Friday 12 October 2007

What No House?

A few days ago the world received some very bad news, regarding the much anticipated fourth film in the ReAnimator series of films. It seems that House Of ReAnimator is now a no go according to both JeffreyCombs.com and SciFi.com. This is extremely disappointing to hear, as much as I am a huge fan of Mr Jeffrey I am also a massive fan of the lovely and extremely sexy Barbara Crampton. This movie would have brought the two them back together on the screen once more, for their fifth or sixth (depending on how you want to look at it) motion picture pairing.

Fifth or Sixth? Yes I say this because of "Pulse Pounders (2002)", why? Well basically because the movie was never released. Pulse Pounders was mainly made up from archival footage, and was a Twilight Zone-esque kind of anthology movie. The segment that Jeffrey and Barbara were featured in, was a sequel to the Trancers or Future Cop (as it is known in Australia) series of movies. The segment also featured Tim Thomerson in his last outing as Jack Deth, the movies hero. Whilst there were 6 Trancers movies actually released, Thomerson declined to appear in the sixth one. I guess he was over the role, so to speak.

It is unclear what role Jeffrey actually played in Pulse Pounders, as his official site states he played "The Evil Clergyman" whereas IMDB states David Warner played that role and doesn't list the name of the character Jeff played. I guess the only way to confirm this would be to ask Jeff himself, either that or to have the film actually released. The later would be the nicer option, I know I want to see it as much as I am sure Daria from JeffreyCombs.com would want to.

Well I have detracted from the point enough now, here is what SciFi had to say with their in depth interview with Jeff.

'Blame it on Stuart Gordon shooting his mouth off too much about it being a political movie or just the climate of the times, but star Jeffrey Combs told SCIFI Wire that the much-anticipated House of Re-Animator sequel likely won't be happening.

"I wish I could give you a better prognosis, but that is one of the most-asked questions I've been getting lately, and it's not even close to getting made," Combs said in an interview. "Too many people feel the heat, and studios are wary of the subject matter."

Gordon, who helmed the first Re-Animator in 1985, wanted to make the latest installment with Combs, reprising the role of Dr. Herbert West, who can bring people back from the dead. Gordon and Combs plan to talk about the series at the Full Moon Convention in Little Rock, Ark., on Oct. 26. The original film was based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft.

Combs (USA's The 4400) described the movie's problem: "The latest idea is too on the nose, because it's about a vice president who has a heart attack and dies, which is terrible, because he runs the country, and a kind of Karl Rove-ian character brings Herbert to the White House to revive him. All is well for a little while, and then, of course, havoc has its day. A lot of people they took the idea to didn't want to touch it. And, of course, the real power in it would be to get it out before they are out of power."

Combs has discussed with Gordon the idea of masking the people in the White House. "My argument is that you can make it a corrupt [presidential] administration, but not necessarily this one, and then it's in Dr. Strangelove territory and the people are not so recognizable," Combs said. "Believe me, I've had this conversation many times with Stuart."

In any case, Combs said that he doesn't really agree with mixing politics and Re-Animator. "Melding political humor and reanimation hasn't happened before, so why now all of a sudden is it Michael Moore Meets Re-Animator?" he asked. "I'm as outraged as the next guy about what's going on in the country, but I think we can be less on-the-nose about it and still make the same points. But Stuart is rather tenacious, so he may still get his way someday." Combs will next be see reprising his role as another doctor in the Oct. 16 DVD release of Return to House on Haunted Hill.'

Well maybe there is still hope, I guess we will all find out more about it after the "Full Moon Convention" in Little Rock on October the 26th. It had been previously mentioned, that it may end up as a "Masters Of Horror" episode which I detested the thought of. Now that option is starting to look good for me, budgetary reasons were given for this idea. I have thought of an idea which which would solve that problem for Gordon, set up an investment company with listed shares for the movie. Then fans would get to see the movie they wanted, and at the same time have the option to profit out of it. Everyone would be happy then, wouldn't they? This could also make it a much higher budgeted movie as well. JeffreyCombs.com seems to share this idea, as well. 'Til next time all.



Cyberman

2 comments:

Elisa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elisa said...

I'm glad you share MY idea about the fan financed film. I have mentioned it on the JCFC forum many times as well as in the blog. *cough*

"House" really was never my favorite idea for a Re-An movie anyway and a lot of fans are coming out of the woodwork and agreeing. Let's hope if there is another "Re-Animator," it's a great storyline, that's not TOO topical so as to be stuck in one generation.

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