Paris-based production company Vixens sounds like my kind of company, as they just announced they have four "director-driven, genre-bending projects" in the works.
These projects are:
– HOUSEWIFE, a movie in the vein of ROSEMARY'S BABY and the films of Dario Argento that will mark the English language debut of BASKIN director Can Evrenol. The screenplay has been written by Evrenol and his BASKIN co-writer Cem Ozuduru. HOUSEWIFE will begin filming in Istanbul in January.
– Christophe Deroo's adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP, which will be shot in two parts. Lovecraft's story has the following synopsis:
An intern in a mental hospital relates his experience with Joe Slater, an inmate who died at the facility a few weeks after being confined as a criminally insane murderer. During the third night of his confinement, Slater has the first of his "attacks". He bursts from an uneasy sleep into a frenzy so violent it takes four orderlies to strait-jacket him. For nearly fifteen minutes he gives vent to an incredible rant. As an undergraduate, the intern had built but never tested a device for two-way telepathic communication. The device was designed around his principle that thought was ultimately a form of radiant energy. Heedless of any ethics, he attaches himself with Slater to the device as Slater lies near death. With the device switched on, he receives a message from a being of light whose experiences had been what were transmitted through the medium of Joe Slater.
BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP was previously given a cinematic adaptation by Barrett J. Leigh and Thom Maurer in 2006. Filming on Deroo's version will begin in the last quarter of 2017.
– Director David Raboy's THE GIANT, which is said to be in the vein of IT FOLLOWS and is scheduled to enter production in the summer.
– Milad Alami will make his feature directorial debut with THE CHARMER, a "psychological drama with some thriller elements" that tells the story of
a Danish-Iranian under-achiever who lives under a fake identity and is forced to reconsider his life after falling in love with a woman.
When you have a line-up that can be compared to the likes of ROSEMARY'S BABY and IT FOLLOWS and references the works of Lovecraft and Argento, it appears that you're doing something right. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of Vixens' endeavors on these films.
Vixens was started by Gary Farkas, Clement Lepoutre, and Olivier Muller just under two years ago.
BASKIN