Guillermo Del Toro

A few months ago found us relaying how producer Guillermo del Toro had pegged Wendigo and The Last Winter writer/director Larry Fessenden as the director of the American remake of The Orphanage. A few months after that, however, the horror community got word that Fessenden was, despite spending two years massaging the script back and forth with del Toro, parting ways with the project, citing a divergence in casting desires as the reason. And now that a little more time has passed, Variety is reporting that the remake of the Spanish spook house has a new director in the form of Mark Pellington.

Genre aficionados will, of course, recognize Pellington as the man who pitted Richard Gere against a spectral doomsayer in The Mothman Prophecies. That makes this, for me, great news. I'm rather fond of The Mothman Prophecies; which is a statement not a lot of people seem to be on board with, but I'm okay with that. I still find it to be a tightly paced, captivating thriller that swells with tension as its prophecies of death resolve into reality. So if anyone is going to attempt to recreate the scene in The Orphanage that finds a psychic medium wandering sightless through haunted corridors, I'm actually happy it's the man who delivered the creepy-as-hell phone call between Gere and the Mothman -- because even if you think TMP is boring, you have got to admit that phone call made the hairs on the back of your neck tingle.

Larry Fessenden's script appears to be the one del Toro and New Line have decided to shoot from, though no start date or cast is set. I'd personally campaign for someone like Maria Bello as the American match to the original's Belen Rueda, but one can assume that if Fesseden left over a casting disagreement, the studio was probably looking to cast a bit younger. Either way, considering the studio has been slowly developing the film since '07, it likely won't be much longer before news begins to drip out on that end, as well.

The Orphanage is one of the best horror movies of the past decade. It features one of the most terrifying scenes I have ever seen, and simply proves as proof that young children are simply terrifying. Like most good foreign horror films, the possibility of an American remake is always looming on the horizon, and The Orphanage is no exception. Back in August it was reported that writer/director/producer/actor Larry Fessenden was reported as being behind the camera for the remake, which was co-written by Fessenden and the inimitable Guillermo del Toro, who produced the original.

But things change, for better or worse.

Arrow in the Head got an exclusive bit of info from Fessenden himself concerning the remake on a recent visit to the set of Stake Land, a post-apocalyptic vampire film produced for Dark Sky Films. While there is still hope for Fessenden's script to be used, all signs point to a new director coming on board in the future.

"The Orphanage was two years of waiting. Working on the script with Guillermo was a very exciting experience, but then I got into a casting miasma and that's where the thing is; I think they're gonna do it another way, actually. So I think I'm out of it. Hopefully they'll still use my script, but I'm not sure I'm directing it anymore. That's Hollywood for ya."

Although The Orphanage redux most likely no longer has Fessenden attached to sit in the director's chair, he's keeping busy producing a trio of films, with the aforementioned Stake Land being included among the bunch.

If that name of all that is geek converging with all that is Disney, today's D23 conference brought with it news of a new line of especially thrilling animated fare called Double Dare You that will be overseen by that oft-producing, oft-directing, and generally busy, busy, busy Guillermo del Toro.

According to Kevin Kelly over at Cinematical, a pre-recorded message from del Toro announced that "the first film under the label will be an original idea of his called Trollhunters," while a follow-up would be -- in Guillermo's words -- something "that you will be very familiar with."

Variety's report helped fill in a bit more of the nonetheless vague details, saying that not only will del Toro produce everything under this new banner, but he might even direct some of the projects himself. Yeah, just because he might accidentally have some free time amidst all his other announced projects...

Do you think del Toro can bring a more mature edge to the Disney name?

No, Guillermo del Toro has not rejuvenated the ailing remake of Eyes of Laura Mars under a new moniker, which I think is something we can all agree is a good thing. Instead, Julia's Eyes is a new Spanish property set to be produced by the man with more in-development titles than IMDb can shake a proverbially over-sized stick at. The film, about a woman whose vision deteriorates after she begins investigating the unexplained death of her twin sister, is shaping up to be somewhat of a reunion for the creative talent in and behind The Orphanage (which will soon have to be prefaced as 'the original Orphanage').

