Rock and Roll icon tells SHOCK more about his latest endeavor, Erebus Pictures.
Iconic bass player, rock and roll visionary, entrepreneur, pop culture provocateur and insatiable horror and fantasy film junkie Gene Simmons announced earlier this year that he was joining forces with WWE Studios to form Erebus Pictures, a new imprint designed produce a series of high quality, sophisticated horror films.
Simmons’ love of horror helped shaped the DNA of the legendary band KISS, the best-selling theatrical art/trash rock and roll juggernaut he co-founded with frontman Paul Stanley 40 years ago in NYC. Simmons Demon character is an amalgam of Godzilla, Lon Chaney and a mythical Japanese boogeyman; a living monster who marauds across stages spitting blood and fire and sticking out his reptilian tongue. But oddly, when it comes to cinema, Simmons prefers subtlety to splatter and, although KISS pulls out all the stops when they play live, Erebus Pictures isnt going to be focused on bloated spectacle to dazzle audiences.
Its never been proven that the more money you spend on a movie, the better it is or that it will make more money, Simmons told us.
Now, you cant do GONE WITH THE WIND for 2 million, so the subject matter is limited, but Ive contended M. Night Shyamalans SIGNS, which I thought was a very good film, without Mel Gibson, without the big star talent, without M. Nights money its a 2 million dollar movie. I dont believe that these movies depend on stars because if its high concept, I sort of want to see it.
The first film from the Erebus stable will be the eerie, atmospheric A.I. gone evil future-shocker TEMPLE, penned by Matt Savelloni.
It reminds me of DEMON SEED, Simmons says, and a few other movies where the computers are so advanced. WAR GAMES had that thing, it was kind of way advanced and building as a computer thats beyond anything. And of course, things start to happen in the same way as they did in ALIENS, when they sent in a commando team to find out what the hell happened. Thats sort of what happens. And then they come in and its a combination of TEN LITTLE INDIANS, probably closer in tone to John Carpenters THE THING. Which I thought was a better film than Howard Hawks THE THING.
There are several other Erebus Pictures titles in development, including THE DEVILS TRIANGLE, a film based on the very real, inexplicable mystery surrounding the vanishings in and around the Bermuda Triangle.
Its never been explained why statistically so many ships and so many planes have been lost there, says Simmons.
To this day the compasses go nuts when you go into that area. Theres something going on. They think there are large methane deposits underwater that release naturally and so people die and ships sink and whirlpools and all this kind of stuff. But theres no explaining why planes up there get lost. Theres a famous one with three coast guard planes that lost their bearing I guess went on forever and some people think its a doorway to another dimension. We dont really deal with any of that, just that stuff has happened and stuff is going to happen to our crew.
For the full story on Erebus Pictures, pick up the latest copy of DELIRIUM Magazine, where Simmons reveals more about the new brand and its plans for the future.
