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~ According to Fangoria's Video Chopping List, Ivan Zuccon's "Unknown Beyond" is now scheduled for release sometime in March 2004. I've yet to confirm this information with Ivan or Leo Films Steve Lustgarten. More as is becomes available... (Thanks to http://www.fangoria.com/) December 29: Beyond Re-Animator DVD approaches A Reminder... Don't forget, the further adventures of Herbert West can be seen on DVD starting tomorrow... Click here to order. (Thanks to http://www.creature-corner.com/) Dean Bertram provided
the following image from his upcoming Lovecraftian production, "Through
A Lens Darkly". The film, currently being shot in Australia,
is inspired by the writings of Lovecraft (particularly "The
Picture in the House"). Look for more images coming soon... (Thanks to Dean Bertram) December 29: Enter
the Dagon trailer coming soon! Director Thomas J Gleason has informed me that "Enter the Dagon" is now entering the post-production stage. A trailer for the film will be ready in time for the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors (January 9-11), and I am very pleased to announce that Tom has chosen Unfilmable.com as the official host for the trailer! Look for the trailer next week, only on Unfilmable.com. (Special thanks to Thomas J Gleason) December 29: Animated
Lovecraft, "The Terror Beyond" ~update~ Click here for the latest news from Guerrilla Productions and director Edward Martin III. From the shipping status of the Dream-Quest DVD to the finishing of one Lovecraftian short (and starting of another)... (Thanks to Edward Martin III) December 29: Lovecraft in the movies... Ever wonder who has portrayed
H.P. Lovecraft in the movies? From Out of Mind to Cast a Deadly
Spell, Lovecraft has been portrayed very differently from film to
film. Click here for a small but
interesting list. (Thanks to http://www.cultcuts.net/) According to bloody-disgusting.com, this months issue of Maxim (on page 62) contains an excerpt about Bruce Campbell with more talk about Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash. It's short, but is makes all the rumors sound a little more convincing. Click here for a scan from the magazine. (Thanks to http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/) From b-horror.com: Steve Sessions latest, Hellbound: Book of the Dead, starring Jeff Dylan Graham (Dead & Rotting, Home Sick), Elizabeth North, and Lucien Eisenach, will be released on vhs and dvd by Brain Damage Films December 23rd. The old book of black magic was supposed to bring back the dead...but when the spell didn’t work, the only solution seemed to be disposing of the body in pieces....then the spell began to kick in! You can purchase it from Amazon.com by clicking here. This flick is also available now in the UK under its original title, Cadaver Bay. If you're in Great Britain order it direct from Cryptkeeper Films. (Thanks to Steve Sessions) Cracked leather covers, unspeakable runes, illustrations drawn in human blood... For better or worse, the Necronomicon may well be H.P. Lovecraft's best know invention. Originally known as Al Azif (the buzzing or howling of demons), the blasphemous book spawned many imitators (with Lovecraft's blessings). Some of it's literary brothers include The Book of Eibon, the Pnakotic Text, and the De Vermis Mysteriis by Ludwig Prinn. The Necronomicon's appearance even prompted many to seek out the rare book for their own practices... On this page you will
find films that are Lovecraftian in nature, not because they are based
on Lovecraft stories (although some surely are), but because one or
more of these unspeakable books makes an appearance. Click here to read Bloody-Disgusting.com's review of the Beyond Re-Animator DVD. (Thanks to http://www.bloody-disgusting.com) It seems that the stars were not right... According to Edward Martin III, "there were a series of goofs in the schedule and somehow, our job wasn't as brightly marked "before Christmas" as we needed to jockey an early position in the queue. We have the hardcases and the external slips, but the internal booklets and the DVDs might arrive Christmas eve." The signed and numbered DVD's are each autographed by Cyoakha Grace O'Manion (composer), Jason Thompson (artist) and Edward (director). Additionally, there are 5 covers that were pulled out separately. On the backs of each of them, Jason drew a different miniposter, some characters from the movie, other mythos characters, etc. Those 5 'special' covers will be shuffled in with the rest of the covers. Unless other problems
arise, all paid orders will ship on or before December 29. (Thanks to Edward Martin III) December 18: Own a piece of "The Yellow Sign" Aaron Vanek has listed a bunch of props from "The Yellow Sign" on Ebay. He's hoping to sell them to raise funds for his next project. Please check the ebay listings, and consider bidding on these one-of-a-kind movie props. The "Cloud"
painting that hid the yellow sign: The painting of Tess
Reardon The Carmichael-Reardon
Gallery exhibit sign Part of Aubrey's painted
canvas wall Most of Aubrey's painted
