It is, of course, the much anticipated remake of the dodgy 1950s classic B-monster flick The Giant Gila Monster (US-1959; dir. Ray Kellogg). It’s called simply Gila! (US-2012; dir. Jim Wynorski) and the poster above is the first official teaser poster, created by Jeremy Mincer of Silver Ferox Key Art. Read more about the production on Undead Backbrain as well as checking out a Brainspasm article on the involvement of Don Sullivan, then teenaged star of the original film.

Below is another new poster concept:

If new images from the production are indicative of the visual potential the crew have been creating, this may be an exception B-monster flick and one of Sy-Fy’s more successful acquisitions in the genre. A lot will depend on the quality of the work that goes into the visualisation of the titular monster, of course, but a good cast and script can do much to overcome the negatives of even less-than-perfect FX.  The filming has wrapped now, and the gallery below gives a colourful indication of cast, sets and cars used — and suggests that retaining the 1950s setting definitely has legs!

The Backbrain is quietly hopeful!

Gallery:

For more, check out the film’s Facebook page.

Source: Producer Bill Dever via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood.

Addendum: An Interview with Gila by Robert Hood

With Gila! going into post-production (which obviously includes the insertion of the title character into the film), we decided to get the low-down from the real star of the picture: Gila! himself.

I tracked him down to a huge and particularly grotty trailer half-buried in the sand and covered in scrub somewhere in the Indiana backwoods.

Gila: Hey! Whatta ya mean “grotty”? This is a luxury mobile suite and it’s in a prime location.

Undead Backbrain: It’s in a hole in the ground.

Gila: Yeah. What’s ya point? They dug it specially for me. I’m a star, ya know. A BIG star. That’s why they named the film after me.

UB: But you’ve never been in a movie before, have you?

Gila: Maybe not, but it’s in the blood. My papi was in the 1959 film. I’ve modeled meself on ‘im.

UB: Really? I thought they used a small lizard –

Gila: Gila Monster! None of this lizard business. Calling us lizards is demeaning. How would you like to be described as a monkey?

UB: Okay, okay. Don’t get excited! You’ll sink the caravan further into this hole it’s stuck in. What was I saying? Oh, yeah. I thought they used a small… um, normal-sized gila monster in the first picture, filmed on miniature sets and superimposed –

Gila: Na! That’s a myth, spread by our enemies.

UB: Enemies?

Gila: You know, Godzilla, Gorgo, the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. All those foreign interlopers.

UB: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms was an American picture.

Gila: Yeah, but they dug up the actor from the Arctic circle somewhere. Finland, I reckon. Did you catch his accent? Ha! Laughable! He could hardly speak English at all.

UB: Can’t say I noticed.

Gila: You should check out the Director’s Cut.

UB: Sure. Right. So acting runs in the family. You’ve all been big?

Gila: Except for my brother Eric.

UB: Eric?

Gila: We don’t talk about him much. Great disappointment. Lives somewhere in the middle of the Mojave. In a tiny hole. He’s a real hermit. Just drags himself outa his hole every few months to scrounge up an old bird’s egg or eat a relative or two…

UB: Got his address? I’d like to talk to him. You know, get some insight into your past.

Gila: Forget it. He’s got a poisonous temperament. Wouldn’t talk to you, even for money. He hates the film industry. Hates our family. Says papi’s fame ruined his life. You know, he couldn’t live up to it and fell into depression, the pointlessness of life etc. etc. blah blah… bleeding heart stuff. Pathetic. I tried to get him to go on a bit of a rampage once, but after his tail got squashed when it was run-over by a tourist bus while he was crossing the highway, he withdrew inta hisself and gave up on everything. Not that he doesn’t have any talent, you know, for small stuff. They asked him to be in that Rango film but when he told ‘em to f**k off, they changed the character to a chameleon and hired Johnny Depp instead. Bad move, in my opinion. Lacks authenticity. You see the prob though.

UB: Let’s get back to your involvement in this film by Jim Wynorski. How did you get involved?

Gila: Met Bill Dever in a bar. Everyone else had cleared out — it was only a small place and I’d already demolished the pool room when I tried to sink all the balls in one shot — but he stayed and started going on about how great the film was. Reckoned the title character was a problem though. He was a bit… you know… plastered. Anyhow, I told him who I was and that I was lookin’ fa work and he jumped at the opportunity.

