The Forest – An investigative team ventures into Japan’s legendary Aokigahara “suicide forest” to capture the macabre setting for a documentary and also to hopefully talk a few people off the ledge. They find a lot more than they bargained for as they begin to feel suicidal themselves and having strange thoughts. It then becomes evident that the forest amplifies the dread inside them and that there’s darker things afoot than just an idyllic setting to part ways with the world.
That’s my pitch for a script I was working on that went out, oh a year and a half ago. It’s hatefucked, because as is way too often the case my exact idea gets made before my meager industry pull allows for it to materialize. And of course it has to be David Goyer, one of the very few industry folks who was an absolute jerk to me when I met him…
According to Deadline, David Goyer and first time filmmaker Jason Zada are launching a film based on the spooky and all-too-real forest in Japan where people go to die. With a rewrite by novelist Sarah Cornwell it’ll be going into production next year. More details to come, which will appear in my suicide letter once this makes 100 million bucks.
I first heard about this place from John Makarewicz when he shared a Vice video on the subject.
Watch this amazing documentary right here.