canvas wall (Thanks to Aaron Vanek) December 18: "The Colour Out of Space" update Aaron Vanek and his writing partner Ken Lobb have turned in their first draft of "The Colour Out of Space", and are awaiting word from their producer. In the meantime, they've started work on their next script. More as it becomes available... (Thanks to Aaron Vanek) December 18: Lovecraft Filmography updated I've added several new listings to the Lovecraft Filmography. Many of these additions are unproduced scripts gathered from the U.S. Copyright Office website. Titles include The Well (based on The Colour Out of Space), The Hound, and Journey into Hell (based on The Shadow Over Innsmouth). Click here for more. (Thanks to Aaron Vanek) Just an interesting observation... While browsing through the book, FANGORIA’S 101 BEST HORROR MOVIES YOU’VE NEVER SEEN, I ran across the listing for Stuart Gordon's "Castle Freak". I noticed that it incorrectly listed the films (un-credited) inspiration as H.P. Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep". In reality, the film was based on the story "The Outsider", and even features the 'famous' mirror touching scene from the original story. The error may have come about because Stuart talked about (in a recent interview) adapting "The Thing on the Doorstep" as a feature film (to be titled "Envy"). Then again, I could be wrong... December 17: Animated Lovecraft, "The Terror Beyond" ~update~ I missed these the first time... Updating you on those Cartoon Network episodes of the "Justice League". "The Terror Beyond" (with the Mythos references listed below) air again at the end of this month. You can see pt 1 on December 29 at 5:30 pm, and pt 2 on the 30th (in the same timeslot). Click here for scheduling updates. The following information appeared on the H.P. Lovecraft yahoo group (and is reprinted from last months post)... ~Did everyone catch the Justice League episode "The Terror Beyond"? It had Aquaman, Dr. Fate & Solomon Grundy joining with the Justice League to fight Cthulhu (referred to as Xthulhu or Icthulhu?)! It revealed that Hawkgirl's home planet , Thanagar, had once worshipped Cthulhu thousands of years ago! It revised Solomon Grundy's origin - instead of being a miser, Cyrus Gold was a 1920's gangster. He was murdered & a "gris-gris" was placed on him to remove his soul. His body was thrown in mystical Slaughter Swamp. The conflicting mystical energies eventually gave rise to "Solomon Grundy". I was amazed that Aquaman & Dr. Fate would try sacrificing Solomon Grundy to Cthulhu. I was also amazed by Aquaman's no-holds-barred fight with Wonder Woman. The story seemed more like a Marvel's Defenders story rather than a Justice League story. Solomon Grundy even called Hawkgirl "Bird-nose" (The Hulk's old nickname for Nighthawk) & he called Dr.Fate "Magician"). In this story it would be easy to see Marvel's Defenders replacing their DC counterparts - Sub-Mariner (Aquaman), Dr. Strange (Dr. Fate), Hulk (Solomon Grundy), Nighthawk (Hawkgirl), Valkyrie (Wonder Woman) & Hyperion (Superman). This was certainly 1 of the weirdest episodes I've ever seen.... ...Rob Zombie is the voice of Cthulhu & Mark Hamill was the voice of Solomon Grundy. Incidentally, Solomon Grundy was the creation of Science Fiction writer Alfred Bester , the same Bester that was the namesake for the "Babylon 5" character, back when he was writing for comics.~ (Thanks to Greg Agostini,
Taylor and Franklin Hummel) Click here to read creature-corner.com's less than favorable review of the upcoming (December 30) DVD release for Beyond Re-Animator. (Thanks to http://www.creature-corner.com/) Contributing Source: creature-corner.com, The Bloody Good Horror Page Beyond Re-Animator is set for release on December 30th (pre-order it here), the people over at the Bloody Good Horror Page sat down with Jeff recently to discuss the cutting (or non-cutting as it were) of the film, but more importantly are his feelings on another film... "Yeah I think definitely. I've already been sort of brainstorming with little pearls of ideas as to where it might go, and I know that probably Brian has too but, absolutely nothing that I have heard has occurred along those lines. I mean I guess that would depend upon how well this DVD does. It obviously isn't going to be dependent upon it's theatrical release because it didn't have one (laughs)" He also shares his thoughts on Lovecraft, and how well his stories adapt to the screen. "Well I would disagree with you, I don't think that they make themselves great for adaptations. The vast majority of H.P. Lovecraft is much more about mood, essence, fear, a sense of dread, but he's not very plot driven. The stories don't really go from point A to point B. So a lot of the time in people's adaptations of them they have to sort of create that. From Beyond is a good example of that. It's a fairly short story, and it has really none of the things that the movie had. Just this general notion that there's things in the air. Necronomicon... well even Reanimator, there's probably a little bit more of plot drive there than some of his other stories, but even