On January 1st of this year, author A.A. Milne’s 1926 children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh lapsed into the public domain – and so did the characters featured in that book. Disney has had exclusive licensing rights to the beloved “silly old bear” Winnie the Pooh since the 1960s, but that’s no longer the case. While Disney still owns their depiction of Pooh, the character is now up for grabs for anyone to make their own interpretation of, no permission required. Jagged Edge Productions are using this bit of copyright law to their advantage and have already gone into production on the feature film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, which is said to be
a horror retelling of the famous legend of Winnie the Pooh.
Images showing Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey‘s version of Pooh and his pal Piglet can be seen at the bottom of this article.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey marks the feature debut of writer/director Rhys Frake-Waterfield, who explains 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.”
The film 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 and Chris Cordell (Spider in the Attic) as Piglet.
Other Jagged Edge horror productions include The Curse of Humpty Dumpty, The Legend of Jack and Jill, The Wrath of Van Helsing, Return of Krampus, and Medusa.
I don’t think it’s cool to use beloved kid’s story characters in something like Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, but the decision to make the movie is drawing a lot of attention, so this is already a success for Jagged Edge.
Will you be watching Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey? Let us know by leaving a comment below.