Director Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s movie Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey will be getting a nine day theatrical release though Fathom Events in the US on February 15th – but a couple weeks away from that date, Frake-Waterfield has revealed that he’s already working on a sequel! And while developing the follow-up, he’s drawing inspiration from last year’s indie hit Terrifier 2…
Speaking with SFX Magazine (we send our thanks out to Games Radar for spreading the word), Frake-Waterfield said that he had Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Wrong Turn on his mind while he was crafting Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. “And as we’re going into the sequel soon, Terrifier 2 is going to be one of my key reference points. I want to make sure I go as big and epic as they went with that. I want to try and push it even more.“
Terrifier 2 certainly did take the epic approach, packing a lot of insanity and wild ideas into its 138 minute running time.
A.A. Milne’s 1926 children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh and the characters in it lapsed into the public domain at the start of 2022, and that’s how Frake-Waterfield was able to make this movie happen, no permission required. The filmmaker explained to Variety that Pooh and Piglet (go) on a rampage after being abandoned by a college-bound Christopher Robin. “Christopher Robin is pulled away from them, and he’s not [given] them food, it’s made Pooh and Piglet’s life quite difficult. Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral. So they’ve gone back to their animal roots. They’re no longer tame: they’re like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey.”
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey stars Amber Doig-Thorne (Heropanti 2), Maria Taylor (Perfectly Frank), Danielle Ronald (Curse of Bloody Mary), May Kelly (Easter Killing), Natasha Tosini (The Butterfly Beat), Marcus Massey (The Gradual Approach of the Evening), Gillian Broderick (I’m Still Here), Richard Harfst (Cannibal Troll), Natasha Rose Mills (Accident Man), Paula Coiz (The Leprechaun’s Curse), Danielle Scott (Prototype), and Bao Tieu (Conjuring the Genie), with Craig David Dowsett (Alien Abduction) as Winnie the Pooh and Chris Cordell (Spider in the Attic) as Piglet.
Are you glad to hear that Frake-Waterfield is already planning a sequel to Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey? What do you think of him looking to Terrifier 2 for inspiration? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.