our movie is updated and it doesn't... there is no character named Dan Cain, there's no Meg. There is a Herbert West and there is a Dr. Carl Hill, but he's not in the manifestation that he is in the movie. So there's elements and bits and pieces that you can maybe use to climb the mountain, but it's not all out there for you to easily follow the path. I had vaguely heard of H.P. Lovecraft before I went in to audition for Reanimator. Stuart said, "hey, this is based on H.P. Lovecraft," and I said (sarcastically) "wow great!". He could have been a dentist for all I knew. I had no idea. I've since read some of his material. A little bit of it, he's an interesting guy. He had a real gift and he certainly has his following." Check out the entire interview, in which he also discuses the choice to not involve Bruce Abbott in the third movie, right here. (Thanks to http://www.creature-corner.com/) Some of the more recent independent Lovecraft productions have been popping up on The Internet Movie Database lately. Among the recent additions (some already mentioned on these pages) are Edward Martin's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" and Maelstrom Productions "The Thing on the Doorstep". The latest entry into IMDb's vast catalogue of films is Rick Tillman's excellent version of Pickman's Model. Click here if you'd like to leave a comment about Rick's film. In other news, Rick tells me that he is hard at work on the script for the sequel to Pickman's Model. As mentioned, the film is to be called, PM II: The Return Of Richard Upton Pickman. (Thanks to Rick Tillman) December 13: Colour of the Dark update Here's a small update for a film that I'm really looking forward to... Ivan Zuccon sends word that he is hard at work on his adaptation of "The Colour Out of Space". Ivan and Ivo Gazzarrini are currently doing re-writes on the first draft of the script, while casting for the film continues. More as is becomes available. (Thanks to Ivan Zuccon) December 13: Substitute Teacher Totally Freaks Christian Matzke found the following on The Onion: ~OCONOMOWOC, WI-Substitute teacher Pamela Krafft totally freaked during third period, freshman-class sources at August Derleth Memorial High School reported at lunch Tuesday.~ Read the entire article here. Could students at August Derleth High be in for more madness?! If you don't know who August Derleth is, click here. (Thanks to Christian
Matzke) Are you thinking of adapting a Lovecraft story for the big (or small) screen? If so, you may want to see what has already been made (or attempted). The films listed in Unfilmable.com's new Lovecraft Filmography are grouped according to the Lovecraft story that inspired them. Many of the following films are still in production or were announced, but never completed. If you know of a film not listed, please email me here. This page is still a
work in progress, and is likely to change in the coming weeks... Greetings All, Wanted to let you know that the HP Lovecraft Historical Society is celebrating the twelve days of solstice. Today through Solstice (Dec. 21), we're giving away a free HPLHS T-shirt with any orders of $40 or more. That means you can get your weird uncle a copy of A Shoggoth on the Roof, give the high priest of your local cult A Very Scary Solstice and you can keep the excellent Cthulhu shirt for yourself. Your Lovecraftian shopping
frenzy awaits you at: Sean (Thanks to Sean Branney) Back on November 26th I noted that William Johns excellent research site, The Lovecraft Library was no longer online (several others, including Gavin Smith noted this as well). Today Bill explained why this is so. If anyone has anything to add to the following (opinions/information), I would be interested in hearing it. Anything that you think might be of help to Bill will be forwarded to him. Hopefully we'll see The Lovecraft Library return... ~As Gavin noted, my website, the Lovecraft Library, is gone. I was contacted by Alice Derleth, who told me that I was in violation of the copyrights on "Derleth Materials". I wrote back to her and very politely pointed out that there were no "Derleth Materials" on the website, just "Lovecraft Materials" which were in the public domain. (I find it offensive as hell that she considers HPLs works to be "Derleth Materials".) About two weeks later I was contacted on Alice Derleth's behalf by Joshua Bilmes, literary agent of the Lovecraft Estate, who disagreed with me. Frankly, he made very little sense. Among the points he made were that the stories _may_ still be under copyright in Eastern Europe and China (they're not), Joshi hasn't published any of HPLs stuff without Arkham House's permission (so what?), and that the stories are "better protected now than five years ago" (scary and irrelevant). He claimed copyright on all of HPLs stuff back to 1904, which is patently false! He accused me of using "magic" to extend the public domain status of a few of HPLs works (which he claimed copyright on) to all of HPLs works. That really pissed me off. Either he hadn't actually read my description of the copyright situation, or he's deliberately misunderstanding