Bigfoot

For some unfathomable reason, I have a weird fascination with Bigfoot movies. I say weird because I have no clue why or where this came from (although, I do vaguely remember really liking The 6 Million Dollar Man episode where Lee Majors takes on Sasquatch. I was young. Sue me). It's even more puzzling when I realize that I don't care one way or the other about the "real" existence of Bigfoot and when I stop to consider how awful 99% of Sasquatch-ploitation movies truly are.

Like a glutton for punishment, I keep soldiering on--and when Foywonder over at Dread Central shared news that Troma had acquired the DVD distribution rights to Bob Gray's Bigfoot, I actually got a little excited. Gray's film was one of the first entries in the mini-renaissance of Bigfoot films from a few years back. Unfortunately, it got mired in a distribution snafu and spent the past few years languishing in motion picture purgatory. Come March 30th, we'll all be able to finally see whether or not Bigfoot was worth the wait.

Gray's film, which finds the monster transported from his usual northwestern stomping grounds to Ohio, is reportedly re-cut from the version some folks saw a few years back. No word yet on extras, but Dread is speculating that the DVD will come with a commentary track, a making of featurette, and maybe one or two other supplements. Hopefully, we'll learn more between now and March 30th.

I think Sam Raimi and Guillermo del Toro are in a secret competition to see who can be involved with the most projects simultaneously. del Toro may have him beat in the feature film department, but when you factor in Raimi's TV shows (ugh, "Legend of the Seeker") and the Ghost House theatrical and straight-to-video arms, it may actually push the Evil Dead magnate into the lead. And Now we can add a rampaging Yeti (!) to Raimi's already-crowded producers docket.

The film, Refuge, will be directed by an aspiring UK filmmaker by the name of Corin Hardy. The Hollywood Reporter doesn't explain how the unknown Hardy won the attention of Raimi's Ghost House Pictures production outfit, but whatever they've seen has convinced them to throw in with Mandate on giving the film a helping hand. THR describes the project succinctly:

"Refuge centers on a remote town terrorized by a Yeti, the mythological creature native to the mountains of the Himalayas. Hardy will direct from a script by fellow British writer Tom De Ville; both are repped by Paradigm's Marc Helwig and Trevor Astbury. Meanwhile, Blum's Blumhouse Prods. will finance a short film with the same premise as the "Refuge" feature. Hardy and De Ville will work on that as well. The idea is to offer a teaser that can help Hardy refine his vision even as the script is being developed."

That's about it on the details for now. Will it be as awesome as Abominable, one of many, many, many movies people give me crap for loving? Doubtful, but any story about our friendly, hairy hominids in the woods is a story I'll keep an eye out for.