Quote:Dear Josh,

I imagine the question about Sam's production companies referred to "Ghost House Pictures," which I gather is what they're calling the parnership with that German company, Senator International. Ghost House is the name on the three new films, starting with "The Grudge."

I'm guessing that whenever there is a partnership for specific projects, as opposed to an actual merger, one simply creates a new company, for legal/accounting purposes? Like that whole LLC thing you've written about?

Speaking of which, though, I'm curious - do you have any idea how much of a staff is still technically involved with Ren Pics? I'm assuming there have to be a ton of accountants and so forth just to ride herd on royalties, licensing, residuals etc., even if there are no projects currently in production.

Thanks,

August

Dear August:

Even when you have a production company you still start a new company, which is either a limited partnership or a limited liability corporation, for every single production. This separates the liability from everything else. For a while there, like during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Renaissance Pictures kept using Roman numerals, Reniassance Pictures II and III, etc., for "Lunatics" and "Hard Target," but that gets confusing. Meanwhile, Ren Pix expands and contracts depending on what's in production. At its minimum, though, it's two people, Sue, the office manger, and David, jack-of-all-trades, both of whom have been around forever.

Josh

Quote:Well, Sam's co-producing the same movies, plus developing Spiderman 3 at the same time, so why can't Rob do the same with a Xena movie?

Quote:Today I attened the Dallas Comic Con Convention which featured Sean Astin, Thomas Jane and Steve Niles (Writer of the comics 30 Days of Night, Fused)

All three held Question and Answer sessions. Sean was by himself and Jane and Niles appeared together. Nothing big from the Astin session, except that every time he talks to Steven Spielberg, Spielberg always starts the conversation with, "You are still up for Goonies 2, right?" which Sean always answers with a "yes!"

The Jane/Niles session had some really juicy tidbits thought:

1. Niles said that Columbia has put a rush on the movies version of 30 Days of Night. Based on the success of The Grudge and Boogeyman, the rush was just put out this week and it is now second in line in production for them behind, he believes, is Scarecrow.

2. Niles has pitched five of his comics, and all five have been picked up for production recently, including 30 Days of Night, Fused, Hyde and Aleister Arcane (The 5th one slips my mind)...

Davesnothome Wrote:So the naysayers will have more ammunition to shoot themselves in the foot with!

Quote:The latest interactive spookfest on course to make a splash on the big screen is Sony's Siren. Ghost House Pictures, led by director Sam Raimi (both Spider-Man films, the Evil Dead franchise) and producer Robert Tapert (The Grudge, Xena: Warrior Princess), has purchased the game-to-movie rights from Sony, according to movie trade Variety (subscription required).

No director or cast has been attached to the movie yet. Penning the screenplay will be Michael Gordon, author of Warner Bros.' upcoming 300, based on the Frank Miller graphic novel.

In the movie, an American medical student will search for her missing sister in Japan. Her investigations lead her to the village of Hanuda, where evil has taken hold of its citizens. Shooting is expected to begin this year.

Quote:Both projects are moving ahead, with the first set to debut by early June. Raimi will produce via Ghost House Pictures, the joint venture he and Rob Tapert run with Mandate's Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane.

Fearnet president Diane Robina said each series will run seven episodes, with storylines continuing week to week. Episodes will be ad-supported and run between three and five minutes.

They'll be available on all Fearnet platforms: on-demand cable, streaming Internet video and mobile devices.

Up first from Raimi is Devil's Trade, which follows three teenagers who find themselves cursed after buying an item off a Web site. Ben Ketai wrote the script, and Toby Wilkins will direct.

The second project, also penned by Ketai, will serve as a prequel to 30 Days of Night, the Ghost House and Columbia Pictures feature about vampires who feast on an isolated Alaskan town, based on Steve Niles' graphic novel. The series will debut in advance of the October release of the movie.

Quote:Ghost House and, frequent companion, Mandate Pictures are seeking a director for a film entitled Burst. Details are slim, but here's the logline:

"An isolated town endures an alien invasion that causes victims to spontaneously combust during a severe snowstorm."

Bodily harm instigated by an out-of-this-world force set against a chilly backdrop. Slither meets 30 Days of Night may come to mind, but word is, the tone will be more in line with the latter film.

Quote:UGO: Dibbuk Box is another thing I saw announced. Can you tell us about that one?

RT: Dibbuk Box is...if you go online and google it, there is an incredibly horrifying story that we’re trying to bring to the screen. It’s a true story of a woman who escaped from a concentration camp, and the only thing she had is this box. And she moved to Spain, then her family moved to America and she brought the box, and she said, ‘When I die, bury this box with me.’ The family, because they were Jewish, did not bury the box, and sold it at an estate auction. You can track the box online where it was sold on Ebay. And everybody who bought that box has a horror story that goes with it. And we’ve been trying to find a way to bring that true life experience to the screen, because it’s so scary. And there’s something so creepy about the whole thing. And now a guy has the actual Dibbuk box in a barn, surrounded by salt in Missouri. His hair is falling out and his family thinks he’s nuts. Go online and google it and you can trace the history of it. It is one scary story.

UGO: Any idea who you want to cast in that?

RT: What we’re trying to do is get a script that is as scary as what we read online. And it’s proving more difficult...we got back and read the (story) online and the story of all these people who’s hands it’s passed through and what has happened. We haven’t realized a dramatic story that is as scary as the news item. We continue to try to figure out how to do that. Unfortunately in the online story it passes through the hands of seven or eight people, and in a movie, you feel like you want to stay with one or two people.

Quote: Six years ago, I had just finished spending six years in New Zealand, doing television, Hercules and Zena with my company. And Sam finished doing Spiderman, and an agent at that time hooked us up with two guys, Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane, who have a company called, “Mandate”. They were a struggling upstart company at that time. Subsequently, the have Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist out. They’ve done Juno and they have a bunch (of other films now too.)

Quote:Anguish follows two girls who, while watching a scary movie, find themselves in a horror film of their own when their lives starts to mirror the movie's plot. Jake Wade Wall (When a Stranger Calls) wrote the screenplay.

Meanwhile, Ghost House has tapped Room 205 director Martin Barnewitz to helm the English-language remake, which is being redubbed The Dorm.

The story centers on a college freshman who moves into a dorm only to find that her room is haunted by sinister forces. Stephen Susco, who wrote The Grudge and The Grudge 2, is adapting.

august Wrote:Anguish (a 1987 Spanish film)

august Wrote:And Siren, Burst, and Monkey's Paw no longer really even seem to exist.

Quote: ...Raimi... told reporters that ..."The Monkey's Paw" is still in early development. In W.W. Jacobs' 1902 short story, a monkey's paw grants wishes with horrific consequences.
......

The screenwriters are David Kajganich and Tom McAlister.
......

Raimi is waiting to see the script before getting involved with the film. "I'm not actively involved in it," he said. "If they get the script to a finished state, they would show it to me. I'd read it and give them notes. They would probably do another draft, and if it was of a level of quality that I thought people could really like, at that point I would try and take it around and see if I could get a director interested. That's still a long way away, basically."

Even in shepherding the potential film, Raimi would still let another director take the helm. "Once a director would be interested, I'd let him work with the writer and see where he wanted to develop it, and only then could I really look at it and say, 'OK, I think it's really good, and we should bring it around to the studios and see if it could get financing' or 'I don't think this is going to work. It doesn't work for me. You can have this script and maybe run with it yourself, but it's not right for a Ghost House picture.'"