Already stacked with an eclectic line-up with the likes of Álex de la Iglesia, Rodney Ascher, Erik Matti, Sion Sono and Jerome Sable, producers Ant Timpson, Alamo Drafthouse’s Tim League and Magnet Releasing have announced that directors (here’s the copy & paste job) Julian Barratt of The Mighty Boosh; Todd Rohal (THE CATECHISM CATALYSM) (left in the pic above); Canada’s king of lo-fi, Steven Kostanski (MANBORG); Cuba’s Alejandro Brugués (JUAN OF THE DEAD) (right in the pic above); acclaimed UK commercial director Jim Hosking; Japanese monster-maker Hajime Ohata (HENGE); and Canadian short film wizard Chris Nash (SKINFECTIONS) have boarded the omnibus slash sequel ABCs OF DEATH 2 – which already includes this director set: Bill Plympton, Kristina Buozyte, Bruno Samper, Vincenzo Natali, Larry Fessenden, Marcus Dunstan, Julien Maury, Bustillo, E.L. Katz, Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska, Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado, Julian Gilbey, Dennison Ramalho, Lancelot Imasuen, Jerome Sable and Robert Morgan. With all the management involved and the hunt for the “26th Director Competition” in the works, we think this would be ready for TIFF 2014 – lieu of where the first installment premiered.
Gist: 26 horror films of all sorts tucked under one tree, this endeavor also includes something we think is grand on Magnet’s part: the hunt for the 26th director – which encourages filmmakers from all over the world to create their own one-to-three minute segment, with the best being placed in the finished film itself. Where the original film asked fans to create short “T is for…” films (with the winning segment going to Lee Hardcastle’s “T is for Toilet”), the sequel now switches its competition letter to “M”.
Worth Noting: Want to be the 26th director? Entries must be submitted by midnight on October 31, with the winner announced on December 15, 2013. The competition’s official announcement video can be found here. Along with a tabulated via social media, the jury of film nerds includes the directors, producers Tim League and Ant Timpson, Associate Producer Ted Geoghegan, Magnolia Pictures president Eamonn Bowles, Entertainment Weekly Senior Editor Clark Collis, Horror-Movie-A-Day founder and Badass Digest contributor Brian Collins, author Grady Hendrix, and Fangoria Managing Editor Michael Gingold.
Do We Care?: With the exception of O is for Orgasm (Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani), U is for Unearthed (Ben Wheatley), and Q is for Quack (Adam Wingard), Nicholas certainly thought there is room for improvement, “as each sections dissolves into a different aesthetic, the tone and story change gets a bit jarring to settle into towards the latter half of the alphabet, with less inspired entries certainly feeling interminably long for only being five minutes or so. While there’s certainly material worthy of merit, The ABCs of Death instead feels like a grand experiment that could have been orchestrated better with more time and money.”