UB: Are you looking forward to working with Jim Wynorski?

Gila: Sure. Some of his other monster pics had some crap monster actors — didn’t look like they were actually there, you know. But I reckon he’s got it right this time. I don’t need no enhancement!

UB: Do you have an idea yet about how you’ll play the character?

Gila: I’m a bit like Depp, you know. He played Captain Jack Sparrow by basing the performance on Keith Richards. I plan to play the character like Lawrence Olivier. Bring a bit of class to the genre. Monsters have been short-changed for long enough, I reckon. I’m gonna insist on at least one monologue! I’ve memorised Macbeth’s Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow speech. Maybe the screenwriter can fit it in somewhere.

UB: Do you really think it’d be appropriate?

Gila: It’ll hafta be changed it a bit. “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps on its hangin’ belly from day to day, to the last drop of rodent blood. And all our holes in the ground have led the way to trashed towns and derailed trains. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a crawlin’ shadow, a gargantuan avenger that eats its way through towns and cities and then goes to DVD. It’s a tale told by a director and his crew, full of sound and fury — and huge at the box-office!” See works fine!

UB: Well, that’s rather… unique, I must say. Interesting to see what Jim Wynorski thinks.

Gila: He’ll come ’round.

UB: I think it’s true to say my readers are very keen to see what comes of this movie. So thanks for talking to us, Gila. It’s been… educational.

Gila: No sweat! And I mean that. Gila monsters never sweat.

UB: Sure, reptiles are all pretty cool, they say.

Gila: We sure are, baby. We’ve got class. Hey, on your way out can you chuck down a sack of roaches and assorted bugs? All this blabbin’ has made me hungry.

UB: Sure.

Gila: Good monkey!

Lost Island [aka L'île: les naufragés de la terre perdue; The Island: Castaways of the Lost Island] is a new French adventure fantasy film from writer/director Olivier Boillot, released in mid-2011 in France and hopefully heading for an English release in 2012 (though it is currently available in France on DVD/Blu-ray, with English subtitles).

Synopsis:

It’s 1942 and three men have just crashed into the ocean in the middle of nowhere. The stranded men find shelter on a nearby deserted island. As they slowly discover, they are not alone.

Lost Island looks to have been inspired by Jules Verne’s novel, L’Île mystérieuse (aka Mysterious Island), and/or any of the films based on it. As you’ll see from the trailer, it also carries suggestions of the TV series Lost and perhaps even Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land That Time Forgot, the latter of which was most recently filmed by the Asylum and directed by C. Thomas Howell. Basically what all these have in common is a group of people stranded on an otherwise unknown island that is inhabited by big creatures (mostly dinosaurs). The monsters are often (at least in the case of Mysterious Island and Lost) the result of scientific experimentation or arcane knowledge of some kind.

What sort of monsters Boillot’s film has, and how they got there, are merely hinted at within the trailer (here presented with English subtitles), but it looks pretty intriguing. Certainly the hints not only of monstrosity but of arcane mystical/pseudo scientific artefacts (not to mention the huge hole in the ground — interdimensional portal?) give what might have been a very ordinary survival tale enough interest for me to want to seek it out.

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It fascinates me how much more effective these sort of tales always seem, on film at least, when their creators give them a period setting.

Lost Island stars Michel Béatrix, Cyrielle Debreuil, Paul Descombes, Kaddour Dorgham and Jérémy Duplot Jr. The Gallery below includes some location shots of Jérémy Duplot Jr. and Kaddour Dorgham during filming.

Gallery:

Addendum: Behind The Scenes/Making Of Videos

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Sources: Alexandre Simard and Olivier Chekroun for Highland Film Group and Emylia. Via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood.

• Official Website
• IMDb entry

George Jones and the Giant Squid was written and directed by Dan Osborn and Vincenzo Perrella, whose previous work has gained them some attention, especially when their satirical vignette This is Perth “went viral” online in 2009, becoming the “most watched Western Australia short film of all time” and was awarded both Best Film and People’s Choice awards at the 23rd WA Screen Awards.

George Jones and the Giant Squid follows (though is not related to) the pair’s 19-minute satire It’s Just Gary (2010) and runs with the classic Moby Dick-esque theme of obsession over a sea monster.

