Movies
Inside Directors to Tone Down the Violence in ‘Livid’
Back in April Twitch Film broke the news on Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s next feature film, Livid, a dark fairy tale that turns on three young men who decide to rob an elderly woman’s house in the Irish heathlands. For those of you who enjoyed the massive amounts of gore that drenched the screen in Inside, don’t expect the blood to flow as the pic looks likely to pull back on the physical violence. What do you guys think about this? Are you still excited? You can read all about in beyond the break.
Click here for a longer synopsis and more details…
Paris-based La Fabrique de Films will produce “Livid,” the next film from Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (“Inside”). Marking the duo’s English-language debut, “Livid” is skedded for a September shoot in Ireland.
Headed by Verane Frediani and Franck Ribiere, La Fabrique has also taken Gallic distribution rights. Overlook Entertainment, Fabrique’s foreign sales agent, will handle international sales. Frediani and Ribiere will produce.
Billed as a “dark romantic fairy tale,” “Livid” turns on three young men who decide to rob an elderly woman’s house in the Irish heathlands.
Maury and Bustillo have completed the screenplay. “Inside” DP Laurent Bares will repeat as cinematographer.
Budgeted at $8.5 million, “Livid” continues Fabrique’s line in competitively priced, low-budget genre films. Pic also looks set to be structured as a France-Ireland co-production. “Livid” will be ready for delivery in spring 2010.
Cannes 2007 Critics’ Week player “Inside,” also produced by La Fabrique, proved one of this decade’s most notable genre debuts, selling to the Weinstein Co. for the U.S. and U.K. and to over 40 countries. Some auds found it stomach-churning, however. “Livid” looks likely to pull back on the physical violence.
At Cannes, Overlook will screen a promo reel of Frank Richards’ “The Pack.” The French-language ghoul tale toplines Emilie Duquenne (“Rosetta”), Benjamin Biolay (“Stella”) and this year’s Cesar winner actress Yolande Moreau (“Seraphine”).
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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