From my extremely recent interview with Doomsday director Neil Marshall:
Q: Do you know what you’re doing next?
Marshall: No. We’ll see what happens next week.
Really, Neil? No idea? Not even the slightest? Well, then, I guess this Sacrilege movie just dawned on you over the last few days, huh?
While I’m always keen on scooping Variety, I suppose it’s possible that Marshall’s deal was still getting finalized when we spoke last Thursday. Though Marshall mentioned his desire to stick close to the horror-action genre (and maybe make another werewolf movie in the near future), he didn’t say a goddamn thing about directing a western. And a western/horror hybrid at that.
Marshall’s withholding plot particulars at the moment, but he claims Sacrilege will be “Unforgiven by way of H.P. Lovecraft”, which is awfully lofty. According to Variety‘s Michael Fleming, the film will also “draw on themes of isolation and paranoia and such influences as John Carpenter’s The Thing.” When Marshall talks about wanting to make a gritty type of western, I immediately think of Deadwood, which could sometimes delve into the horrific (that nasty, third season street brawl between Dan Dority and Hearst’s man still gets to me); if he can meld Milch’s aesthetic with something faintly Lovecraftian, this Sacrilege could be something special.
That Rogue is willing to stay in business with Marshall must mean that Doomsday isn’t a complete disaster (even though I’ve yet to hear of a press screening). Guess we’ll find out on Friday.