By A casting choice so crazy it just might work, Elijah Wood is set to star in a remake of the grim slasher/serial killer movie Maniac. French actress Nora Arnezeder will co-star as the object of his depraved desires. The script for the remake is by Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur, the same duo behind High Tension, P2, and the redo of The Hills Have Eyes. P2 director Franck Khalfoun is at the helm.
Even though I was something of a gorehound in high school, I never got around to William Lustig’s Maniac. (I have watched Lustig’s Maniac Cop, but that’s a different animal entirely.) I’ve managed to see several scenes and most of the gore effects in Maniac through the years, however, and it’s some of Tom Savini’s bloodiest work. It seems like the grindhouse older brother of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, with some scalping, some dismemberment, creepy mannequins, and a pointblank blast to the face with a shotgun.
Wood looks nothing like the original’s star, character actor Joe Spinell; Spinell had the look of an average yet creepy outer-borough mook. While Wood did play Kevin in Sin City, this role will likely call for something much darker and more troubled in him.
[Via /Film]