Short films are a special thing. Taking an existing story and shoehorning it into 15 minutes, all the while preserving the pacing and content takes genius. One such genius is Australian director Peter Cornwell, who according to Hollywood Reporter, got the director’s chair for an upcoming Warner Bros. feature called THE DIONAEA HOUSE because of his work in one such short called WARD 13.
Produced by David (HARRY POTTER) Heyman and written by Eric Heisserer, THE DIONAEA HOUSE is about a married man who is estranged from his old pals, and is compelled to investigate what caused one of said friends to commit a double murder-suicide. His search leads him to an evil force that manifests in an unusual way. Heisserer also set up a website documenting “events” from the story to help with the promotion. You can check out said website here, as well as read up on Heisserer’s comments on the project here.
Back to Cornwell, who was originally a sound tech before WARD 13. Interesting career move for sure. To read more on the short, which is about a man who finds himself trapped in an insane asylum and must fight to escape, head over to its official site, which also has the trailer for the film as well as the DVD. Look for THE DIONAEA HOUSE to hit the screen in 2007.