Movies
Arcana Studios Preps Trio of Horror Flicks
Canada-based production company Legacy Filmworks, production-finance group Bron Management and comic-book publisher and transmedia outfit Arcana Studios have teamed to produce a slate of five films based on Arcana’s comic titles that will take on vampires, bikers and homicidal cops. Read on for the details on all three films.
The first will be the sci-fi thriller PARADOX, which will star Kevin Sorbo and be directed by Brenton Spencer (“Stargate: Atlantis”). Sorbo plays a homicide cop on a parallel Earth ruled by magic who investigates a series of murders committed by a previously unseen means: the power of science. Christos Gage and Ruth Fletcher Gage wrote the screenplay based on Arcana’s three-issue limited series written by Christos Gage, who has worked for Marvel and DC Comics. The Gages wrote Sony’s 2001 mega-turd THE BREED.
The slate’s other projects include CHOPPER, a thriller based on a Martin Shapiro comic that hopes to go before cameras next month. It is a gritty, modern re-imagining of the headless horseman from the Sleepy Hollow legend. After taking a hit of a strange new ecstasy-like drug at the Daytona Bike Week festival, the rebellious teenage daughter of a police officer begins seeing ghosts and is stalked by the Reaper, a headless Hell’s Angel on a motorcycle that hunts down sinners. Chopper combines themes and elements from such past successes as Seven, Halloween, and Constantine.
They also announced SUNDOWN, a Western vampire thriller, based on a Jay Busbee comic, which is scheduled for an April or May start. Arizona territory, 1880. Someone’s killing preachers, and New York City reporter Will Dalton heads west to cover the story. Will and his brother Clay, a small-town sheriff, begin digging for the truth behind the murders. But they soon find themselves on the front lines of a horrific war for the very soul of America! Sundown is a terrifying three-issue tale of the Old West where sometimes, dying just means you’re switching sides.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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