Is this one cancelled altogether?

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Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
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I can't find it on Tom Holland's (the director, not the actor) IMDb-page anymore. Jay Baruchel was cast in 2014 after they lost Justin Long, but it's been quiet since.

It's often hard to find out why certain films don't go through, but anyone an idea what happened to it? Is it filmed yet, but not released, or was it never filmed at all?

This story felt similar to John Carpenter's They live as many have noticed, I was curious if you would still notice that similarity in a film adaptation.
 

Rrty

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Jun 4, 2007
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Thanks for this info. I had forgotten about this one. Should be a good one. It is similar to They Live, but I think it will be interesting to see another take on a similar concept. I forget -- did King say he wrote this story in something like three days? If I am right on that, he'll probably get a kick out of seeing something he wrote so quickly being turned into a film.
 

Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
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I get the feeling this is cancelled after all, or in some endless development hell. No-one seems connected to it anymore on IMDb.

Also in a recent interview with Tom Holland I read, he doesn't talk about it when asked about upcoming projects. But he also doesn't talk about this, his actual upcoming film: Rock Paper Dead (2017) - IMDb
He only mentions he's just done a polish on a script for a remake of a film based on one of his earliest scripts, The Beast Within. The Beast Within (1982) - IMDb
Never seen that one (and usually remakes are done from well-known films, not obscure ones, so I wonder if it gets greenlit), he wasn't happy how they treated his script, he was even banned from the set as writers apparently didn't have any influence at the time.

But I get the feeling he isn't working on it anymore, otherwise why would they remove his name (and other announced names) attached to it.
 

Gerald

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I don't know if it would be good, but it still be interesting to see how close it would be to They Live - it's They Live with cigarettes instead of glasses - the cigarettes in itself are very Carpenter (although he's quit in reality). Of course SK wrote a number of short stories in which cigarettes feature, but the story feels like it directly came from watching Carpenter's movie.

In the interview with Holland I was surprised at his thoughts on Twilight and PG-13 horror. He seems to think that Twilight is meant to be a horrorfilm and scary (clearly it's YA/romance about vampires) and he blames it for the existence of PG-13 horror, thinking mothers and daughters want to go to horrorfilms after watching Twilight. He seems to have no idea what Twilight really is (and similar things like Vampire Diaries).

As far as I can see the PG-13 thing started with the The Haunting remake (1999), which also started the whole remake-craze up until today - that just about EVERY (classic) movie gets a remake, whether there's a good idea behind it or not.
 

Gerald

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They Live has the best street fight scene in any movie I've ever seen. Classic...

It's often been criticized for going on too long. Carpenter's aware of that too and says he don't regret he did it that way. But, really, it's not that long at all - I timed it last time I saw it, but forgot, but I believe something like 7/8 minutes or so. I never got the deal why that is considered excessively long.
And it matters to the plot: Nada wants Frank to put on the glasses.

They Live is one of Carpenter's most beloved, but the action overall isn't that special, rather routine - until the finale a lot isn't even shoot-outs and things like that, just scenes that have a lot going on in terms of movement. But I think people really respond to the visual idea of the hidden aliens and mind control messages everywhere, it's really enjoyed for what it is: a satire of '80s consumerism by way of a '50s style sci-fi.
 
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Gerald

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I very much doubt this is still happening. It's not even on Tom Holland's IMDb page anymore.

The recent Fright Night blu-ray is really great if you love the movie. The amount of extras in enormous. The main documentary 'You're so cool, Brewster' runs for 2 1/2 hours and there's shorter documentaries/interviews, a panel, extensive EPK (including video of the title song by J. Geils Band!), trailers, photogallery to go with that.
After watching it all, I feel I know everything there is to know about it. Holland says during the panel (which is not recent) he actually wants to bring it back, with the same actors. But I don't see it happening, especially with the remake and the original cast now aged - also we saw Jerry Dandridge clearly destroyed - so don't know how you would bring him back (although apparent deaths of villains never stopped sequels from being made).
 

Steffen

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Aug 9, 2015
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A film named Ten O'Clock People would have been far more interesting to the average movie-goer than Cessation. Yeesh, what a crappy title change.

And on the slim chance that anybody from HBO is reading this: just a friendly reminder that your cash-cow Game of Thrones is coming to and end and you need another next-big-thing. You already screwed up by not optioning the Dark Tower series. Pick up a copy of The Talisman and get cracking, please.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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A film named Ten O'Clock People would have been far more interesting to the average movie-goer than Cessation. Yeesh, what a crappy title change.

And on the slim chance that anybody from HBO is reading this: just a friendly reminder that your cash-cow Game of Thrones is coming to and end and you need another next-big-thing. You already screwed up by not optioning the Dark Tower series. Pick up a copy of The Talisman and get cracking, please.
....and smoke em if you got em!....
 

Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
2,201
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The Netherlands
The title change indeed seems unnecessary. The last news on the project was the title change, that was two years ago.

On his Twitter page Tom Holland has a fake picture of himself as Spider-Man, of course referring to the other Tom Holland. But before he became a director he actually started out as an actor, but he lost interest in that and wanted to direct. He started with writing and a lot of his scripts didn't turn out well, until he wrote Psycho 2, which seemed almost doomed to fail following up to such a classic, but it became one of the best received sequels ever and that gave him the leverage to direct and do Fright Night.
 
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