Synopsis:

In the waters of a distant island lurks Old Bertie, a fearsome, gargantuan squid. The islanders, fearful of its wrath, make frequent offerings in an effort to appease it. When George Jones’ mother disappears, the young boy begins his hunt for the beast. George’s secret quest brings him face to face with dangers unforetold, and threatens to destroy his already fragile relationship with his heartbroken father.

Trailer:

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Directors Perrella and Osborn commented that the film was “inspired by our love of the fantastical and the absurd, but at its heart it is a story about a boy’s relationship
with his father.”

They commented:

Throughout the film, young George deals with uncertainties and injustices, faces the frustrations of being powerless, and makes attempts to satisfy his urge to know more. In short, he grapples with the issues that affect anyone making the transition to adulthood.

It was our desire to create a distinctive world, one that was isolated and stagnant, and seemingly open, yet oppressive. The costume, production design, locations and colour palette were all chosen to construct an archaic community that exists in a time and place that is unique unto itself. We intended, through performance style and musical orchestration, to create a distinctive, subtly comic tone that would enhance the fable-like quality of the film.

We were fortunate to be able to work with Luke Hewitt [as George Jones] and Leon Osborn [as Mr Jones] to create a palpable sense of tension between father and son. This was paramount in effectively evoking the real heart of the story as the characters each deal in their own way with the loss of George’s mother [Alison Van Reeken].

It was a privilege to work with such a talented cast and crew to bring our story to the screen.

George Jones and the Giant Squid has recently completed post-production and runs for just over 14 minutes. It was funded through the highly competitive ScreenWest/FTI Hyperlink initiative and had its premiere on on 21 July 2011 at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival. It has been officially selected (as one of the 45 films out of 2,200 films entered) for screening at Flickerfest International Short Film Festival 2012 Australian Competition. Flickerfest is Australia’s leading and only Academy® accredited and BAFTA recognised international short film festival. For those in the Sydney area (and anyone willing to travel downunder) the festival runs from 6th to 15th of January 2011 at Bondi Pavillion, Sydney, before touring nationally.

Check out more about George Jones and the Giant Squid on the official website.

• Sources: Ella Wright (Producer) via Avery Guerra; press release; official website; Perrella and Osborn’s website.

Gallery:

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The Millennium Bug is a flat-out, gore-filled, kaiju celebration — deviant love-child of Ishiro Honda and Rob Zombie. You won’t understand the sheer perverse geek joy of this film without actually seeing it, so head for the official website and blog to check for festival appearances. Or wait for the upcoming DVD release.

While you’re waiting, you can get a feel for things from this highly amusing interview, in which some of the actors give their reactions to the film’s extreme weirdness, and actress Ginger Pullman tells all about her first day of filming, which involved a prosthetic vagina and giving birth to something nasty…

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For more on The Millennium Bug, see previous Backbrain articles on the subject.

• via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood.

Well, New Zealand director Patrick Gillies is righting this reprehensible wrong in a short film called Huhu Attack!

In Cold War-era rural New Zealand, two social misfits – a mousy spinster and a traveling magician – find love against a backdrop of small-town prejudice and 40ft-high mutant man-eating Huhu grubs!

Click to enlarge (so you can read the details!)

It’s Baz Luhrmann meets Peter Jackson in what the director describes as “an audacious 1950s-style comedy-horror musical extravaganza, featuring a spectacular score performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.”

Song, dance, romance and…

… giant grubs!

Synopsis:

Rural New Zealand, 31st October 1957.  A Sputnik satellite crashes into the edge of a forest, irradiating the nearby flora and fauna.  When the Army is called in to investigate, their soldiers are inexplicably attacked by a 40ft-high mutant Huhu grub.  At the nearest township, two-bit traveling magician, Miles, falls for the charms of his mousy volunteer, Ngaire, whilst putting on a Halloween magic show for the locals.  Their blossoming romance is interrupted when the giant Huhu grubs invade, decimating the townsfolk.  Knocked unconscious, Miles awakes to find Ngaire nursing him back to health in a makeshift infirmary.  Citing Miles’ knowledge of pyrotechnics, she pleads her reluctant hero to lead the surviving townsfolk in their fight against the man-eating huhu grubs.  However, her faith in him is shattered when local agitator, Derek, arrives with soldiers to accuse Miles of being a Soviet spy, directly responsible for the Huhu grub menace.  Armed with supposed proof of his Eastern Bloc origins, the soldiers proceed with their intention to execute Miles.  After an impassioned and heart-wrenching plea of innocence, Miles is released and the united community rejoices in its new-found tolerance and enlightenment… but not for long!

