Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I know my buddy Smilin’ Jack Ruby over at 13th Street is a big fan of Dark Castle, the Joel Silver/Robert Zemeckis company that produces remakes of old William Castle films. Well, another friend of mine forwarded me a link to Michael Fleming’s VARIETY article that just made me shake my head. It’s just part of his column in particular:
Kismet Entertainment Group and International Media Films have formed a new company, Kismet Classics, designed to exploit the remake rights of the 13 films helmed by Italian horror film director Mario Bava, along with 14 other Italian horror, sci-fi and adventure films.
It's the first library deal for Kismet, which was formed by David E. Allen, and came about when he and Kismet president Harmon Kaslow connected with Alfredo Leone, who produced many of the films they sought and had been systematically gathering up the rights. Bava's films include ``Baron Blood,'' the Boris Karloff starrer ``Black Sabbath,'' ``Black Sunday,'' ``House of Exorcism'' and ``Bay of Blood,'' the latter of which was a forerunner to the slasher pic genre.
Bava influenced filmmakers from Wes Craven and Quentin Tarantino, and with ``The Others'' demonstrating a renewed audience appetite for classic scare fare, Kismet's Allen said he's already had overtures from several major helmers. ``Bava was an auteur who didn't really get much credit until after he retired, but who had great style and substance to his films,'' Allen said. ``It was so impressive to see that what he pioneered during the sixties and seventies, you were still seeing done into the nineties.''
If there’s some real heavy hitters who want to take a shot at some of these films, I suppose it’s going to happen. Who wouldn’t greenlight Wes Craven’s BLACK SABBATH or Quentin Tarantino’s BLACK SUNDAY? I just hope these are treated well. Bava is one of those guys whose work should be seen, and if all of his films are remade, there’s a chance audiences will lose sight of the originals. Still, it sounds like these guys are trying to do it right. Let’s see what they do with this amazing property they now own, and thanks for the heads-up, Matt..
"Moriarty" out.
