Movies
The Games Begins at Uni’s ‘Halloween Horror Nights’
We broke the news here on B-D that both Michael Myers and Jigsaw would be coming to Universal Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Night’s this September/October, this morning half of that was confirmed as Lionsgate has inked a deal with Universal Studios to integrate its Saw franchise into the theme park’s annual “Halloween Horror Nights” event. Read on for the story.
Pact makes “Saw” the latest horror franchise that wasn’t produced by Universal to be added to the event’s lineup. Last year, it introduced a haunted maze themed around New Line’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” pics and featured “Friday the 13th.”
It also helps kill off competition created by a “Saw” haunted house that had been set up south of Los Angeles in Brea last year and scared visitors away from U’s park in Hollywood. An estimated 20,000 people visited the “Saw” house last year.
Lionsgate had officially backed the house, set in a shuttered movie theater and built by franchise fan Jeff Schiefelbein, with promos and other support to push the fifth installment. Schiefelbein has built more general-themed haunted houses there over the last several years.
Given its success, Lionsgate and “Saw’s” producers at Twisted Pictures had planned on moving the “Saw” house to a larger location closer to L.A. in order to accommodate more visitors this Halloween, but opted to broker the deal with Universal instead.
The theme park should guarantee not only a bigger budget to build the planned horror maze that will promote the sixth film, but also a considerably larger audience, considering the “Saw” attractions will appear at U’s parks in Hollywood and Orlando.
Combined, the parks attract hundreds of thousands of thrill-seekers each year for “Halloween Horror Nights.”
Universal plans to incorporate the “Saw” franchise’s characters and grisly traps in a maze and in the parks’ dedicated “scare zones,” as well as on the “Terror Tram,” a revamped version of its studio tram tour.
“This partnership represents a new landmark for the ‘Saw’ film franchise in that it allows us together with Twisted Pictures to further expand the brand and immerse fans in the horrifying world of ‘Saw,’ ” said Aubrey McClure, senior VP of promotions and licensing for Lionsgate.
Universal Studios Hollywood’s creative department will work with Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures to incorporate “Saw” into the parks.
In addition to Leigh Whannell’s upcoming Universal Monsters movie Wolf Man, Julia Garner (The Royal Hotel) has also joined the cast of Weapons, THR has announced tonight.
Weapons is the new horror movie from New Line Cinema and director Zach Cregger (Barbarian), with Julia Garner joining the previously announced Josh Brolin (Dune 2).
The upcoming Weapons is from writer/director Zach Cregger, who will also produce alongside his Barbarian producing team: Roy Lee of Vertigo and J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules of BoulderLight Pictures. Vertigo’s Miri Yoon also produces.
The Hollywood Reporter teases, “Plot details for Weapons are being kept holstered but it is described as a multi and inter-related story horror epic that tonally is in the vein of Magnolia, the 1999 actor-crammed showcase from filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson.”
Cregger was a founding member and writer for the New York comedy troupe “The Whitest Kids U’Know,” which he started while attending The School of Visual Arts. The award-winning group’s self-titled sketch comedy show ran for five seasons on IFC-TV and Fuse. He was also a series regular on Jimmy Fallon’s NBC series “Guys with Kids” and the TBS hit series “Wrecked,” and was featured in a recurring role on the NBC series “About a Boy.”
Weapons will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
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