it in order maintain that the stories are copyrighted. I suspect both. If I were rich, I'd hire a lawyer and sue the piss out of both Bilmes and Arkham House. Probably wouldn't win, though. Copyright law is so pathetically convoluted that a copyright on even one aspect of a publication (such as page numbers, for crying out loud! - search on "West citation system" and "false copyright") can be used as a hammer to control the content, even if the content public domain. Not to mention that there is no penalty under the law for asserting a false copyright. Since I'm not rich, I took the site down to avoid trouble. (My wife was literally reduced to tears, afraid that the KGB would be kicking the door down any second.) Frankly, I'm heartbroken. The website was a surprisingly large part of my life. I feel as if a friend has died. (I know ... schmaltzy as hell.) The really reason I am writing, though, is that (much to my delight) I've discovered that the site is still available from "The Wayback Machine", at www.archive.org. Search on www.ech-pi-el.com. The formatting is screwed up because the DHTML didn't translate completely, but the stories are still there. Heh, heh, heh. Bill~ note: I have started changing the story links (spread throughout Unfilmable.com) from The Lovcraft Library to The works of H.P. Lovecraft on dagonbytes.com. (Thanks to William Johns) Film and literature instructor Brian Hauser provided the following information for his Lovecraftian DV feature, One Night on Oswald's Green... ~Brad runs a regular Lovecraftian table-top role-playing campaign for his players Joe and Sam. Following the untimely death of their third player, Mark, Joe invites an acquaintance, Toby, to round out the group. Toby has never role-played before, and he is eager to try it out, but he is unprepared for the emotional maelstrom left in the wake of Mark's death. Caught between Brad's heartlessness, Joe's indifference, and Sam's grief, Toby's experience crosses the line between the real and the weird.~ The film (written and directed by Brian) is currently in post-production and slated for a October 2004 release. More as it becomes available. (Thanks to Brian Hauser) December 7: From R'lyeh With Love anyone? Click here for a humorous rundown of Lovecraftian Films that Never Were! (Thanks to Malcolm Carlock) From bloody-disgusting.com: ~Moviehole scored all sorts of goodies from the upcoming film The Half-Way House. At the link you'll find some pictures and a link to the first trailer for the film. "Mary Woronov is the sinister Sister Cecelia of the Mary Magdalen Halfway House for Troubled Girls who masks a darker mystery that only a secret undercover investigation can expose. But will it be too late to stop the horror that she is preparing to unleash upon the earth?"~ Source: Moviehole (Thanks to http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/) A Reminder: DECEMBER 7TH 8 PM "Howard Phillips
Lovecraft, heaven knows, had a talent for writing which was of no mean
proportion. Only what he did with this talent was a bane, and a caution,
and an eldritch horror." Jane Rose, in conjunction with the Reel Sweet Betty film collective and the Dollhaus, presents: A night of short films based on the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) Works shown include: and surprise screenings by Reel Sweet Betty collective members Kevin Freeman and Jeff Velazquez. While most of his life was spent in obscurity, writing for pulp magazines such as Weird Tales, Lovecraft's genius has since been recognized and his influence upon the modern horror genre is unmistakable. Echoes of his style and vision can be found in the works of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and other contemporary horror greats. His fictive works have been published in countless collections and anthologies. Although Lovecraft never wanted his writing adapted for film, many attempts have been made to capture his bizarre aesthetic on screen, So reach for that decanter, brace up your frail nerves, and prepare to enjoy images of shambling creatures, extra-stellar horrors, and slimy monstrosities, brought to you by some of HPL's most steadfast devotees. Unmentionable delicacies and unnamable concoctions will be served for your refreshment. Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! For more on Lovecraft: And the Dollhaus: Click here to read Ryan Rotten's very favorable review of horror legend Chas. Balun's new book, Beyond Horror Holocaust. If your interested in purchasing the book yourself, you can find it here. (Thanks to http://www.creature-corner.com/) According to BV Entertainment,
Inc., the trailer is now online for their new horror feature, The
Halfway House, starring Mary Woronov, produced by Emmy™-award
winner Ed Polgardy and written and directed by Puppet Master
creator Kenneth J. Hall! They'll have more news in the coming months as the movie is completed and ready for screenings. Stay tuned! (Thanks to BV Entertainment,
Inc.) Click here
for the latest update from Guerrilla Productions! (Thanks to Edward Martin
III) |
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