Pascal Laughier is the new French horror “it boy” considering his MARTYRS has received nearly universal praise at every festival it appears in (I still haven’t seen it, dammit). Naturally the man has a ton of projects lined up, most notably the remake of HELLRAISER, which has been talked about to death (literally!). But what about his other potential films? Fangoria caught up with the director in London and got some details about the other pieces of grub on the man’s plate.
A film called DETAILS is first. “The story, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s writings, is about a boy looking after a weird old woman who discovers strange forces hidden in the creased fabric of our world… I’ve been adapting the story into a new script for six weeks now, and it’s a very complicated assignment. It’s more a piece of abstract literature you feel in your gut, and straightening it out into a more literal screenplay is hard.”
Then there’s DOGS, which is basically self-explanatory: “Think CUJO times 40. The main character of a war veteran under attack by a pack of dogs is very cool, and it’s brilliantly written. I loved the script and found it a thrilling page-turner. Right now I’m waiting for the finances to come together, and am hoping for good news in the next week or so.”
And of course, there’s HELLRAISER, which at one point in time had a release date set, but now is in limbo (of course, it also had different people in charge – Laugier’s countrymen Alexander Bustillo and Julien Maury). “I’m now working on it with a co-writer I cannot name. We do not want to remake the original movie, as that would be a pointless exercise, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable messing with what is essentially a solid horror/fantasy. So we’re trying to respect Clive Barker’s original material while bringing totally fresh angles to it. Even if some characters are being brought back, like Frank and Julia, it is our intention to place them on new and different thematic levels. It’s taking a while to come together, because all involved want to get it absolutely right. I do have the respect of the Weinsteins, so let’s see where it takes me.”
Laugier says whichever project is greenlit first, he’ll direct, so it’s up in the air right now which of these we’ll be seeing in the near future. For those of you who are as anxious as I am to see MARTYRS, it hits DVD on April 28th.
MARTYRS’ beautiful Mylène Jampanoï
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