Lara Flynn Boyle is set to star in director Duane Journey’s Black Forest: Hansel and Gretel & The 420 Witch, a stoner re-imagining of the classic Grimm brothers fairy tale. The 41-year-old stunner will play an evil witch who, after baiting teens into her house with some wicked pot, eats them to maintain her youthful appearance.
Joining Boyle in the project as siblings Hansel and Gretel are Twilight Saga star Michael Welch and 18-year-old “Castle” cutie Molly Quinn. The film, written by David Tillman (Vampire Survivor), will begin production on Nov. 12 in Los Angeles. Indies Dark Highway Films, KK&P, and Uptik Entertainment are all producing.
Boyle is best known for her roles as Donna Hayward on “Twin Peaks” and Serleena, a sexy shape-shifting alien queen, in Men in Black II. Other notable genre turns include MGM’s Poltergeist 3 (her horror debut at age 18), Tom Holland’s psycho-bitch thriller The Temp, and Lifetime’s small-screen adaptation of author Ann Rivers Siddons’ 1978 mystery novel The House Next Door.
Hills Have Eyes starlet Vinessa Shaw will topline screenwriter Jesse Peyronel feature film debut Siren, a modern day fairy tale about a woman whose scent is so overwhelmingly pleasing it makes her irresistible to men (where I come from, we call those women strippers).
It’s really a grounded intimate look at someone who has a special ability but looked at in a personal way. It’s takes a more a realistic look at an X-Men-style power.
Oddly enough, I exude a special smell that drives people away from me. But, I can only initiate the power after consuming Taco Bell cheesy bean & rice burritos.
Siren is produced by Eccho Media and costars Bess Wohl (Flightplan), Rob Kazinsky (Pacific Rim) and Ross Partridge (Prom Night). Production is currently underway in Massachusetts.
Shaw’s genre creds include the 1981 Thanksgiving Day slasher Home Sweet Home (in which she made her acting debut at the age of five), the Disney witch comedy Hocus Pocus, indie-frightener Stag Night, and Alexandre Aja’s 2006 remake of Wes Craven’s horror classic The Hills Have Eyes.
A trailer for Relativity Media’s new period thriller The Raven is now online. Set in 1849 Baltimore, the James McTeigue-directed film follows famed novelist Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack) as he attempts to rescue his wife (Alice Eve) from a serial killer inspired by his most gruesome works.
I caught an early screening of The Raven some months back and found it to be quite stylish and suspenseful. I would write a proper review, but the folks behind the film are threatening to bury my PS3 loved ones if I dare spill on its twists and turns.
