Movies
Take a Trip to ‘The Carnival of Illusions’
Strengthening a nascent France-Spain genre pic axis, France’s Talal Selhami is teaming with Barcelona’s Martin Samper on bogeyman chiller The Carnival of Illusions, one of the latest additions to Spain’s powerful auteur genre pic tradition. The project was scripted by both Selhami and France’s Cyril Rolland, who recently wrote The Pack, another French horror pic being covered heavily here on B-D. You can read more about this carnival trip to hell by reading on.
With shades of Juan Antonio Bayona’s “The Orphanage,” “Carnival” turns on a teacher who takes his 11-year-old daughter Liz to a summer boarding school in a quiet Alsace village.
Liz begins to hear what seems to be the voice of another student, who’s lying in semi-coma. Meanwhile, her father investigates the death of the teacher he’s replaced.
Skedded for a second-half 2010 shoot, “Carnival” will be structured as a France-Spain co-production, said Samper, a former Filmax exec.
Moroccan-French Selhami, who turned genrefest eyes with his 2006 short “Sinistra,” will shoot “Carnival” when he comes off his feature film debut, chillfest “Mirages,” which is set up at Nabil Ayouch’s top Moroccan production house Ali n’ Productions.
Selhami said his influences, which will likely be seen in “Carnival,” run from 80s horror to the romanticism of “Orphanage” and HBO series “Carnivale.”
The move to produce “Carnival” out of Spain partly reflects the challenges posed to Gallic scarefare directors and producers by the French market, where acclaimed horror pics — “Martyrs,” for example — have underperformed.
The Spanish market — where “Orphanage” grossed Euros 25.1 million ($33.4 million) and “REC” $10.9 million — offers far better B.O. potential, Samper said.
Led by Wild Bunch, which sold “The Orphanage,” French companies have been increasingly drawn to Spanish genre talent.
“Pack” co-producer La Fabrique de Films is co-producing Luis Berdejo’s project “Jennifer Can” with Spain’s Versus and Notro.
France’s Les Films d’Antoine and Tobina are lead-producing Spaniard Juan Carlos Medina’s debut thriller “Painless,” which has rung up strong pre-sales for Paris’ Elle Driver.
In case you haven’t noticed, the public domain status of beloved icons like Winnie the Pooh, Cinderella and Mickey Mouse has been wreaking havoc on the horror genre in the past couple years, with filmmakers itching to get their hands on the characters and put them into twisted situations. In the wake of two Winnie the Pooh slashers, well, Pooh is about to battle Mickey.
It’s not from the same team behind the Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey films, to be clear, but Deadline reports that Glenn Douglas Packard (Pitchfork) will direct the horror movie Mickey vs. Winnie for Untouchables Entertainment and the website iHorror.
Deadline details, “The film follows two convicts in the 1920s who escape into a cursed forest only to be dragged and consumed into the depths of the dark forest’s muddy heart.
“A century later, a group of thrill-seeking friends unknowingly venture into the same woods. Their Airbnb getaway takes a horrifying turn when the convicts mutate into twisted versions of childhood icons Mickey Mouse & Winnie-The-Pooh, and emerge to terrorize them. A night of violence and gore erupts, as the group of friends battle against their now monstrous beloved childhood characters and fight to break free from the forest’s grip.
“In a horrific spectacle, Mickey and Winnie clash, painting the woods in a gruesome tableau of blood—a chilling testament to the curse’s insidious power.”
Glenn Douglas Packard wrote the screenplay that he’ll be directing.
“Horror fans call for the thrill of witnessing icons like the new Aliens and Avengers sharing the screen. While licensing nightmares make such crossovers rare, Mickey vs. Winnie serves as our tribute to that thrilling fantasy,” Packard said in a statement this week.
Producer Anthony Pernicka from iHorror previews, “We’re thrilled to unveil this unique take to horror fans. The Mickey Mouse featured in our film is unlike any iteration audiences have encountered before. Our portrayal doesn’t involve characters donning basic masks. Instead, we present deeply transformed, live-action horror renditions of these iconic figures, weaving together elements of innocence and malevolence. After experiencing the intense scenes we’ve crafted, you’ll never look at Mickey the same way again.”
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