io9: cult

A Serious, "Very Scary" Remake of Plan 9 From Outer Space

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:00:00 PDT

For decades, Ed Wood's movie Plan 9 From Outer Space has reigned supreme as the most brilliantly awful movie ever made. Starring Vampira and an aged, drugged out Bela Lugosi, the 50s flick is about aliens who come to Earth and reanimate dead bodies as part of their world-domination scheme. The weird, elliptical script, bugged-out acting, and transcendently inadequate special effects helped make Plan 9 from Outer Space a movie that defined the "so bad it's good" genre. But now indie director John Johnson says he's remaking the film as a non-campy, "character-driven" move that will be "very scary." He's calling it Plan 9, or just P9. What the hell?

The aesthetics of Wood's original flick already inspired Tim Burton to make a demented biopic about the director — a spunky transvestite who took care of the mostly-forgotten Lugosi in his old age — called simply Ed Wood. Both campy and a serious, touching homage to the world Wood created with his movies, the movie earned Martin Landau an Academy Award for his portrayal of Lugosi. Is there really a need for another director to revisit Wood's greatest work "seriously"?

According to the film website:

Simply titled "Plan 9", the remake will be a serious-minded retelling of the original story, paying homage to the spirit of Wood's film without resorting to camp or parody. The film will focus on the horror and science fiction aspects of the original, but will also be largely character-driven. Johnson's goal for "Plan 9" is to make a film that honors not only the original source material, but also Ed Wood's intentions when he made "Plan 9 From Outer Space". Wood's plan was to make a very scary sci-fi/horror film, and Johnson wishes to do exactly that - create a film that Wood would have enjoyed, or perhaps even made himself, if not bound by the technological limitations placed on filmmakers 50 years ago.

The remake will be released to coincide with the 50th anniversary DVD edition of the original movie.

Plan 9 From Outer Space [via JoBlo]

The Solar-Powered Astro Zombie Turned Out to Be a Bad Idea

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:24:23 PDT

In this terrific little moment from Ted V. Mikels' classic everythingsploitation movie Astro Zombies, we get so much annum 1968 greatness that it's hard to encompass it all. A mad scientist has created a remote-controlled, solar-powered "astro zombie" in strange and boring detail (yes, there is a five-minute scene of unscrewing the cover on a metal box), and a Mexican mobster (the luscious lady in this clip) wants to know more. She smokes languidly while listening to the professor extol his creature's virtues on a reel-to-reel. Then we randomly cut to a scene where we meet the astro zombie. And there is violence! Stabbing! Mexican-wrestler-looking dude! What the hell! Where am I!

One of the true masters of the psychedelic scifi horror nudie genre, director Mikels is also brilliant at maintaining B-movie pacing. For long, 10-minute stretches, nothing will happen. There's no soundtrack, minimal dialog, and misplaced realism in terms of how long it ACTUALLY takes to set up your mad scientist lab to reanimate a dead guy and give him ultra-whatever. Then, suddenly: Stabbing! Screaming! Dismemberment! Lacy bras! John Carradine! Cannibalism! Angry cats! Really, it's true. It's all or nothing in this flick. Once you've enjoyed Astro Zombies, I highly recommend you also try another Mikels classic: The Corpse Grinders. Best name ever.

Astro Zombies [Amazon]

"I Am Legend" Director Investigates Futuristic Plane Crashes

Kevin Kelly — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:30:33 PST

Chuck Palahniuk's book Fight Club was famously adapted into a total mindfuck of a film with heavy-handed satirical comments on America. His novel Survivor, which features a single passenger on a jet airplane dictating his life story into the plane's black box before slamming into the Australian Outback, was set to become the next Palaniuk novel to get the big screen treatment. That is until September 11th, 2001 happened.

That put any sort of plane crash scripts into a tailspin, although the project now appears to be back on track. Attached director Francis Lawrence has been spending the past several months directing the Will Smith meets Home Alone (really alone) epic I Am Legend. That film will be hitting screens soon, and Lawrence is moving on to adapting Survivor as his next film.

The book is set in the near future and is told in reverse order, counting backwards from the opening in chapter 47. Since the novel is told from the point of view of the main character Tender Branson, it means he's sitting alone in the cockpit of a plane, talking to himself. Francis Lawrence might just be planning on making a career out directing desperate loner films. After all, he also directed the adaptation/trainwreck Constantine, based on Alan Moore's comic book of the same name.

I Am Legend Director Developing Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor Movie Adaptation [/Film]