We've been following the House of Re-Animator story for a little while now, but the project seems to be officially dead and buried at this point. According to a recent Fangoria piece, director Stuart Gordon was unable to get the funding for his splattery political satire, and now that George Bush is about to leave office -- the premise wouldn't exactly feel all that fresh. So while the Re-Animator series may live on in one form or another, it won't be going in this particular direction. Darn.

But in the same article, Mr. Gordon announced that he's just about to start casting for his adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's Thing On the Doorstep. While this short story is hardly one of Lovecraft's most acclaimed efforts, I think it's a damn solid little terror tale. Production on Doorstep will begin this summer. (Oh, and Gordon's Stuck opens this May, and if it plays near you, I'd say check it out.)

A while back we heard some juicy little rumblings about the possibility of a new Re-Animator sequel called House of Re-Animator, which would be both a gore-strewn horror flick AND a tongue-in-cheek satire of today's political scene. But it seems like director Stuart Gordon, producer Brian Yuzna and actors like Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton might have a new plan: Re-Animator Part 4 as an episode of Showtime's Masters of Horror series! It's so crazy it just might work!

Mr. Gordon is, of course, a modern master of horror, and he previously worked on the Showtime series when he presented his Dreams in the Witch-House and The Black Cat adaptations. (H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, respectively.) Dread Central learned of the (potential) news while chatting with Ms. Crampton at the Texas Fearfest last weekend. (I was also in attendance at the event, and the DC guys aren't kidding when they say that Ms. Crampton is as lovely today as she ever was. In a room full of Jasons and Leatherfaces, Barbara Crampton was the only one who made me a little nervous.) Obviously this project is nowhere near a done deal, but it seems like a great way to kill a few birds with one stone. The fans get a new (if slightly smaller) entry in the Re-Animator series, and Masters of Horror gets a fresh episode that would guarantee a pretty strong viewership. Bring it on!

About six months ago we heard that filmmaker Brian Yuzna (Society, The Dentist, From Beyond and a whole bunch more) was aiming to kick-start a whole new Herbert West trilogy. The first entry would be called House of Re-Animator and star Jeffrey Combs as the troublemaking Dr. West ... and none other than William H. Macy as the President of the United States. Seems like the project might still be moving forward -- but not any time real soon, sorry to say.

In this excellent interview from Gli Occhi Sol Cinema, the veteran horror-maker discusses a wide array of past successes and future projects, from Society and Re-Animator to Dagon and ... Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 4. But the part that'll prove most exciting to the old-school gorehounds is Mr. Yuzna's long-term plans for his long-running Re-Animator series. The plan is to follow House of Re-Animator with Re-Animator Unbound! and Re-Animator Begins ... maybe as a way to reboot the franchise with some new blood.

I can already hear the gripes: "True, Scott, the original Re-Animator is a bona-fide horror classic, as well as one ferociously fun splatter flicks ever made, but Bride of Re-Animator pretty much stunk and Beyond Re-Animator was even worse!"

I dunno, I have a soft spot for the whole sticky series, warts and all. Sure wouldn't mind seeing a few new sequels...

It only takes one true-blue classic for the horror fans to embrace a filmmaker -- just ask Sean Cunningham -- but in the case of Mr. Stuart Gordon, we have a solid handful of goodies to choose from. Yep, 1985's Re-Animator is the guy's big hitter, obviously, but over the years Mr. G has turned out some fairly entertaining pieces of genre, most notably From Beyond (1986), Fortress (1993) and Dagon (2001). The Chicago-bred filmmaker recently gave William H. Macy some great opportunities in a big-screen adaptation of David Mamet's Edmond -- and now it looks like it's back to the horror scene for Stu.

Gordon's next film will be a thriller called Stuck, and it's about the terror that pursues a woman after she stupidly bails from the scene of a nasty hit & run accident. The director will be co-writing Stuck, which is reportedly based on actual events, with a guy named John Strysik, who once wrote a truly awful horror flick called Deathbed ... for producer Stuart Gordon.

Stuck begins production in New Brunswick next week. We'll let you know if any cool casting news hits the 'net. And there's been no new word on Gordon's apparent involvement in House of Re-Animator, but I have my fingers crossed.

Just one week ago, we shared some news about an all-new Re-Animator trilogy that producer Brian Yuzna seems pretty darn psyched about, and today Fangoria brings us some even cooler news:

William H. Macy, one of the most talented, admired, and gosh-darn likable character actors in the known universe, has been signed to play the President of the United States in Stuart Gordon's House of Re-Animator! Returning for the third trilogy are director Gordon, producer Yuzna, screenwriter Dennis Paoli, and Dr. West himself: Jeffrey Combs. (Someone get Bruce Abbott's agent on the phone ... or his wife if he doesn't have an agent anymore. And please don't forget the lovely Barbara Crampton...)

Ready for the plot? The U.S. President dies, so one high-ranking moron calls Dr. West in to bring the Commander-in-Chief back to life ... and if you've ever seen, say, 5 random minutes of Re-Animator, then you know precisely what happens next. (Yay!)

(Y'know, while the gorehounds stress and worry about Sam Raimi's potential return to the Evil Dead series, I'm of the opinion that the Re-Animator trilogy gets a pretty raw deal. True, everyone loves the first one cuz it's a splatter-tastic mega-classic, but those sequels aren't all that bad, you know. And now that a new trilogy is getting the kick-start (and with the original filmmakers, no less), I think this is pretty big news indeed. For the horror geeks, anyway. Like me.)

Longtime Stuart Gordon collaborator and bona-fide horror geek of the most colorful variety, Brian Yuzna has some big plans. He recently closed up shop on his Fantastic Factory shingle (a Spanish production company that yielded Faust, Dagon, Rottweiler, and Beyond Re-Animator) and kick-started an outfit called Halcyon, and guess what Mr. Yuzna will be doing there. That's right: making splattery horror flicks.

According to Fango, the company has a few titles in the can already (with titles like Doomed, Battlespace, and Darkworld ... cool), but their big plan is to reunite the original Re-Animator / Bride of Re-Animator gang (producer Yuzna, director Stuart Gordon, screenwriter Dennis Paoli, and actors Bruce Abbott & Jeffrey Combs) for a White House-based sequel entitled House of Re-Animator (the gang hopes this will be chapter one in an all-new Re-Animator trilogy). Yuzna also hopes to get William H. Macy to play the president, and it might not be all that difficult; Macy recently starred in the David Mamet adaptation Edmond -- which was directed by Stuart Gordon.

Also in Yuzna's blood-soaked pipeline: Sprawl: Grizzly, which is about a whole PACK of ravenous man-eating bears, and Everdark, a "based on actual events" ghost story ... like we really need another one of those.