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Toby Wilkins Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Toby Wilkins Tapped to Direct 'Grudge 3'

Filed under: Horror », Casting », Deals », RumorMonger », Remakes and Sequels »

Well, I guess Sam Raimi wasn't kidding when he said that a third installment of The Grudge was in the works. Days after Monika gave us the heads up on the sequel, Shock Till You Drop is reporting that Toby Wilkins has been hired to direct the third part of the horror series. Wilkins is a visual effects artist who worked on the Grudge 2 tie-ins, Tales of the Grudge (kind of a lame title, so I can only hope that Raimi and company can come up with something a little better than that). Raimi has been relatively quiet on the details of the story, but if a director has been chosen it would appear that the project is well underway.

Based off the 2003 *Korean film Ju-on, the first North American Grudge film was released in 2004 with Sarah Michelle Gellar as the unlucky recipient of a supernatural curse. A sequel was released in 2005, to little fanfare, so you can't help but question the decision to make yet another one. There were four films in the original Korean series, all directed by Takashi Shimizu. Surprisingly, Shimizu will not be returning for the latest film, which seems like a smart move on his part. If you take a look at what most fans thought of the last two films, a third installment will likely fair even worse. Raimi's Ghost House Productions will be in charge of the film, but only after he has finished producing Drag Me to Hell with Jeff Lynch. Wilkins is set to start work on Grudge as soon as he wraps up on his other horror thriller, Splinter. The Grudge 3 is tentatively set to begin shooting January 2008.

*Correction: Japanese

Short Films Popping Up On Sam Raimi's Ghosthouse Website

Filed under: Horror », Site Announcements », Lionsgate Films », Sony », Shorts », DIY/Filmmaking »

While most fans were preoccupied with whether or not Sam Raimi would be continuing the Spider-Man franchise -- and it seems that that neither Toby Maguire or Raimi can make up their minds on that question -- the director has been focusing some attention on his plans for "multi-platform" projects, which of course means projects that have components designed for the Web, cable and other non-theatrical arms. A few weeks ago, Chris had news about Raimi's collaboration with FearNet (a horror site created by Sony, Lionsgate, and Comcast) for a seven part online series through his own Ghosthouse Pictures. Now, Ghosthouse is premiering some web films of their own, on their own site.

There are four shorts in total, and the subject matter includes the usual chestnuts of standard horror films, such as the bimbo and the babysitter in peril. Not to mention a surprising amount of skin snatching. The directors for the shorts are Ben Ketai, Toby Wilkins, John Coven, and Peter Logreco, and Ghosthouse seems to be keeping both Ketai and Wilkins busy, since they are working on the FearNet projects as well. There are five more films promised on the Ghosthouse site, but no word on when that is going to be, or whether Raimi has any intention of making his own short for the site, or how deep his commitment to multi-platform filmmaking will go in the future. Considering the amount of rumored Raimi projects on the horizon, I doubt he is going to have the time to focus on much else.
 
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