Karloff classic moves to the Middle East
RKO Pictures continues to plunder their classics with a remake of Val Lewton’s 1945 horror movie Isle of the Dead.
Writers Brian Horiuchi and Matt Lazarus’ take sets the film’s events in Afghanistan where a viral outbreak will occur. The ’45 original – starring Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew and Marc Cramer – found the former Frankenstein monster, now playing a Greek commander, shacking up with a bunch of strangers on a plague-ridden island that may or may not be the haven to a demonic force. Ardel Wray and Josef Mischel scripted.
“Val Lewton made his name by taking the horror genre to a new place,” RKO chairman and CEO Ted Hartley told THR. “Brian and Matt have the same kind of genre-bending sensibilities that will give this classic tale the perfect blend of contemporary themes and timeless scares.”
Source: Ryan Rotten, The Hollywood Reporter