Check out the trailer:

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 Huhu Attack! was shot on the Red One camera. Principle photography took place in Christchurch, New Zealand, over the course of four-and-a-half days in late November 2008.

Rather than using 3D (computer) animation, the producers resorted to the more traditional techniques of puppetry and over-cranked miniatures to achieve the illusion of the giant man-eating Huhu Grubs.

When asked about how the project got made, Gillies commented: “Some interesting facts for you: in its path to the big screen, the project received 21 funding rejections. Approx 80% of those people who read the script, rejected it. Conversely, about 80% of our funding was received from people who hadn’t read the script!” Then he added with due irony: “The moral = when making a monster film, don’t show people the script!”

So how was the Monster created?

I set out to create the film’s giant mutant Huhu grub monsters via 3D animation, but then early on, decided it would take too much time and effort, so opted for the (overcranked) miniature/arm-puppet route. Ultimately, the puppet also fitted with the aesthetic of 50s horror films … In the end, we did use two 3D animation shots, though: a shot of grubs on a log and then our epilogue shot of a giant … [actually, we might save that bit of spoilage for readers to experience for themselves when they see the film - Ed.]

Above: Early 3D conceptual drawings (aborted)

Above: 3D Huhu grub model stage 2

Above: Huhu puppet stage 1

Check out the gallery at the end of this article for more images of the Huhu puppet and early 3D model. The Gallery also includes more screenshots — and there are even more pictures on the film’s Facebook page.

So where can readers see the film?

Festivals at the moment. Only five festival laurels feature on the poster, but we have been selected for eight fests in total: Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (Panorama), Beverly Hills Shorts Fest (Official Selection), Seattle International Film Festival (Official Selection), Palm Springs ShortFest (Official Selection and Best of Fest 2011: Audience Favourite Comedies), New Zealand International Film Festival (Homegrown: Flights of Fantasy), Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (Official Selection), Traverse City Shorts Festival (Official Selection) and Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival.

Addendum: Sample Storyboard Sequence:

Source: Patrick Gillies via Avery Guerra; Facebook page. See this article for more Behind the Scenes pictures and images of the location shoot. You can download director Gillies bio and filmography here in PDF form.

Gallery:

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Naturally the internet naysayers are out in force already, but this looks pretty good to me, sticking, as it seems to do, to the spirit of the original tale. Love the beanstalk!

The story’s most-notable previous cinematic re-telling was Jack the Giant Killer (US-1962; dir. Nathan Duran), which featured 60s “historical hero” Kerwin Mathews (who had become well-known thanks to the 1958 classic The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) and the stop-motion work of an assortment of animators, most notably the uncredited Jim Danforth.

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The film still has undeniable charm, but was never one of the great stop-motion classics, despite the power of nostalgia to evoke negative online comparisons with the as-yet-unseen 2012 CGI-based remake.

• Written by Robert Hood

Though the final cast list for the upcoming The Giant Gila Monster remake by co-directors Tony Randel and Jim Wynorski has been doing the rounds — including the interesting news that original Giant Gila Monster (1959) star Don Sullivan (above) is returning in the remake — what the Backbrain has been told by the guys from the Franklin, Indiana film festival, The B Movie Celebration, is that the SyFy Channel monster movie, currently being filmed under the title Gila! is in need of Gila Monster chow.

They are seeking 100 extras to act in the film Gila! Set in Franklin Indiana, Gila!
tells the story of a small Mid-West town that’s being ravaged by a giant mutated gila monster. (Hey! It happens all the time!) A scene to be shot in Franklin at Franklin college is a typically period sock hop that takes place at the closing of the film. (If you don’t know what a “sock hop” is, check out the 1959 version, or any number of 1950s teen flicks…)

“We are shooting 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM December 16th at the Fitness center in Franklin college in Franklin Indiana,” our correspondent told us. “We are looking for extras to dress in jeans, white t-shirt (plain) and running shoes.”

So, want to get eaten by a giant Gila Monster? Head for the Franklin college Fitness Center and you can be on the menu! The address is: The Franklin College Fitness Center, Grizzly Drive, Franklin, Indiana.

