You may say a lot of things about Brian Yuzna, but the man certainly works fast. During the 2004-2005 season he has directed two new films for his latest studio, the Fantastic Factory.
Number one is a sci-fi film called "Rottweiler". It is based on a novel by spanish best-seller author Alberto Vazquez Figueroa and it is (mostly) about a prisoner pursued by a robotic rottweiler. The novel was already adapted in the 70s by Antonio Isasi for a quite decent film, "El perro", and now Yuzna has retold the story with a sci-fi wrapping. The dog here is mechanic, and I've seen several press pics showing post-apocaliptic settings. Features Paul Naschy in a supporting role.
Much less is known about film two, "Beneath Still Waters", because it is still filming. The press reports, however, are very promising. Looks like this one is the most ambicious film by the Fantastic Factory so far, and promises serious horror, a more mature than usual approach by Yuzna, decent budget and a terrific cast including Raquel Meroño ("Dagon") and Josep Maria Pou, one of the best present-day spanish actors.
Chances are I'll see both when they get their obligatory theatrical release, but you all american guys will have to wait for the DVD.
EDITED: You can watch some stills and even a teaser trailer for "Rottweiler at http://www.filmaxinternational.com
Post Edited (04-24-05 05:26)
I've really loved Yuzna's work since he started making films over in Spain. Beyond Re-Animator was fantastic and Dagon was pretty good as well. It's great to see the man doing work after all these years.
Rottweiler sounds pretty interesting, but Beneath Still Waters would be the one I'm most interested in. sounds like another Lovecraft adaptation.
I love Yuzna's films. It's a shame they aren't released theatrically over here in the US ("Darkness" being the only one to get released in theatres since Re-animator as far as I know), but indeed he's a great filmmakers. He gives us everything we want: monsters, gore, action, gore, gore, monsters, and err...gore.
By the way, you can see some awesome pics of the robo-dog from Rottweiler at the link below.
http://moviesonline.ca/movienews_2432.html
Cheecky,
Darkness wasn't a Yuzna flick. Not a very good film either....hopefully the new unrated DVD will be better.
Actually, it was. It was produced by his spanish production company, Fantastic Factory, and he's billed as both producer and creative producer on IMDB.
True, Yuzna is one of the heads of the studio, but I don't really think he's much involved creatively, considering how different from his style are films like "Darkness" or the recent "Romasanta" are. BTW, if you can get a copy of "Romasanta", do it ASAP, it may be the best film by the studio so far.
I've heard lots of good things about Rosamata.
I plan on seeing it when it's released on DVD.