Bone Tomahawk Director to Reboot Puppet Master
by Clark Collis
5/2/16


How far will writing and directing a Kurt Russell-starring cannibal-Western get you in Hollywood? Quite far, it turns out.

EW recently reported that S. Craig Zahler, who directed last year’s Russell-featuring horror movie Bone Tomahawk, was teaming with Vince Vaughn for his second film, the prison-set thriller Brawl in Cell Block 99.





Now, comes the news that di Bonaventura Pictures (the Transformers films) and Caliber Media (Some Kind of Hate, Bone Tomahawk) are developing what is being described as “a brand new take” on producer Charles Band’s Puppet Master series of horror films and that Zahler will write the script for the first movie, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich.

The franchise, which concerns a group of anthropomorphic puppets animated by an Egyptian spell, dates back to 1989.





The storyline for Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich follows a recently divorced young man who discovers a mint condition doll in his deceased brother’s closet and plans to sell the toy at a convention in Oregon celebrating the 30th anniversary of the infamous Toulon Murders.

All hell breaks loose at the Postville Lodge during the auction when a strange force animates all of the various puppets throughout the convention as they go on a bloody killing spree.



The film will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian for di Bonaventura Pictures alongside Dallas Sonnier and Jack Heller for Caliber Media.

Charles Band will executive produce.





“As a child of the 80’s and 90’s, I spent a vast majority of my allowance on Charles Band-produced films,” said Sonnier in a statement.

“Puppet Master was hands down my favorite, and I had the movie poster on my wall, and a giant standee in my bedroom. The chance to work with Lorenzo, Zahler, and Band all at once on this new take is simply a dream come true.”

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/02/puppet-master-bone-tomahawk-director

I loved Bone Tomahawk, and I've enjoyed most of the Puppet Master movies, so this could be good.

Reboot Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich Starts Filming This Month
by John Squires
March 16, 2017


From the producers of 1408 and the writer & producers of Bone Tomahawk comes a terrifying new vision of Charles Band’s classic franchise.

We told you last year that Full Moon’s Puppet Master franchise is getting a reboot courtesy of Di Bonaventura Pictures and Caliber Media, which was certainly a surprise as well as music to our ears. All the Puppet Master films over the years have been directly made by Full Moon, so the idea of other (more legit) companies optioning the rights and taking over is pretty exciting. Because let’s be honest. As much as we may all love Full Moon, we’d be lying if we said their output in recent years has been, well, let’s just say their best days may be behind them.

The intention is to expand the mythology by producing multiple storylines within a new universe, and Bone Tomahawk‘s S. Craig Zahler penned the script for inaugural universe flick Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich. Via the Dallas Film Commission we’ve just learned that the film will begin shooting on March 27th, the shoot set to continue through most of April.





According to IMDb, Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund are directing.

The storyline for ‘The Littlest Reich’ follows a recently divorced young man who discovers a mint condition Blade doll in his deceased brother’s closet and plans to sell the toy at a convention in Oregon celebrating the 30th anniversary of the infamous Toulon Murders. All hell breaks loose at the Postville Lodge during the auction when a strange force animates all of the various puppets throughout the convention as they go on a bloody killing spree.





Zahler’s completely new take on Puppet Master maintains all of the brutally inventive puppet kills infused with the comedic tendencies that made the original franchise so popular with fans, while expanding upon Toulon’s backstory and developing richer dialogue, characters, and narratives.

“Puppet Master was hands down my favorite, and I had the movie poster on my wall and a giant standee in my bedroom. The chance for us to work with Lorenzo, Zahler, and Band all at once on this new take is simply a dream come true,” Caliber Media’s Jack Heller recently said.

“We couldn’t be more excited to take the series in a new direction while embracing all the practical effects and terrifying insanity that fans of The Puppet Master films love.”

The Puppet Master Remake Begins Filming Next Week!
by Brad Miska
March 24, 2017


Comedy thesp Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!, The Odd Couple) is bringing his charm to the Puppet Master remake, which begins principal photography in Dallas next week.

Titled Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, the entire cast includes Jenny Pellicer, Nelson Franklin (Scott Pilgrim, Jobs), Charlyne Yi (Cloverfield), and Alex Beh, with genre favs Barbara Crampton and Udo Kier, Tina Parker (Breaking Bad, The Final Destination), Skeeta Jenkins and the great Michael Paré (Streets on Fire), Variety is reporting.

Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund, who helmed the awesome Wither, will direct from a script written by Bone Tomahawk screenwriter S. Craig Zahler.



Producers assert that the new film will include the puppet mayhem mixed with comedy while expanding upon Toulon’s backstory, which makes Lennon the perfect choice. Udo Kier will portray Toulon.

Zahler sought out Laguna and Wiklund to direct due to his interest in their previous micro-budget horror films.

http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3429578/puppet-master-remake-begins-filming-next-week/

Barbara Crampton Reveals her role in Puppet Master Reboot, First Look at the Puppets
by John Squires
May 25, 2017


Following her recent roles in hits such as You’re Next, We Are Still Here and Beyond the Gates, horror vet Barbara Crampton will be starring in upcoming reboot Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich – fitting, given the fact that Crampton had a role in the original film.

Speaking with Scream Mag, Crampton just spilled some beans about her role.