For more on the remake, see this previous Backbrain article.

The Return of Don Sullivan

At this stage we don’t know what kind of role original Giant Gila Monster star Don Sullivan has in the remake — or whether his ukelele will make a cameo appearance or even have some “lines” of its own — but it’s great to see an old veteran return to the screen in a remake of what may be his most famous — or infamous — role — 50 years on.

Don Sullivan (and ukelele) at Monster Bash 2008, where he was a guest

The whole thing is rather like the return to the screen of James Best in the remake of his own low-budget exploitation classic, The Killer Shrews, also from 1959 — Return of the Killer Shrews (US-2012; dir. Steve Latshaw). In fact, in a further synchronicity, the production company for both original The Killer Shrews and The Giant Gila Monster films had intended them to be released as part of a double feature. Maybe the remakes will play together in a double one of these days!

For completeness’ sake, the final cast of Gila! consists of Brian Gross, Madeline Voges, Christine De Rosa, Jesse Janzen, Terence Knox (seen below as the Sheriff), Kelli Maroney, Gerard Pauwels, Rich Komenich and, of course, Don Sullivan.

In the Gallery below there are a bunch of on-location production pictures, courtesy of producer/screenwriter Bill Dever.

Gallery:

• Addendum: We’ve now been told that there will be no actual reptiles involved in the creation of the giant gila monster. The monster will, contrary to previous reports, be made via digital FX.

Source: Bill Dever via Avery Guerra

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The Backbrain mentioned it back in 2008. Kaiju Search-Robot Avery (in that squeaky mechanised voice of his) commented:

Remember this? We thought it might’ve been the trailer for David “The Rock” Nelson’s films, “Killer Cicadas” and “Attack Of The Giant Cicadas”, which are still forthcoming … Well, we know now that it wasn’t, huh? It’s still a faux trailer for a non-existent film but all of our enthusiasm, plus the endless commenters on the vid’s YouTube page and the director’s love for classic 50′s atomic monster flicks, has convinced the director to expand on it. He hopes to turn it into a feature film and is still attempting to secure funding. Any interested investors should contact him through his two websites [linked below]. Awesome, huh?

Awesome? Sure! Director Jeff Barklage has provided us with some neat images and new test footage that looks like it came straight from a 1950s low-budget exploitation studio — actually it looks better than the output of many original films of this kind.

First off, here are some new miniature effects shots that Barklage and his crew have been shooting for their retro creature feature about “giant insects attacking mankind, what else?” [Note: If the following video doesn't run on this page, go here to view it.]

He explained: “I shot this with my RED ONE camera… .yet went totally old school in the way it was shot: real living cicadas crawling on and around miniature set pieces I constructed, shot outdoors using real backgrounds and skies in a forced-perspective manner to integrate the miniatures into reality and to meld the illusion together. They were also overcranked to give a sense of scale in the insect’s motion.”

Like this….

Check out more of the great production shots in the Gallery below.

Links:

• Official website: www.barklage.com
• Agent: TDN ARTISTS
• online reel
• Vimeo Reel

Source: Jeff Barklage via Avery Guerra

Gallery:

In fact, in refers to an undertaking of filmmaker Joseph Nanni — the production of, in the first instance, a short teaser film that involves Shub-Niggurath, or “The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young”, who is a little-mentioned deity from the Cthulhu Mythos of New England horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft. The second part of the project is more ambitious: to make of full-length version of the teaser.

So what is Shub-Niggurath?

In the Backbrain article A Lovecraftian Invasion 1: Dirt Dauber, we drew attention to a film that also references that particular deity, though in a quite different way. Nevertheless it would be worth your while to go and read the article, because it includes information on Shub-Niggurath and speculations relating to her, and I don’t intend to repeat it all here. So, off you go! We’ll still be here when you get back.

The following image is a visualisation of Shub-Niggurath by “verreaux“. It attempts to capture both the Satanic “black goat” aspect of the name and the vaguer descriptions of Lovecraft’s appropriation of the epithet.

Writer/director Joseph Nanni’s “Black Goat” takes a similar approach to the depiction of Shub-Niggurath. The atmospheric landscape, with its ghostly tree-lines and the ritualistic elements are all designed to create the sort of dread that is a characteristic quality of Lovecraft’s work.

