If you say you want to make a movie that’s like “PLANET OF THE APES, but with pig people,” you will immediately have my full attention, and that’s exactly how writer/director Barney Burman describes WILD BOAR, the horror project he’s currently trying to get off the ground. (Presumably muddy ground, good for the pig people to wallow in.)
A veteran effects artist and “third generation monster maker”, Burman has won an Oscar for his work on the 2009 STAR TREK and currently holds the position of special makeup effects designer/creator on the TV show GRIMM. Last year, he earned his first screenwriting credit by co-writing PIRANHA SHARKS, and now he’s looking to make his directorial debut with WILD BOAR, which
follows a small group of adventurous people who trek out to the desert to conquer the infamous Foster Geocaching Challenge. Out in the wild they stumble upon a forbidden world flooded with radiation and inhabited by a race of blood thirsty mutants who have evolved from pigs.
Burman and producers Ramona Mallory and Mark Burman have assembled a cast that includes Augie Duke, Daniel Roebuck, Jessica Sonneborn, Jim Nieb, Michael Reed, and creature performer Douglas Tait.
WILD BOAR is in pre-production, with an Indiegogo campaign underway to help it progress into the production stage.
The plan is for the pig people vs. human action to be achieved almost completely through practical effects, and the designs of these creatures look awesome. In addition to PLANET OF THE APES, the synopsis and the Salton Sea locations Burman has picked out call to mind THE HILLS HAVE EYES for me, and I really can’t think of anything I’d rather watch right now than a take on THE HILLS HAVE EYES that features pig mutants.