From my extremely recent interview with Doomsday director Neil Marshall:
Q: Do you know what you’re doing next?
Marshall: No. We’ll see what happens next week.
Really, Neil? No idea? Not even the slightest? Well, then, I guess this Sacrilege movie just dawned on you over the last few days, huh?
While I’m always keen on scooping Variety, I suppose it’s possible that Marshall’s deal was still getting finalized when we spoke last Thursday. Though Marshall mentioned his desire to stick close to the horror-action genre (and maybe make another werewolf movie in the near future), he didn’t say a goddamn thing about directing a western. And a western/horror hybrid at that.
Marshall’s withholding plot particulars at the moment, but he claims Sacrilege will be “Unforgiven by way of H.P. Lovecraft”, which is awfully lofty. According to Variety‘s Michael Fleming, the film will also “draw on themes of isolation and paranoia and such influences as John Carpenter’s The Thing.” When Marshall talks about wanting to make a gritty type of western, I immediately think of Deadwood, which could sometimes delve into the horrific (that nasty, third season street brawl between Dan Dority and Hearst’s man still gets to me); if he can meld Milch’s aesthetic with something faintly Lovecraftian, this Sacrilege could be something special.
That Rogue is willing to stay in business with Marshall must mean that Doomsday isn’t a complete disaster (even though I’ve yet to hear of a press screening). Guess we’ll find out on Friday.
12 comments
First!!
Neil Marshall had a beer and cheated on Jeremy's question.
Devin cracks me up….
I'm from the mid-west and I don't know what is happening!
Maybe he was trying to keep a secret!
Poor wee Jeremy….awww
Sexiest tomboy beanpole on the planet!
All your question are belong to us.
I'm sorry but I don't understand the love Neil Marshall gets. Sure, Dog Soldiers was a mildly amusing, lo-fi werewolf 'romp', but nowhere in the same league as stuff like The Howling or American Werewolf, which some people were claiming at the time. (Fuck, it was even compared to Evil Dead II in some quarters here in Blighty, which is just complete bollocks!)
Then came The Descent and, again, genre press over here went nuts for it as if it was the scariest, most original thing splashed upon cinema screens in a long time. As a movie it was merely okay. The acting wasn't great, the gore was nowhere near as hardcore as people lead you to believe and the subterranean creatures were, well, a bit shit actually. (Okay, at least it was better than The Cave…)
And now we get Doomsday – has anyone seen the trailer to this thing?? What a fucking pile o' shit. My mates and I sat there literally slack-jawed at the sheer audacity of the cine-theft on display for all to see. Does Mr. Marshall think we've never seen Mad Max, Resident Evil, 28 Days Later, Escape From New York, et al??! How could anyone with any iota of talent expect to sell this blatant rip-off stew as something worth seeing? If the trailer couldn't disguise how cack this thing looked then I can confidently predict that the film is already dead in the water. It looks like a god damn Paul W.S. Anderson movie. On half the budget.
Jesus, I haven't heard such a fuss about a supposed horror 'auteur' since the (completely unjustified) hoopla regarding Eli Roth. I mean Cabin Fever? Really??!
So, for those playing at home, the Neil Marshall scorecard reads one okay lycanthrope flick, a mediocre survival horror and what looks like balls in a jar. And he reckons he can give us 'Unforgiven by way of H.P. Lovecraft'?! Good fucking luck with that, mate…
Say what you will about Eli Roth, but he knows how to pick hot women to be in his flicks. Neil Marshall, not so much. I mean The Cave had a bunch of girls and not one of them even got their shirt torn off. Couldn't they have taken a naked group shower in the waterfall before descending into the cleavage obscuring darkness? What am I paying for… a story? Ha! That's rich. Don't even get me started Rhona Man-tra. If I wanted to see a man dressed like a woman, I'd look up a picture of one of the CHUD writers at home. Sorry, it's just so easy!
Correction: I meant to say the Descent, not the Cave. I also wanted to apologize for refering to the beloved writers as women. You actually have to lose your virginity to be considered a women. My apologies go to anyone affected by such errors.
Damn You Roland Emmerich
Have to agree on his films being only okay and severely lacking in a feeling of authenticity. The bits of "Mad Snake" that are out there have that same "make up trailer just out of frame/painted on grime" vibe (unlike the films he riffs). I think a film production has to be lean and hungry to pull off decent horror or have a direct who doesn't care how uncomfortable and wrecked his actors or crew are. From the Dog Soldiers commentary I got the impression Neil likes his actors too much – fuck that shit!
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