‘Frankenstein’s Army’ Picked up By Dark Sky Films
by Marc Patterson
Usually we don’t consider items regarding distribution deals, especially regarding films in pre-production to be newsworthy. However, we’re always willing to make exceptions when the potential for greatness is high. You read the headlines, so you pretty much know what you need to – the potential for greatness is indeed high.
Yesterday we showed you the awesome teaser trailer for Richard Raaphort’s World War II Nazi Monster movie. The spliced newsreel footage was creepy and had me anxious to see more. Today we learn that MPI Media Group, Dark Sky Films parent company, has entered a co-production deal with XYZ Films and Pellicola of Amsterdam to get Raaphorst’s film made. MPI is going to take care of the financing while Pellicola and XYZ will handle international sales. The plan is to start shooting this spring (not too far away) in Prague and Amsterdam and have everything wrapped later this year. That means we could possibly be seeing this by November, Decemberish. However, my gut instinct tells me that with the schedule in place Dark Sky may premiere Frankenstein’s Army next spring at SXSW, as they are with Ti West’s latest film, The Innkeepers this year.
Any way you slice or dice it, this is good news for horror fans, as Dark Sky has consistently been treating horror fans right, and pushing out quality films. Currently there is no word on whether Raaphorst plans to shoot the film in the same style as the teaser trailer, but indications are that the unique concept led to this deal, so we can only hope that element is retained.
Oh – and it also looks like we have an official synopsis now (of sorts): Toward the end of World War II, Russian soldiers pushing into eastern Germany stumble across a secret Nazi lab, one that has unearthed and begun experimenting with the journal of one Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The scientists have used the legendary’s Frankenstein’s work to assemble an army of supersoldiers stitched together from the body parts of their fallen comrades – a desperate Hitler’s last ghastly ploy to escape defeat.
Check out that teaser again…
