First Howl Delayed; Recession at Fault; Condition Dead Moving Forward
Debi Moore
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Many moons ago (November, 2007, to be exact), we first told you about an upcoming “satirical werewolf film” called Howl that was gearing up for production.
The title referred to the surname of the lead character, John Howl, a mixed-up cop/werewolf who’s obsessed with the Eighties and hot on the trail of a murderer in Hollywood. The script was written by Clint Morris, and the talent in talks for various roles included Eric Stoltz, Stephen Tobolowsky, Kam Heskin, Powers Boothe, and Muse Watson.
Now, several months later, we heard back from Morris, who pointed us in the direction of his blog, Caffeinated Clint on Moviehole.net. It seems the project, now renamed First Howl (the artwork on your right is from our earlier story), didn’t quite make its planned February 14th, 2009, start date due to current economic conditions. As Clint explains it, “The company in charge of the pic, and the one that planned to bankroll it, had had such a shocking few months financially (to the point where they’re now, reportedly, going into receivership) that they ultimately couldn’t follow through on their plans to make it — or the other two or three films they’d planned to shoot this year — so it was put on pause.”
But it turns out the delay may have been a blessing in disguise as another feature Morris is involved with received financing and is now quickly approaching its start date. It’s a new 3D flick called Condition Dead, and we first caught wind of it at the beginning of the year. Morris is co-producing with Joel Soisson, and Patrick Lussier is directing. Zombies in 3D?!? Sign me up! Here’s the synopsis: Luther Judge and his team of specialists are the government’s response whenever the dead rise from the grave. But a new assignment finds them contending with a mysterious and lethal zombie menace… and Judge’s ex-wife.
As for First Howl, Morris writes, “You’ll be happy to know we’re now in talks with a new crowd … and it’s looking good. The film is back on schedule. I think you’re going to love Eric Stoltz in this; he’s a mad-man! And C. Thomas Howell’s going to win a few more fans, too. Christopher Showerman looks set to play the lead role of John Howl, and a certain ‘Buffy’ star may be a female lead.
The rest of Clint’s blog paints a pretty grim picture of the indie film scene indeed. But, as we all know, it’s always darkest before the dawn, and there’s nowhere left to go but up. Hopefully we’ll have more First Howl news for you shortly.
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