While everyone was talking about Rose McGowan's machine gun-leg and Kurt Russell's road rage ways, at least the same amount of chatter, if not more, of the buzz surrounding Grindhouse was relegated to the faux trailers. Machete made such a big impact that for months many of us were musing about a Danny Trejo-starring feature film. But what about those Werewolf Women of the SS?

According to a post put up today on Rob Zombie's MySpace blog, we'll get more of the ladies in comic book form. The blog says: "Werewolf Women of the SS is back! This time it's back as a comic book series! The wacky exploits of Commandant Hess, Lt. Boorman, Von Strasser Eva and Gretchen Krupp, Fu Manchu and even Hiltler will be coming you way. Everything you ever wanted to know about Project Pure Wolf but were afraid to ask!"

Creating an entire story for fans to drool over is certainly a way to whip up buzz and head toward feature territory. We've seen the trailer, full of Nick Cage, Udo Kier, and more -- is now time for them to grace the pages of the comic book world? Hopefully it will be with less exclamation points.

[via Horror-Movies.ca]

So we still don't quite know what Rob Zombie's Tyrannosaurus Rex is. The new, somewhat profane, surprisingly artful poster for the 2009 film -- which I've placed after the jump because we don't like cussin' on our family-friendly front page -- seems to confirm the earlier notion that the plot involves a biker gang; Zombie himself has said that the movie has nothing to do with actual dinosaurs, though an image of one appears in the background. There had also been speculation that Tyrannosaurus Rex will be based on a comic book called Nailed, which was co-authored by Zombie, but the filmmaker has denied this.

All of Zombie's efforts to date have been bad in interesting ways. His latest, Halloween, was not a good film, and it pretty much defecated on the classic movie it was trying to tribute, but it confirmed his talent for creating arrestingly lurid, over-the-top milieus. His main problem seems to be an inability to settle down, chill out, and think things through -- he just attacks whatever he's working on with a brutal, untamed voracity. But I'm holding out hope that soon he'll find a project worthy of his, shall we say, distinctive gifts.

Check out the poster after the jump -- and watch for the foul language, if that kind of thing bothers you.

You know, for a movie that probably isn't the best idea to begin with, a lot of people certainly seem to be lining up to work on it. Just days after rumors swirled that Rob Zombie would be taking over the Conan remake for Millennium/Nu Image, now Doomsday director Neil Marshall has also been added to the list of possible directors for the fantasy update.

Rumors of Marshall's involvement first surfaced over at IGN, where it had also been confirmed by one of their sources that Zombie was in talks with the producers. That same source then threw Marshall's name on the list. Marshall joins John McTiernan, Zombie, and Hitman director Xavier Gens as possible candidates to direct. It has since been confirmed that Zombie will not be taking the reins, and instead is off working on the biker flick Tyrannosaurus Rex. According to IGN, Gens has also been in talks with the producers, but so was Zombie and look how that turned out.

The production has struggled since the beginning; first there were battles over the rights to the franchise, and after a few false starts, Millennium/Nu Image was left standing and they are now the proud new owners of the film. Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer have been allowed to work on the script during the strike thanks to an agreement between Millennium and the WGA. IGN also reports that Millennium/Nu Image will not be choosing their director until the script has been completed. By then who knows how many more names will have been added to the list. Conan is tentatively scheduled for release in 2009.

[via Comics2Film]

I'll be completely honest with you: I seriously don't know how I feel about this latest rumor. But first, the news: Bloody Disgusting says they have "confirmed 100% that Rob Zombie has been taking meetings with Lionsgate and Nu Image to get behind the director's chair for their upcoming Conan film." And yes, when we say Conan film, we're talking Conan the Barbarian (aka the re-imagining of the film that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger wayyy back in the day). Rob Zombie. Conan. Crazy, right? Now keep in mind "taking meetings" doesn't necessarily mean the guy is directing the film. I'm sure a number of folks have "taken meetings" with regards to directing Conan, but Zombie's name is definitely the most bizarre thus far to come out of the Conan camp.

Don't get me wrong, if Lionsgate and Nu Image did bring Zombie onboard, they're almost guaranteed a hit at the box office. There's just something about Zombie and his "f*ck the rules" persona that excites people; gets them all jazzed up. And, from someone who doesn't care all that much about the Conan franchise, I think it would be kinda cool if they tossed in a director who no one in their right mind would ever expect. Bringing on Zombie would pretty much guarantee a "dark as all hell" Conan film; one that would almost certainly contain lots of blood and severed limbs. It could be very cool. I'd be curious to hear from you hardcore Conan fans -- is Zombie the guy you'd like to see behind the camera? If not him, then who?