“My character is a tour guide and an ex-police office. I was part of the police crew that brought Andre Toulon down many years ago and then thirty years later, something is happening. There’s a convention and some puppets are going to be sold at this convention so a lot of people that bought puppets from Andre Toulon many years ago have come back to this first ever convention so all these people and all these puppets are brought together for the first time in a very long time and something happens.

Obviously, I can’t say what happens but it’s very slyly written and there are a few different storylines going on and Craig has written a lot of really interesting characters that you care about so I’m really excited about that one too. It’s completely different [from the original franchise]. This movie has a lot of comedy in it and a lot of heart and drama as well.”







In other Puppet Master news, the new puppets made their debut over at Texas Frightmare this past weekend. The puppets were created by Tate Steinsiek (Face Off), who promises lots of gore and lots of practical effects.

We have redesigned models of classic puppets Blade and Tunneler and a new puppet which looks like a mix of a frog and a clown.

http://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3439183/barbara-crampton-reveals-role-puppet-master-reboot/

Barbara Crampton Reveals her role in Puppet Master Reboot, First Look at the Puppets
by John Squires
May 25, 2017


Following her recent roles in hits such as You’re Next, We Are Still Here and Beyond the Gates, horror vet Barbara Crampton will be starring in upcoming reboot Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich – fitting, given the fact that Crampton had a role in the original film.

Speaking with Scream Mag, Crampton just spilled some beans about her role.



“My character is a tour guide and an ex-police office. I was part of the police crew that brought Andre Toulon down many years ago and then thirty years later, something is happening. There’s a convention and some puppets are going to be sold at this convention so a lot of people that bought puppets from Andre Toulon many years ago have come back to this first ever convention so all these people and all these puppets are brought together for the first time in a very long time and something happens.

Obviously, I can’t say what happens but it’s very slyly written and there are a few different storylines going on and Craig has written a lot of really interesting characters that you care about so I’m really excited about that one too. It’s completely different [from the original franchise]. This movie has a lot of comedy in it and a lot of heart and drama as well.”







In other Puppet Master news, the new puppets made their debut over at Texas Frightmare this past weekend. The puppets were created by Tate Steinsiek (Face Off), who promises lots of gore and lots of practical effects.

We have redesigned models of classic puppets Blade and Tunneler and a new puppet which looks like a mix of a frog and a clown.

http://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3439183/barbara-crampton-reveals-role-puppet-master-reboot/

I like that they're keeping some of the originals, those 2 are definitely iconic to the franchise.
The frog's face reminds me of a character from another movie.

I like that they're keeping some of the originals, those 2 are definitely iconic to the franchise.
The frog's face reminds me of a character from another movie.

I don't really like these "redesigned models", they could have used the originals. I also don't know if these dolls shown are bigger than how they will appear onscreen, that the models were just being "shown off" in bigger sizes.

It would be interesting if the new puppets were more life-sized rather than pint-sized. They briefly featured life-sized puppets in PM2.

Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich will be Released Unrated in Theaters
by John Squires
May 15, 2018


RLJE Films acquired all North American rights to highly anticipated Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, we learned last month, with plans to release it in theaters on August 17, 2018.

Much to our surprise, Cinestate co-producer Amanda Presmyk has revealed that it’ll be released in its unrated form!



“It will absolutely be released unrated… we’re not gonna cut a moment out of this bad boy,” Presmyk promised GenreVision.

She also teased, “We’re confident [that we have] one of the top three kill scenes of the past 15-20 years [in The Littlest Reich].”

http://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3499127/puppet-master-littlest-reich-will-released-unrated-theaters/

Have any of the other Puppet Masters gotten theatrical releases?

Have any of the other Puppet Masters gotten theatrical releases?

No. The original 1989 was intended for a theatrical release, but Band and distributor Paramount ultimately decided to put it out direct-to-video figuring it will reach a better market there. I guess they were right.

All of the subsequent PM films were direct-to-video.

No. The original 1989 was intended for a theatrical release, but Band and distributor Paramount ultimately decided to put it out direct-to-video figuring it will reach a better market there. I guess they were right.

All of the subsequent PM films were direct-to-video.

Back around the late 80's/early 90's when I spent most of my free time renting and watching movies, Full House was one of my go to's. I can remember the original Subspecies trailer with the little creatures created by Randy Cook (The Gate) before they were replaced by the stop-motion David Allen ones. I was disappointed at first when I saw the replacement creatures.

Back around the late 80's/early 90's when I spent most of my free time renting and watching movies, Full House was one of my go to's. I can remember the original Subspecies trailer with the little creatures created by Randy Cook (The Gate) before they were replaced by the stop-motion David Allen ones. I was disappointed at first when I saw the replacement creatures.

Before that the Subspecies were originally going to be played by live actors in costume on over-sized sets.. Director Ted Nicolaou thought that the stuntmen were over-acting and then decided to make the creatures stop-motion effects.

You can see the footage of the stuntmen on the Subspecies behind-the-scenes featurette.

Before that the Subspecies were originally going to be played by live actors in costume on over-sized sets.. Director Ted Nicolaou thought that the stuntmen were over-acting and then decided to make the creatures stop-motion effects.

You can see the footage of the stuntmen on the Subspecies behind-the-scenes featurette.

Yeah, it was done the same way as The Gate, Randy Cook did both.

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