Roger Corman is turning once again to Edgar Allan Poe for inspiration, as he did multiple times in the 60s. The Hollywood Reporter has it that Corman will produce eight adaptations of famous Poe tales for the big screen beginning next year.
The word comes from Corman himself, who told the Reporter that he’ll produce two low-budget Poe films a year, starting with HOUSE OF USHER. That will be followed by The Pit and the Pendulum, Premature Burial, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Haunted Palace, The Masque of the Red Death and The Tomb of Ligeia – all of which Corman directed himself from 1960 to 1964.
The budgets on these productions will be in the $2-2.5 million range and produced by Corman’s New Horizons Productions. The films will receive short domestic theatrical releases, while international rights will be offered at future American Film Markets.
“Now being able to do them in 3D and with a lot of computer graphics, we can do things we never dreamed of doing before,” he says.
It’s very comforting to see Corman go back to what helped make him a legend in this business. Lately he’s been mired in Syfy fare like SHARKTOPUS and DINOSHARK. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it should be fun to watch the low-budget maestro return to more straight-forward horror territory.
Jena Sims, from one of Corman’s latest masterworks, THE ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT CHEERLEADER