have seen the original found-footage Troll Hunter film. The film is constructed from supposed footage shot by a group of students who begin pursuing a man cross country whom they believe to be an illegal bear poacher. As the film’s not called Bear Poacher you can correctly assume he wasn’t.
As soon as the Norwegian original hit U.S. cinemas, the rights for the remake were snapped up by Chris Columbus’s 1492 production company. Columbus, well known for directing the first two Harry Potters, also penned the horror-comedy goblin flick Gremlins, so it’s a shame he’s not writing this remake. Men In Black II producer Marc Haimes has bagged the scripting duties so it’ll be intriguing to see where he steers the American counterpart.
Will it take place in the U.S. or in Norway? Either way, Haimes could create a nifty stateside equivalent to the Norwegian troll myth and have free rein to embellish on ground covered in the original.
We’ll keep you posted when more details are revealed, as Troll Hunter is still in development.
23. I, Frankenstein
This version of Frankenstein isn’t a reimagining of the original Universal flick (that remake is still in development), but instead is based on a comic which reinstates Frankenstein’s monster as a saviour of sorts. Adapted from a Darkstorm comic book by Underworld scribe Kevin Grevioux, I Frankenstein pits Frankenstein’s monster in the middle of a battle between humans and a glut of old school monsters including Dracula, The Invisible Man and Skeletor.
Stuart Beattie, the man behind the brilliant 30 Days Of Night, wrote and directed the film which filmed over ten weeks last summer in Australia with Aaron Eckhart in the lead role as Frankenstein’s creation. Set to play a demon prince is Pirates Of The Caribbean stalwart, Bill Nighy who’s got the chops to lay on the kitsch as witnessed in his genre jaunts, which also include a zombified stepdad in Shaun Of The Dead.
Universal’s back catalogue of ghoulies have been wheeled out countless times to varying degrees of success. This time it sounds like Frankenstein’s monster is getting the opportunity to bust out of the same old plot and strut his bumbling stuff across new cinematic terrain. All the while, probably looking rather handsome (oh come on, it’s Aaron Eckhart! Even when he had half a face he was still charismatic!)
Lionsgate have pushed the release from the slated date of February 22, 2013 to September 13th, 2013.
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