Creating A New Horror Icon.

Since signing with APA and the countless meetings that followed, all these remakes, reboots and re-imaginings have left a bad taste in my mouth.  Society embraces what the industry feeds it for the most part.  Ads are shoved down our throats and images bombard our every day lives down to the cup sleeves at the local coffee house that say IRON MAN 2 - May 7th.  

When I first picked up Vince Churchill's novel, The Butcher Bride, I knew there was something special within those pages.  I couldn't quite put my finger on it, the novel left me spinning for days.  It scared the shit out of me.  After pushing my reps to secure an option before it went wide after publication, I dove in head first.  I had to make some minor changes to the overall story to be more cinematic and fire on more cylinders, but the deep-rooted concept remained.  

What is the core of the Butcher Bride?  

A simple story about a girl that just wanted true love and to be loved.  Marlie Downing represents an ideology that every girl dreams of at some point in their life.  The white wedding, flowers, the sweeping off her feet and the life of love until certain death that follows.  

Charles Williams wrote an incredible novel entitled All Hallows Eve that I briefly mention in the first act.  It's one of the most haunting narratives I've ever read.  T.S. Eliot wrote the forward, and everyone should know that T.S. never writes forwards.  The book itself is like Ringu and The Notebook.  It has its moments and would be near to impossible to make a film out of, but the idea is there.  This was a major influence in the emotion of Marlie Downing's character.  

The horror of Butcher Bride is inherent in the journey of Marlie Downing.  We love her.  We want her to achieve that bliss.  What happens to her is unfathomable.  As I was plowing through polishes for director David Hackl, it became apparent what this film was like...  

A modern day Psycho.  

Blasphemy most will say.  I agree.  But that's what makes this book so damned unique.   The structure does NOT follow the standard template of today's horror films.  We have a female in the lead as this lovely girl turned into a new icon of horror.  Freddy, Jason, Michael, Pinhead, Buffalo Bill, Hannibal Lector, Frankenstein, Victor Crowley, Leslie Vernon, Heidi Montag - you get the idea...

All these icons are male.  Ferocious.  We've accepted that all great horror films like that have male leads.  Let me tell you, by the time Hackl wraps on Butcher Bride, it will set a new trend within horror films.  

The Butcher Bride and a dip in the Hot Tub Time Machine.

The Butcher Bride is starting to generate some heat as David Hackl is now attached to direct after a couple polishes and taking the story back to its extremely dark roots.  A new horror icon shall be born in 3D.   Laugh as you may, but I have embraced the format after being wowed at How To Train Your Dragon.   It's one of the best animated films of the last several years.  

Hackl plans on shooting the Butcher Bride in 3D since he spent 6 months learning the cameras for the format.   His departure from Saw VII seems to be a blessing in disguise.   Hackl is one of the most intelligent directors I've met out here with great production experience all around.

Next step is the project goes out. 

Kudos for the last film from MGM as we know it to be the BRILLIANT film - Hot Tub Time Machine.   I snuck into a 2pm screening in Burbank yesterday and was floored to see a full theatre.  Nearly sold out.  I have NEVER EVER LAUGHED as hard as I did during that film.  It was funnier than The Hangover.  HTTM is destined to be the Caddyshack & Animal House of our generation.  

Brilliance I say.  BRILLIANCE.