UPDATE: A Cinematical commenter pointed out that Zombie did take meetings, but turned down the gig because the script was already completed. Instead, he will next direct a biker film called Tyrannosaurus Rex. STYD backs up this statement.

In a new interview over at SuicideGirls, Tyler Mane takes advantage of this week's DVD release of Halloween to talk about his take on the character and how it all came together. When asked if he's vulnerable to typecasting after playing a hulking monster, he responds: "Man, I'm 6 foot 8. I'm gonna be typecast. It's not like I'm gonna be the romantic lead, although that wouldn't be bad. But it is what it is, and we'll just see where it goes." He also reveals that he has signed on to do another Halloween film, but Rob Zombie apparently can't be persuaded to go through with directing any further installments of the series. "I signed on [for the sequel] thinking he was going to be doing it, but Rob feels he's told his story, with a beginning, middle and an end. Who knows, you know? The one thing I've learned in this business is never say never."

In fact, Zombie seems to be up in the air about exactly where his career goes from here. Although Halloween had a nice opening weekend, Zombie seems a bit dissatisfied, having passed up the opportunity to direct Steve Niles' much-talked about script for Bigfoot and now eschewing a return to Michael Myers territory. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Zombie even says he'd like his next film to be a Western. "It's one of my favorite genres," he says. "I love John Ford, Howard Hawks."

To give you an idea of what kind of horror I like, I'm into the stuff that scares you, not shocks you. Which is why I'm a huge fan of the original Halloween, directed by John Carpenter, because the film cares more about creeping you out (with its themes of isolation and sense of dread throughout), then it does packing on the gore. In fact, there's very little blood in the original Halloween, which is pretty amazing considering it's widely known as one of the best horror films of all time. Which brings us to Rob Zombie's 2007 "re-imagining" of the original Halloween, simply titled Halloween. I watched this DVD with two horror junkies, and the line that spewed out of our mouths the most was: "See, now was that really necessary?" Was it necessary for his family to be a total cliche of "white trash" to the umpteenth degree? Was the whole "bullied as a kid" storyline necessary? Was it necessary to have two Smith's Grove workers raping a patient inside Myers' cell (a scene in the unrated cut)? Actually, was it necessary to abuse almost every single woman in this flick, mentally and physically? Was this entire film necessary at all?

In defense of Zombie, a lot of Halloween fanboys have always wanted to see more of the Myers mythology. More of Myers as a kid, more of Myers' relationship with Dr. Loomis at Smith's Grove -- more of Myers as a character versus Myers as a random guy in a mask who kills people. Zombie provides all that background info in this film, some of which is very successful (like Myers' obsession with making masks). But too much time is spent with Myers as a kid (played by Daeg Faerch), and while this time definitely helps build upon the Myers character (and mythology) it sort of lessens the overall scare factor -- because, in the end, do we really need to be BFF with Myers in order to watch him kill people? It's like Zombie created two films -- one a family drama, one a slasher flick -- and neither really worked.

I would have appreciated this news more had it come to us from CHUD.com, but anyway DreadCentral.com reports that Rob Zombie is set to direct a remake of C.H.U.D. For those of you poor souls who haven't seen this B horror classic, the original was about deformed creatures called C.H.U.D.s (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers), who live in the sewers and feed on the citizens of New York City. Back in 1984, it was a fitting allegory for the homeless problem, whether or not it was intended as such. Now that the homeless population is growing again -- or now that we've forgotten about or stopped worrying about where Giuliani sent the '90s homeless -- it's ripe time for a redo. A C.H.U.D. remake could even go head to head against the under-Gotham-ghost-story The Night Tourist.

But is Zombie the best director for the job? His recent remake of Halloween was almost universally panned by critics. However, it was a huge success at the box office. Considering the cheapness and cheesiness of the original, though, he probably couldn't do much worse than the original C.H.U.D., which despite my nostalgic fondness, isn't nearly as revered as the original Halloween (in fact, this may be an understatement). Personally, I'll probably still prefer the first C.H.U.D., but I'm eager to see it redone with more money and better effects, if that's what Zombie can bring to the the remake.

