This VHS-age favorite is being remade for the streaming era.
Production company Legendary Entertainment has acquired the rights to “Faces of Death” and has plans to reboot the beloved 1978 faux-documentary as a modern horror franchise, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Legendary — which has previously produced blockbusters including “Godzilla vs. Kong,” “John Wick” and “The Dark Knight” — will be working with Isa Mazzei and Daniel Goldhaber of 2018’s psychological memoir-based thriller “Cam” for the flick.
When “Faces of Death” was released over 40 years ago, it was promoted as a documentary — similar to 1999’s “The Blair Witch Project” — successfully inciting outrage at its gruesome content. While the footage was staged, audiences initially believed it to be real.
The premise of the flick — which subsequently was both banned (although not by 52 countries, as promotional materials stated) and became a box office hit — was a pathologist’s look into the most horrific ways in the world to die, the Hollywood Reporter recounted. The true cult status of “Faces of Death” arrived in the 1980s, when it became a VHS-market phenomenon, with copies of it reproduced and shared widely.
The original film is still in circulation thanks to one Illinois-based company.
Angry Films’ Susan Montford and Don Murphy are set to produce and Rick Benattar of BT Productions will executive produce, THR wrote.
The producer of the original film, John Burrud, will also be part of the team reimagining the movie.