Nicholas Cage's DRIVE ANGRY and HALLOWEEN 3D Planned
**UPDATE: September 2 - Rumors have the director for HALLOWEEN 3D as being Steve Miner (H20, HOUSE, WARLOCK, FRIDAY THE 13TH 2 & 3). Interesting!!
Jim here. As my friend Matthew has pointed out to me - "Soon it will be news when a new movie *isn't* in 3D". And he is soooo right.
Two more 3D movies are getting greenlit:
Nicholas Cage has signed on to star in DRIVE ANGRY - a story about a father who exacts revenge on the roads for the murder of his daughter and the kidnapping of her baby. Bodies are left on the roads as the death toll mounts - reminds me of a cross between DEATH RACE 2000 and DEATH WISH.
From HeatVision: "Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short, Avi Lerner and Boaz Davidson are executive producing for Nu Image/Millennium, which is planning to begin production in April in Louisiana; the company has a new $10 million studio in Shreveport, La.
"Angry" will be the first foray into 3D for Nu Image/Millenium and marks a return to the format for Lussier. The director, who got his feature start editing horror movies for Wes Craven, last directed "My Bloody Valentine 3D," which grossed $51 million domestically this year."
Here is the good news - Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier wrote the story and the latter will be directing. I feel MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D was done very well for the money involved and DRIVE ANGRY should bring in the masses for Nu Image / Millenium Films. Cage has got legions of fans - especially overseas.
Ready for Nic Cage in 3D? The time has come! :-) Shooting is slated for April 2010 in Louisiana.
Secondly we have HALLOWEEN 3D being offered up from the Weinsteins - which makes perfect sense to me. With THE FINAL DESTINATION kicking HALLOWEEN 2's butt this weekend, they weren't going to not go 3D for the next iteration of the re-energized franchise. However it will have to be without Rob Zombie this time around as he is committed to making THE BLOB.
From the LATimes: "The investment it takes to shoot movies in digital 3-D has proved particularly lucrative for horror films. For "The Final Destination," this weekend's No. 1 movie, theaters with at least one 3-D screen earned 3.25 times as much as those that showed the movie in 2-D only, according to distributor Warner Bros."
Bob Weinstein said the studio is talking with a new helmer for H3D who he did not want to name at this time - but did say that this director has a "different take" on the franchise and is experienced in horror.
Who will the Weinstein's get for HALLOWEEN 3D? Any wagers? Sounds like a no brainer to me though: Make a movie for $15 million and have it easily recouped the first weekend? Wow. Seeing FD do so well though made them stop and think "what if". Not anymore. Look for HALLOWEEN 3D in the summer of next year.
Stay tuned for more about HALLOWEEN 3D and DRIVE ANGRY when I get it.