Rogue

I don't care how many times they push it back, or how much potential for hackneyed disaster there is in a film about a killer crocodile -- I'm looking forward to Rogue, mostly because there was a lot that impressed me about Greg Mclean's debut film, 2005's Wolf Creek. For one thing, it was bold enough to defy several horror cliches, such as foreshadowing dread in the early scenes -- the first thirty minutes of Wolf Creek could be part of an Aussie road drip dramedy, with three aimless kids taking their rickety car way too far into unsafe areas of the Outback. It's also a film that's completely unrelenting in the psychic trauma it wants to inflict on the audience. By the time the slaughtering starts, we know these characters -- we care about them. Frankly, Mclean seems like he'd be completely bored with making a standard slasher/monster film with paper-thin characters. Therefore, I'm going to be first in line for his killer croc movie, and wait for my enthusiasm to blow up in my face.

Friday the 13th

I have no idea if this will get to theaters by late 2008, but I know that Platinum Dunes does have the gears grinding, so it's a possibility. In fact, a little birdie recently told me something hilarious -- Corey Feldman went in and pitched himself as the star of this thing. For those who don't remember, Feldman played Vorhees foe Tommy Jarvis in two installments of the original series, and he apparently had designs on making the Friday remake his newest comeback vehicle. There's really nothing you can do with Jason at this point other than remake him, but how? Word is that PD wants the remake to feature both Jason and his trademark mask -- two elements that didn't congeal until Part III of the original series, so I'm imagining a smelting together of the first three films, set in modern day and with a lot of in-jokes. I guess it will be a film about a little boy who drowns in a lake and immediately morphs into an overgrown, lumbering killer with a machete. Sounds intriguing.

Since Monday was a holiday, I now present you with the rare (but often more interesting) Tuesday Morning Poll. Because Tuesday just doesn't get enough lovin' these days. So everyone seems a tad floored that Rob Zombie's re-imagined Halloween scored $31 million over the Labor Day weekend. Me? I kind of saw it coming. As much as audiences have been turned off by horror as of late (or, more specifically, "torture porn"), it's obvious the genre still has its fans -- especially those searching for some nostalgia. Tack on a director with a name (sort of), call it a re-imagining of the original, and people flocked to see it. Of course, this now means we have officially landed in the re-imagined era. If there's one thing that $31 million haul did tell us, it was that we should expect a lot more films to be re-imagined (or whatever the hell they're calling it) in the near future. I wouldn't be surprised if work starts right away on reviving the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises in the same fashion. Heck, imagine how many rumor posts we'll have to write when they start searching for someone to replace Robert Englund as Freddy Kruger?

But it's not just horror that's caught the re-imagined bug. Next summer we're already in store for The Incredible Hulk -- a film that isn't necessarily a sequel to Ang Lee's version, but an updated, re-imagined thingy. Christopher Nolan has already found success with his re-imagined Batman franchise, and now it's just a "wait and see" game as far as what the future holds. And that's exactly what I'm looking to find out from you today -- what does the future hold? Are there other films that are ripe for re-imagining? And what's the difference between a remake and a film that's been re-imagined? Do you prefer one over the other?

So, I ask you: What's your take on the re-imagined era? And are there any films that you'd personally like to see updated and re-imagined for today's audience?

Halloween is an oddity, because not even horror fanatics were clamoring for this franchise to be re-launched, yet here it is. We now have what amounts to a launching pad for another decade of mediocrity from the slasher genre's perennial bronze medalist. The Shape hasn't been endowed with any new qualities in this film that might potentially help him vault over Jason Vorhees and Freddy Krueger -- he's still going to be low man on the totem pole. Occupying that humbling position over the years hasn't necessarily meant that the Halloween series suffered any more discontinuity or shameless retcons than the competition, but there's always been a sense of dogged sameness and an aura of low expectations to each new episode of the saga, starting immediately after Carpenter's original film and going all the way through to the most recent film, which, if memory serves, had Myers chasing after Busta Rhymes in some reality show. That's why it's so perplexing that Zombie's remake recreates the same Michael we've always known -- it's almost as if he wants history to repeat itself.

In fact, all that really separates this Halloween from the 1978 version is the origin story -- it's been expanded by some 30 minutes, so that we now see young Michael (Daeg Faerch) being tortured by school bullies and living hand-to-mouth in a white-trash hellhole with a stripper mom (Sheri Moon Zombie) and a scuzzy stepfather, played by William Forsythe. Those elements combine in Michael's mind to produce a perfect storm of craziness, and he begins to talk less and less, while becoming more violent. Before you know it, he's being carted off to Smith's Grove to become the plaything of the child psychiatrist Dr. Loomis, played repeatedly by Donald Pleasance in the original series and now portrayed by Malcolm McDowell, who recently revealed that he's already signed for three films, if this one goes. What comes next anyone can guess -- Michael breaks out of his confinement and starts killing people, all in the service of some ill-defined mission to find his baby sister, who he hasn't seen since he was a little boy but has a connection to.