Synopsis:

Jacques Cowan is what the French call “a runner of the woods.” He may be a foreigner in the new world but Jacques quickly learned the ways of the native people, their language, their routes, and their skills. But he didn’t leave his life in another land for adventure, freedom, and wealth — he had much more in mind than trading pelts and cheating death. Jacques had listened intently to the stories that had crossed the ocean, extraordinary tales of mystical creatures and unknown forces. Black Goat finds Jacques mid-hunt, as he closes in on what others thought was a legend. What he doesn’t realize is that the legend is on a hunt of its own.

Check out the teaser/short film for yourself:

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Some Production Shots:

Adam Wilson as Jacques

Attacked by “green-screen” tentacles!

Next step is the full-on production of the feature-length film (which will, one assumes, involve a LOT more sloshing around in the snowbound landscape). Nanni explained: “We’re currently in development and have a rather major distributor working with us. We haven’t talked cast yet, although Adam Wilson (Manson, Ending The Eternal) is locked in to play the lead. Production design has started, but I still may reach out to some Lovecraft luminaries for concept design.”

One such “luminary” is already on board. Lovecraft artist Dave Carson will be (as Nanni puts it) “helping us realize some Elder God nastiness for the upcoming feature Black Goat.” Check out Carson’s work here.

Below is one of his earlier renditions of Shub-Niggurath:

Nanni also noted that Guillermo del Toro called the trailer “impeccable” and said, “I love Black Goat. I cannot say it enough.”

Anyway, going on the quality of the “teaser” short, a feature-length version of The Black Goat is something to look forward to. It might not be a replacement for Del Toro’s abandoned multi-million-dollar At the Mountains of Madness, but it may very well be a more-than-decent piece of Lovecraftian cinema.

• Source: Joseph Nanni via Avery Guerra; Official blog; website; IMDb entry.
• Previous “Lovecraft Invasion” articles.

King Kong‘s been done, once in 1976, but more recently in spectacular fashion by Peter Jackson (2005). Godzilla‘s been done (though really it was more like a remake of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms) and is about to be done again, hopefully more Godzilla-worthy. These are the big guns. There’s even been talk of a remake of Them! the giant ant flick, though little follow-up information has been forthcoming. Gorgo received not a remake but a short-film sequel, in Waiting for Gorgo. But again, the films these two were based on exist somewhere up the top of the monstrous heap.

There are, however, a plethora of rather woeful giant monster films that have an enthusiastic fan following who would welcome seeing their favourites tarted up for the new millennium. One pretty well from the bottom of the heap is The Giant Gila Monster (US-1959; dir. Ray Kellogg). Fun but — sorry, guys — pretty bad when looked at in terms of grander cinematic qualities. Which makes it, I would have thought, a prime candidate.

It seems The Indy Film Co-op has taken the gila monster by the claws and has decided to give the “classic” B-film a much-needed revamp. Principle photography begins on 1 December (tomorrow). We’re told that it will be in colour, though done as a period piece set in the 1950s. Co-producer Bill Dever and co-director Jim Wynorski revealed that “The monster will be a combination of practical FX, a live lizard and CGI!”*

Playboy Playmate Julie McCullough will be contributing her … presence, along with Terence Knox, Matt Austin, Ellen Kingston and Jenna Ruiz.

Bill Dever and Jim Nielsen are producing**, with Tony Randel (Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Fist of the North Star) and Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall, Not of This Earth, The Return of the Swamp Thing, Dinocroc vs. Supergator and a million other things, including a heap of unmentionable soft-porn parodies) sharing the director’s chair.

Kellogg’s original film notably featured a real lizard blown up (metaphorically speaking) to giant size, trashing toy trains and other vehicles, a heroic teenage Steve McQueen type who has to save the day with a hot-rod and a sexy girlfriend, and lots of 1950s rock ‘n’ roll. Check out the trailer:

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As soon as we hear more, we’ll let you know.

Meanwhile, if you’re feeling at a loss, you can watch the entire original The Giant Gila Monster on the Cinema of the Backbrain. Here is your virtual TICKET!

Addendum:

* A live reptile will no longer be used for the FX.
** Bill Dever is now the producer of the film. He is also writer on it.

Source: Bill Dever and Jim Wynorski via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood.