Producer/director Robert Rippberger (Those Who Walk Away) recently wrapped production on the sci-fi thriller Renner, which sees Frankie Muniz and Violett Beane taking on a manipulative A.I. Now Rippberger is heading to the European Film Market in Berlin to launch sales on his slate of upcoming films – the first project in the line-up being a horror thriller creature feature called Monstrosity, which is reminiscent of the classic sitcom The Munsters (which recently received a feature film update from Rob Zombie) in that it focuses on a family that consists of classic monsters. In this case, a werewolf, a vampire, a zombie, and Frankenstein’s Monster. The mixture also brings to mind the ’80s classic The Monster Squad.
Variety reports that Monstrosity, which is currently in pre-production, has the following synopsis: A young village boy goes missing down a mine shaft. His father blames a strange family in the neighboring house, but of course far more is at play. The family of misfits are actually a werewolf, a vampire, a zombie, and Frankenstein’s monster, and they are all guarding the mine to keep evil barricaded behind a Hell Gate.
Rippberger will be directing the film and producing it (under his SIE Films banner) alongside writer Sabir Pirzada, whose credits include the Marvel / Disney+ shows Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel. Concept artist Aaron Sims, who has worked on the likes of Stranger Things, Ready Player One, and Wonder Woman 1984, has designed the creatures, and Monstrosity will be filming later this year at “one of the Morgan International full-service special effects facilities in Europe.”
Rippberger had this to say about Monstrosity: “Like superhero films, monster movies have an avid fanbase. (Similar to The Avengers), we are immersing the vampire, werewolf, zombie and Frankenstein’s monster into the 21st century.” He went on to say that this film is going to “flip these characters and the horror genre on its head.“
Other Rippberger productions include the documentary How to Build a Truth Engine, which was executive produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, and the stop-motion animated film The Inventor. In addition to the horror thriller Those Who Walk Away, he has also directed the social drama Strive and the documentaries Public Enemy Number One, 7 Days in Syria, Face of Unity, Visions for the Future, and Breaking the Cycle.
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