Quill & Quire Interviews George A. Romero About Humongo Bongo

March 24, 2017 UntoldHorror 0

Literary website Quill & Quire has a great interview up with George A. Romero about Humongo Bongo, by Alison Lang. A snippet of Q&A: Legendary horror director George A. Romero on his first (and only) kids book   How did you end up illustrating this children’s book? George A. Romero: They said, “Well, go ahead and illustrate,” and I said, “Okay, but it won’t be good!” And it turned out to be good enough. This is a children’s book, but it seems to also have a very serious message. GR:  I meant it to be a parable about over-population, greed, and all of the terrible values that we humans have. That’s all it was meant to illustrate. Did you think back to any books you read as a kid while you wrote the story? GR: As a youth, the first actual novel that I ever read was Something of Value. It’s about the Mau Mau Uprising in Africa. That’s the topic, but what it’s about is basically families that are torn apart. It’s almost an anti-apartheid thing.   READ THE REST…

Visiting The House of Crouse to Talk Untold Horror

March 18, 2017 UntoldHorror 0

Canadian television personality, film critic and author Richard Crouse invited Untold Horror’s Dave Alexander onto his News Talk 1010 radio show in Toronto to chat about some of the most anticipated horror remakes that were never made. As a passionate film critic, Crouse does not hide his enthusiasm for the stories that have merely been hinted at thus far in the Untold Horror universe. Along with guests Ian Lake and Krystin Pellerin, actors discussing their Stratford festival production of Macbeth, Richard and Dave discuss the origins of Untold Horror, as well as potential projects by some of our most beloved horror auteurs, such as David Cronenberg and George A. Romero. Romero has multiple unmade projects in his past, and as Dave explains, all it takes sometimes is “one little wrench in the machine and the whole thing falls apart.” Crouse and Alexander also compare the films that they’d most like to see remade, both of which are classic monster movies — one by Cronenberg and the other by Romero — they feel are immortal and retain the ability to comment on the times they’re made in. Listen to the podcast here. And check out Richard’s movie reviews here.  

Versions of The Fly that Didn’t Fly

March 15, 2017 UntoldHorror 0

Given that David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of The Fly is considered the director’s ultimate meditation on body horror, one of the greatest horror films ever made, and was a box office success that earned over $60 million worldwide, it’s no surprise that it keeps coming back. This week, Deadline Hollywood announced that J.D. Dillard will direct a remake written by himself and his writing partner Alex Theurer, for Fox. (The duo’s first feature is the upcoming street magic-themed gangland thriller/superhero movie Sleight.) But what about the versions of The Fly that didn’t get made? First, some background: Cronenberg’s movie is loosely based on George Langelan’s 1957 short story of the same name – about a scientist who accidentally fuses his DNA with that of a house fly, turning himself into a hideous half-insect creature – and it’s 1958 film adaptation by Kurt Neumann. That movie spawned two sequels, Return of the Fly (1959) and Curse of The Fly (1965), while Cronenberg’s resulted in one sequel, 1989’s The Fly II, a poorly-received opera in 2008 and a five-issue comic book series in 2015 titled The Fly: Outbreak, which continued the story of Brundle’s son from The Fly II.

Unknown Untold: “Amityville Vertigo”

March 14, 2017 UntoldHorror 0

In our ongoing research into Untold Horror, we have uncovered a variety of projects which for better or worse went unrealized.  Many of them only exist in pitch material artwork if nothing else.   This ongoing series, entitled “Unknown Untold”, will shine a light on artwork for movies that never existed beyond what is seen on the page. If you have any further knowledge of any of the images posted, please let us know! In 1977 Jay Anson’s novel “The Amityville Horror” sparked a supernatural cultural phenomenon surrounding the alleged otherworldly events which centered around the Lutz family, and their Long Island, NY home. In 1979, an even wider audience was introduced to the terrifying “true story” as MGM released their film adaptation.  Grossing over $85 million dollars domestically, the film was a hit, and invariably lead to sequels (and rip offs).  By the summer of 1982, production was wrapped on an official sequel. However prior to the official sequel, if this advertisement from a fall 1981 Variety magazine is to be believed, there seemed to be an attempt at a European rip-off / sequel, “Amityville Vertigo”. There isn’t much that has turned up when digging into the production companies listed.  There are neither credited talents nor stars attached.   So take a look at this poster, and judge for yourself…   Was there anything beyond this artwork?  Or, was it just as real as the alleged haunting itself?

