Movies
Bummer, ‘Wake the Dead’ Adaptation on Hold
Fans of Steve Niles are going to be disappointed to hear that his latest adaptation, Wake the Dead, is on hold… because of those damn Hobbits. “That one’s kind of at a standstill for now,” Niles told MTV News of the effects of WETA’s extended “Hobbit” commitment. “We just didn’t manage to get it set up as much as I had hoped.” He continues, “We were kind of racing against time a little with WETA because they’re about to take on `The Hobbit’ and God knows that’s going to consume all of New Zealand for the next five years.” Based on Steve Niles’ comic book, the supernatural series is a retelling of the Frankenstein legend in the style of cult favorites The Crow and Darkman.
Described as “Ted meets ET,” David Mikalson’s raunchy comedy Goblin is being brought to life over at A24, and Will Forte (“The Four Seasons”) is now in talks to star.
Deadline first reported the news this afternoon.
Kenneth Branagh has been cast to voice the titular Goblin in the upcoming A24 movie, with the character said to be “green-colored” as well as “anatomically correct.”
Skyler Gisondo (Superman) is reportedly playing the Goblin’s human best friend.
The mysterious project sounds a bit like films including A Gnome Named Gnorm and more recently, Frankie Freako, though it’s important to note that it’s not billed as a horror movie.
Deadline details, “After [Mikalson] hatched the idea to make an outrageous buddy comedy about a goblin, using a practical puppet and operating outside the Hollywood system, his script quickly got him a rep team. While others might have eyed the raunchy comedy as a writing sample or planned to wait to see the micro-budget version Mikalson has been directing in Kentucky, A24 jumped all over it. The hot indie essentially has agreed to finance a full feature.”
“There was a lot of interest, but A24 came with what Mikalson really wanted, after spending all his money crafting the puppet title character: they acquired the movie and agreed to let him make it with a significantly increased budget than what he had left after creating the anatomically correct title character,” Deadline’s report goes on to explain.
What does the titular Goblin actually look like? Well, a cake that Mikalson had whipped up for his reps might give us our first look at what to expect. Deadline explains the photo you’ll see down below, “Take a look at the cake he commissioned with Marc Gravelle at Cake Art in West Hollywood, to present to his reps as thanks for making his dream come true.”
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