Cravin' Craven

As an admirer of director Wes Craven's films, (most of them...anyway) I was thrilled to read that after a 12 year gap, he is headed back to his roots, writing and directing his own material.

Michael Fleming of Variety writes

Wes Craven has made a deal with Rogue Pictures to write and direct his first horror project in 12 years. He's also formed Midnight Pictures, a Rogue-based shingle that will scare up fright films with budgets under $15 million.

Craven has hired Marianne Maddalena, who's produced many of Craven's films, to run Midnight Pictures. Plans call for the duo to produce Midnight Pictures fare and to also make films separately, with Maddalena developing her own slate.

He made both deals after pitching the project to Rogue's Andrew Rona, who as Dimension co-president worked on many of Craven's films when the director had an overall Miramax pact.

"It is rooted in the supernatural with a 16-year old central character, but it's more 'Sixth Sense' than a slasher film," Craven said. "It's appalling to me that you have to go back to 1994 to find an original that I wrote and directed, so this is very important to me."

New project will be released by Rogue, but not under the Midnight Pictures banner. Craven hopes to shoot next spring.

The first film under the Midnight Pictures banner will be the remake of his 1972 debut "The Last House on the Left," which Rogue co-presidents Andrew Karpen and Rona bought last month (story).

Read More Here...

I can't believe that New Nightmare was the last time he pulled double duty. I'm glad to see that he hasn't lost the drive to write. Someone who has had the career that he has had, might be content to slow down at this point...

Speaking of going back to his roots, Craven's landmark 1984 horror film, A Nightmare on Elm Street, was reissued on DVD earlier this week--A Nightmare on Elm Street (Two-Disc Infinifilm Special Edition)--It's worth the upgrade for devotees.