{"id":9845,"date":"2014-01-15T09:26:22","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T06:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tentaclii.wordpress.com\/?p=9845"},"modified":"2014-01-15T09:26:22","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T06:26:22","slug":"new-houdini-movie-rumoured-to-feature-lovecraft-and-his-monsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2014\/01\/15\/new-houdini-movie-rumoured-to-feature-lovecraft-and-his-monsters\/","title":{"rendered":"New Houdini movie rumoured to feature Lovecraft and his monsters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sony is apparently reviving their on-again-off-again Houdini<\/em> movie<\/a> with new writer Max Landis. Originally a straight biopic, the Houdini <\/em>script was then pepped up with the Downton Abbey<\/em>-friendly twist of “…and Houdini falls for a glamourous woman spiritualist”. I guess the nascent idea was to move it toward being an American riff on the Sherlock Holmes<\/em> reboot movies, while also appealing to the fans of British TV costume drama.<\/p>\n

This week there’s news of a new Max Landis script, set to have more of a horror\/mystery tone… “telling the story with an H.P. Lovecraft influence” (Deadline<\/em>). Which holds out the tantalising possiblity of us seeing a 30-foot high Lovecraft glowering down from the silver screen.<\/p>\n

But movies that won’t appeal much to the Korean \/ Chinese \/ world market are hard to sell to studio bosses. Digging up dusty old American hero-brands from the pre-1939 era may also feel rather risky after the recent studio-threatening failures of The Lone Ranger<\/em> and John Carter of Mars<\/em>. So I’d have to suspect that Houdini<\/em> might not be a $200m tentpole movie. However… if Sony is really going ahead with a major Doc Savage<\/em> movie soon, then it would make financial sense for them to hedge their bets and re-use Doc<\/em>‘s expensive 1920s costumes and props in a smaller Houdini<\/em> movie.<\/p>\n

\"houdini_2016_postersm\"<\/p>\n

So what might it look like? I’d guess at a stylised period look (think the first 30 minutes of Sky Captain<\/em>), coupled with a romping Indiana Jones<\/em>-like mystery\/archeology story. Houdini, Lovecraft, and Lovecraft’s bespectacled boy-archeologist protege Bobby Barlow (who is Not What He Seems), all racing through dark versions of National Treasure<\/em> puzzles to uncover a Mysterious Forgotten Tomb or similar. Also on the trail of the mystery is the sinister Madame Blavatski — who is also Not What She Seems, pretty nifty with the ol’ psychic powers, and who turns out to be the concealed love interest of Houdini. A fairly conventional adventure, perhaps (hey, it’s 6.30am and I’m writing this before breakfast…), with superhero-like Theosophist powers vs. Lovecraftian monsters to liven up the escapology. If Sony’s Houdini<\/em> movie is indeed intended as a safe backstop for the finances of a big Doc Savage<\/em> tentpole, I guess conventional may be what’s required. Both the monsters and psychic powers could be pretty much invisible or shadowy, to save on SFX costs, although extensive dream\/flashback sequences could bring scale and visual drama to some of Houdini’s escapology stagings. Here’s also hoping for a lovely $50,000 shot of Lovecraft slowly realising… “what, my monsters are actually… real!?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sony is apparently reviving their on-again-off-again Houdini movie with new writer Max Landis. Originally a straight biopic, the Houdini script …<\/p>\n

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