Perhaps as proof that the universe is all a complicated simulation that’s just messing with our heads at this point, Di Bonaventura Pictures (producers of 1408 and The Devil Inside as well as the GI Joe and Transformers franchises) and Caliber Media (producers of Bone Tomahawk, Dark Was the Night, and Condemned) are rebooting Puppet Master.
Puppet Master, for those unaware, was the first release by Charles Band’s Full Moon Pictures following the death of Empire Pictures. The film was directed by David Schmoeller and concerned a group of psychics meeting for an acquaintances funeral only to be picked off by a group of killer puppets. Puppet Master remains Full Moon’s biggest success to date and has given birth to an absurd amount of sequels of varying mediocrity.
The new film, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, is bafflingly being written by Bone Tomahawk writer/director S. Craig Zahler and “follows a recently divorced young man who discovers a mint condition Blade doll in his deceased brother’s closet and plans to sell the toy at a convention in Oregon celebrating the 30th anniversary of the infamous Toulon Murders. All hell breaks loose during the auction when a strange force animates all of the puppets throughout the convention, setting them on a bloody killing spree.” [Variety]
The project will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian from Di Bonaventura Pictres and Dallas Sonnier and Jack Heller (Director of Dark Was the Night) from Caliber Media with Charles Band as executive producer. The project was recently announced at the Texas Frightmare Weekend horror convention in Fort Worth, Texas. No director has yet become attached but after seeing Krampus I’m convinced that Michael Dougherty is the only man for the job.
I have no idea how to feel about this project but my lifelong love of Puppet Master in spite of itself coupled with my desire to see more of S. Craig Zahler’s work out there means I’m definitely going to be following this one. Plus the possibility of a Puppet Master with a budget and actual production values is a little exciting.