While I was in Budapest for the Hellboy II set visit*, I was talking to some of the Universal publicists about movies we thought should have hit bigger, and one of them was James Gunn’s Slither, a film that’s so good on every single level and yet had a hard time finding an audience in theaters. Gunn’s been off writing since that film came out, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating what he comes up with next; it turns out that the next thing might be Pets, a comedy about a guy who gets abducted by aliens looking to make him a pet, which he will write and direct. Reminiscent of a certain Porno For Pyros song, which really just has to be on the closing credits.
Pets is being produced by Ben Stiller’s Red Hour, and will be distributed by Fox. Gunn, meanwhile, has another project in the hopper, called The Belcoo Experiment. That one sounds exciting: 83 people locked in an office building are directed by a mysterious voice to make murderous moral choices. Think Saw with a brain. And of course there could always be a Slither II…. right? Right?
*Look for the report on Monday!