Movies
Dark Castle Making Massive Commitment to ‘Splice’ Release?
There’s nothing that excites me more than a wide range of reviews. After playing the Sundance Film Festival last month, Vincenzo Natali’s Frankenstein-esque sci-fi horror flick Splice received a rash of glowing reviews, along with the negative (see Ryan Daley’s review), piquing my interest more than it already was. Anyways, early word presumed that Sony might score distribution rights for the U.S., only it looks as if Dark Castle may have won out making a huge bet on the Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley starrer. Deadline reports that “Joel Silver and his Dark Castle label is in the last stages of closing a distribution deal for the genetic mutation thriller Splice,” adding, “It will give the film a wide summer release on 3,000 screens, and a P&A commitment north of $25 million, and more likely in the vicinity of $35 million to $40 million.” That’s a HUGE gamble for Dark Castle. Color me excited.
“Clive and Elsa are young, brilliant and ambitious. The new animal species they engineered have made them rebel superstars of the scientific world. In secret, they introduce human DNA into the experiment. The result is something that is greater than the sum of its parts: a female animal-human hybrid that may be a step up on the evolutionary ladder. They think they may have created the perfect organism, until she makes a final shocking metamorphosis that could destroy them … and the rest of humanity.”
Released by Eli Roth’s label The Horror Section last year, Joe Begos (VFW, Christmas Bloody Christmas) horror movie Jimmy and Stiggs is getting an official spinoff movie.
Variety reports that director Sebastián De Caro has acquired the Argentine spin-off rights to Jimmy and Stiggs from The Horror Section, and he’s not planning a straight up remake.
“The film will follow new characters facing the same extraterrestrial threat in Argentina, expanding the universe Begos created into new territory,” Variety details in their report.
Eli Roth and Joe Begos will Executive Produce the upcoming spinoff movie.
“Working with Eli Roth and Joe Begos is an incredibly exciting adventure,” De Caro said. “Jimmy and Stiggs struck me as a brilliant kind of madness — it blew my mind with its energy and humor — and the chance to expand that universe in my own country is the biggest creative challenge I’ve ever taken on.”
Eli Roth said in a statement shared by Variety this afternoon, “Horror is truly global, and any story can be applied to local culture. I cannot wait to see how this film honors and expands the universe of a wildly original film by the one and only Joe Begos.”
Meanwhile, you can watch Joe Begos’ Jimmy and Stiggs on Digital outlets now. The drug-fueled, neon-soaked alien invasion splatterfest is written and directed by Begos, who shot the film in his apartment during the pandemic.
A perfect storm of lousy news sees out-of-work filmmaker Jimmy spiral into a bender, during which he claims to have been abducted by aliens. Fearing their return, he contacts his old friend Stiggs to help him gear up for war. Begos stars alongside Matt Mercer (Contracted), practical alien puppets, and a whole lot of gore captured on 16mm film.
Daniel Kurland wrote in his review, “The world needs more playful, gonzo small-scale-yet-apocalyptic horror films like Jimmy and Stiggs. It’s a movie that has constant tricks on display and perpetually sprays blood in the audience’s face, but there’s an earnest center to it all.”
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