Several sites this week posted the first clip from the keenly-anticipated Vincenzo Natali thriller Splice. While it’s nice to finally see any footage from this new movie from the director of Cube, it would really be great to actually see the extended 5-minute trailer that screened at Fright Fest in the UK recently. Here’s hoping we get to see more of this work before it finally arrives next year.
A preview of Vincenzo Natali's forthcoming movie 'Splice' will screen at this month's Frightfest film festival in the UK.
For we die-hard fans of Cube director Vincenzo Natali (and yes, I am working on a history of the Cube series, thank you for asking), the coming of his latest work, Splice, is the equivalent of a much-loved band finally coming to your town. While the film itself may not see the light of day until next year, word now comes from the director himself that a 5-minute preview of Splice will be screening at the UK’s Frightfest film festival in just a few days (Aug. 27-31).
Why should we be excited about Splice?
Since his feature film debut with Cube in 1997, Natali has demonstrated a passion for using stunning visuals (and in the case of Cube, a fair amount of blood) to explore complex ideas, and Splice appears to be no exception.
Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley star as two scientists who create a new form of life, which quickly gets out of hand. In the wrong hands, we could be looking at just another monster-on-the-loose flick. But Natali has yet to make a path-of-least-resistance movie to cash a paycheck. Look for some interesting images to underscore some thought-provoking ideas in Splice.
You can check out a detailed history of Natali’s work in The New Horror Handbook.
Not a bad start: nearly 1,000 words on the director of that groundbreaking 1997 Kafkaesque tale Cube. Admittedly it’s a chapter that is a tad difficult to write when his next film, Splice, appears to be a promising work of even greater imagination, yet won’t arrive until 2009, after The New Horror Handbook is published.
For those who were bowled over by Vincenzo Natali’s 1997 feature Cube, prepare yourself for that director’s next foray into the SCI-FI/horror realm: Splice.
The film, starring Adrien Brody [The Village, The Jacket, the forthcoming Giallo] and Sarah Polley [Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake], follows the exploits of two rebellious scientists who create a woman-animal hybrid, and the psychological drama that plays out between the three.
Like Ginger Snaps and many other films covered in the pages of The New Horror Handbook, Splice, due out in 2009, seems poised to utilize trappings of the horror genre to address larger societal issues — a prime quality of the “new horror” movement. Natali is particularly adept at infusing stock cinematic situations (e.g., a handful of characters trapped in a structure) with insights into trends and events that impact us all.
Stay tuned to this blog for highlights from my interview with Mr. Natali. And for the complete behind-the-scenes look at Cube, order your copy of the Handbook today!