Belen Rueda, who was the beautiful anchor in the aforementioned fright fest, is staged to star as the titular Julia. Joining Guillermo del Toro will be Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, seeing as their Cha Cha Cha label will be one of the main production umbrellas involved. The film is set to be directed by Guillem Morales, a man with whom I am unfortunately unfamiliar. But if that triumvirate of Spanish language directorial Gods has faith in him, that's good enough in my book.

The full details are up at Variety by way of Dread Central.

Yes, yes. I know, I know. Yet another remake of a movie too good and too new to ever be considered for a remake. I hear your cries of "When's Hollywood going to do something original?". I echo the sentiment myself, but at this point I'm too desensitized to the grumbling, globe crossing remake factory that makes up today's industrialized American horror. Truth be told I didn't even know Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage was actively being pursued for a remake. Considering it's a fantastic, non-English language horror movie, I suppose I subconsciously assumed it was in the works.

That's why I'm none too shocked to hear official word on the remake front. I am further not surprised to see the naming of Wendigo and The Last Winter director Larry Fesseden as the new honcho calling the shots. Though the two have never collaborated on a project together, Fesseden and Guillermo del Toro, who produced the original and this newly redundant transplant, have long shared similar spots on the horror circuit. While del Toro is clearly the bigger name of the two thanks to his Hollywood side, both are known for sticking to their indie roots as directors while producing the work of others. Not to mention Fesseden has recently worked with two of del Toro's biggest regulars, Ron Perlman and Doug Jones, the latter of whom gave a great performance sans prosthetics (a rarity for the actor) in Fesseden's "Fear Itself" episode Skin and Bones.

Guy Pearce just doesn't do enough movies for my liking. It's not as though he's vanished, but he seems to maintain a fairly low profile every time he blows everyone away with a big, meaty part like L.A. Confidential or Memento. But he has a lot of great projects coming up (the most exciting of which has to be The Road), and he's added a very intriguing one to his slate: the remake of 1973's telepic Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pearce and Bailee Madison have joined Katie Holmes in Troy Nixey's remake. It's a fairly loose adaptation of the 1973 original, which was centered around a couple, Sally and Alex, who inherited an old mansion from Sally's grandmother. Sally accidentally uncovers a hellish portal that allows a bunch of demons to escape and wreck bloody havoc. Naturally, no one believes her, and is convinced she's having a nervous breakdown thanks to all that home repair. Because it was the 1970s, it didn't even end well for Sally who just wanted a new fireplace ...

For those tired of seeing "remake" tacked onto everything, and for fans of the original, you'll be happy to know that the new Dark isn't so much a remake as a story "inspired by" those demonic creatures of old. It'll change up the family dynamic a bit, and have the focus be Madison, who plays a young girl who moves in with her father (Pearce) and his girlfriend (Holmes), and discovers they're sharing the house with demonic creatures. She tries to convince her father, a writer frustrated with his daughter's monster tales, but she does manage to convince his girlfriend. The script was written by Matthew Robbins and Nixey's mentor, Guillermo Del Toro, who will also be producing. With the tireless Del Toro overseeing the new and ghastly story, you can bet that it'll probably end on as dark of note as the original. The film begins production next month in Australia.

By Jenni Miller

What does Willem Dafoe's junk, a talking fox, and a dead child all have in common? Well, they're going to star in a video game adaptation of Lars von Trier's Antichrist courtesy of Morten Iversen, a developer with some serious credentials in the world of game geekery. Formerly of Io Interactive, Iversen now works at von Trier's Zentropa production company.

Russ Frushtick over at MTV Multiplayer tracked down Iversen to ask him what the hell is up with this project, so to speak, and here's what he had to say.

"Von Trier has been extremely fond of video games for ages, and has been an avid player of 'Alone in the Dark,'" explained Iverson. "He's been circulating the idea internally... that making games would be a good idea." He describes it as "a nightmarish version of 'Myst.'"

("Alone in the Dark"? Really? Come on, Lars!)

But apparently Zentropa's game dev people have some rather cool ideas in mind. If dead kids aren't your biggest fear in life, you can tweak your profile to indicate what scares you most and the game will respond in kind.