The King Kong Movie Neil Marshall Never Made

March 9, 2017 UntoldHorror 0

There are monsters, giant creatures and exotic sights aplenty in Kong: Skull Island, but it could have had pirates. Lots of dinosaurs. And maybe Gollum himself, Andy Serkis. That is, if Neil Marshall had taken his cinematic trip to Skull Island. In 2013 it was reported that Marshall – writer/director of Dog Soldiers, The Descent and Doomsday – was trying to mount his own Kong movie, based on the novel Kong: King of Skull Island, which was officially licensed by the estate of Merian C. Cooper, who wrote, produced and directed the original 1933 King Kong. The film rights to Kong have traditionally been tricky due to Cooper’s failure to properly secure them back in the day. (BirthMoviesDeath.com gives an excellent explanation here.) He did, however, copyright the novelization of the movie. So an official sequel (ignoring the Son of Kong sequel) was licensed, and in 2005 King of Skull Island was released, which was written by Joe DeVito (visit DeVito’s website for more official Kong stuff) and Brad Strickland. The official synopsis: “In 1933, American showman Carl Denham returned from a mysterious, hidden island with a priceless treasure. A treasure not gold or jewels, but the island’s barbaric god, a monstrous anthropoid called ‘Kong.’ The savage giant escaped and wreaked havoc among the man-made canyons of Manhattan, but within hours of the giant ape’s death his body – and Carl Denham – disappeared. Twenty-five years later, the son of Carl Denham makes a shocking discovery that leads him back to the site of his father’s greatest adventure and to the answers that will unlock the century’s greatest mystery and history’s greatest miracle.” Marshall acquired the rights and penned a screenplay with another writer, but Universal wasn’t interested at the time (remember, this was before the studio remade Godzilla and started seriously developing a shared universe for its giant monsters). In a 2015 interview with CHUD.com, he discusses his version, saying that it would […]

The Little World of Humongo Bongo

March 5, 2017 UntoldHorror 0

George A. Romero is best known for making The Crazies, Creepshow and his seven Dead films, beginning with 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. However, in 1996 the Godfather of the Modern Zombie published his first and only children’s book, The Little World of Humongo Bongo. Both written and illustrated by Romero, it’s the tale of fire-breathing giant Humongo Bongo, who lives on the tiny planet of Tongo. Gentle and curious, his world is thrown upside down when he encounters a race of tiny people named the Minus, who initially worship him as a God but then turn on him when they succumb to fear, greed and the lust for power. Both an imaginative morality tale for pre-teens, and a fascinating vehicle for the social commentary lauded by Romero’s loyal fan base, The Little World of Humongo Bongo is the first Untold Horror release, in a partnership with ChiZine Publications. Previously only released in French for the European market, the story has been resurrected with the involvement of Romero, who will be contributing to this special edition. Watch for it at the end of 2017. More from the ChiZine press release… CHIZINE PUBLICATIONS ANNOUNCES ILLUSTRATED BOOK DEAL WITH GEORGE A. ROMERO PETERBOROUGH, ON, March 1, 2017 – ChiZine Publications (CZP)  announced today the acquisition of The Little World of Humongo Bongo, an illustrated book, originally published in French, by genre legend George A. Romero, best known for Night of the Living Dead, The Crazies, and Creepshow. George Romero sold World English rights (excluding France and Belgium) to Sandra Kasturi and Samantha Beiko, Co-Publishers of CZP, a British Fantasy, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Award-winning independent publisher of surreal, subtle, and disturbing dark literary fiction. The publication is in association with Dave Alexander’s Untold Horror. The Little World of Humongo Bongo is the […]

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