Movies
Update: ‘Texas Chainsaw’ Director Thanks the Gods for Possible ‘Clash’ Directing Gig
Update: Dan Mazeau, who worked for Warners on “The Flash”, is being paired with David Leslie Johnson, writer of “The Girl with the Red Riding Hood,” the studio’s horror thriller starring Amanda Seyfried that is in pre-production, to write “Clash of the Titans 2.”” With the fake 3-D remake of Clash of the Titans nearing $500 million worldwide at the box office, Warner Bros. Pictures is fast-tracking a sequel with plans on shooting as early at January, reports the LA Times. It was already revealed that Louis Leterrier would not be returning to the director’s chair (thank the Gods (pun intended)), not the LA Times is writing that the frontrunner replacement is none other than Jonathan Liebesman, the man behind Darkness Falls, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and the forthcoming Battle: Los Angeles. Shooting in early 2011 is also a priority because the studio needs to make sure star Sam Worthington, who is committed to shoot Avatar 2 (likely later in the year), is free and clear. Hopefully they actually shoot it in 3-D this time (or not at all).
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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