Pages

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Kevin Smith Readies Walrus Movie

We’re a bit late to the party on this one, but as it’s such an intriguing story, we thought we’d post…

Following the climax of Comic-Con last week, writer-director Kevin Smith took to Facebook to explain that his next film – Tusk – is set to shoot in Los Angeles and on location in Canada in September, in the hope that it will be finished in time for the Sundance Film Festival.

The crazy comes from the fact that the film’s premise comes from a by-now infamous Gumtree advert in which a Brighton resident sought a lodger to dress up as a walrus.

In the original advert, the man explains that he spent three years alone on St. Lawrence Island, where he befriended a Walrus named Gregory. He explains “I have, over the last few months, been constructing a realistic walrus costume, which should fit most people of average proportions, and allow for full and easy movement in character. The take on the position as my lodger, you must be prepared to wear the walrus for approximately two hours each day.”

He continues “Whilst in the walrus costume you must be a walrus – there must be no speaking in a human voice, and any communication must entail making utterances in the voice of a walrus.”

Smith was alerted to the advert, discussed it on one of his many podcasts, and soon enough a plot was taking shape.

“The listing got my creative juices flowing” he explains on Facebook. “And I began reconstructing the whole thing as an old British Hammer horror film, in which a mad scientist intends to sew some hapless lodger into counterfeit blubber, creating a chimera in an effort to answer the ultimate riddle, ‘Is man, indeed, a walrus at heart?!,’”

Re-locating the story to the backwoods of Canada, Smith has already cast Red State star Michael Parks as the man with the blubber fetish, while he’s also written a part for Quentin Tarantino – Guy Lapointe, “the French gumshoe on the trail of the human-walrus.”

Blumhouse Productions – the company behind the likes of Insidious, Sinister and the Paranormal Activity movies – will oversee production, while Smith is hoping that effects maestro Greg Nictoero will craft the walrus suit.

From Gumtree-to-podcast-to-film makes the Tusk journey somewhat unique – let us know what you think of the concept in the comments, and check out the below video in which Smith talks Tusk and also discusses Clerks 3.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN in the UK and wonders if anyone out there fancies being my lodger-penguin. He can be found talking nonsense on both Twitter and MyIGN.


Source : ign[dot]com

No comments:

Post a Comment