Director of Lance Henriksen’s cult classic, “Bone Dry“, Brett A. Hart, is making headway with his next movie: “King“ – a modern fable with a new slant on the morality tale written by Brett and Scott Christian Spencer. “Bone Dry” producer Greg Hughs will be again working with Brett on “King”.
“King” is a two hander thriller with imagery and symbolism inspired by classics like “Beauty & the Beast” and “Little Red Riding Hood”. Along with Hitchcock’s “The Birds”, Stephen King’s “Cujo”, “Misery” and “Dolores Claiborne”.
Attached to the production is actress Dee Wallace, who you may remember from “Bone Dry”, “Critters”, “The Howling” or “E.T: The Extra Terrestrial”.
Horror writer Stephen King recently made the following observation on Dee at Scottholleran.com:
“The only actor or actress that has won a major award for anything based on my work was Kathy Bates for Misery, and she certainly deserved an Oscar.
But Dee Wallace probably deserved to be nominated for Cujo as much if not more than Kathy Bates. It’s a performance that grows in my eye every time I see it – it was absolutely a terrific job.”
Also on board is Screen Queen Scout Taylor-Compton who Horror fans are bound to remember from the Rob Zombie “Halloween” remakes among many other bloody films!
So why is it called “King”? Brett’s answer is not atypical for film production!
“When I initially started working on “King” it was called “Caesar”. But when Fox announced that their Planet of the Apes was going to be called this… I changed to “King”. And they ironically changed theirs to Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
I’m actually REALLY glad that happened. Caesar was actually inspired by Planet Of The Apes from the 70s. I wanted something that referenced intelligence in an animal.
When shifting to “King” it became almost an homage to my favorites. “King Kong” and most importantly Stephen King!”
Perhaps an indication of how long it takes to move a film along, is the fact that Brett has mentioned “King” to Back To Frank Black before… way back in 2009 – the film’s origins have strong Millennium connections!
Here’s an excerpt (though you can re-read part one here, and part two here!)
Back To Frank Black: I was absolutely fascinated, and delighted I must say, to hear that the Millennium episode “Beware of the Dog” is inspiring your current project. Are you able to tell us anything about it and why that episode in particular became a source of inspiration for you?
Brett A. Hart: “Beware Of Dog” is a very cool episode. I always found myself going back to it and I can’t explain the allure. In many ways it reminds me of Hitchcock’s “The Birds”, the animals acting independent to rhyme or reason. I love the opening attack with the paradoxical Carpenter’s music playing. The stranger in a strange land kind of reminded me of “Wicker Man”. I believe the dogs they used were Belgium Malinois and I was interested in using a single White Shepherd. Tom Holland (Child’s Play) and I are dog lovers, we both own Shepherds, mine is named Poe after Edgar Allen and initially I drove out to L.A. to discuss working on a project with Tom entitled “Caesar”. The story of a Seeing Eye dog that slowly turns on his blind female master and becomes the Alpha Male of the home. Jeff O’Brien and I had envisioned this as a modern “Little Red Riding Hood” and I’ve been talking to Dee Wallace about reprising her role with a dangerous canine.
Currently, however, Tom and I are looking at another approach and it’s more along the lines of “Beware Of Dog”, a thriller with a wild pack overtaking an isolated area. He’s 30 pages in and writing ferociously. Once he’s completed the first draft, I’ll know which way I want to go. Tom and I have a great deal of respect and admiration for each other and have agreed to be co-producers on whichever canine thriller we go with.
Spread the word – here comes the KING!
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