Haunted Newsreel

Over at the Classic Horror Film Boards (no relation to Classic-Horror.com), Tom Weaver reported that Ben Chapman, the actor who performed as the Creature in the on-land sequences of Creature from the Black Lagoon, died this morning (February 21st) of undisclosed causes. He was 82.

Ben's death has particular meaning here at Classic-Horror, because he was one of the first interviews we ran, all the way back in 2002. You can read it here.(read more...)

Roy Scheider, the actor who famously exclaimed "We're gonna need a bigger boat" in Jaws (1975), died Sunday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital. He was 75 years old. The cause of death has not been disclosed, but Scheider had been undergoing treatment for multiple myleoma for the past two years at the University's Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy. Scheider made his feature debut in a horror film, Del Tenney's 1962 vengeance-from-beyond-the-grave romp The Curse of the Living Corpse. Between Oscar nods for his turns in 1971's The French Connection and 1979's All That Jazz, he appeared in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster shark flick Jaws (1975) and its immediate sequel, Jeannot Szwarc's Jaws 2 (1978). In 1991, Scheider played the mysterious Dr. Benway in David Cronenberg's 1993 adaptation of William Burrough's Naked Lunch.(read more...)

Variety.com reports that Robert Englund's horror project The Vij (previously reported as The Viy) is set to go with Englund in the director's chair and Christopher Lee in a lead role. The film is based on Nikolaj Gogol's novel, which follows a young priest who is manipulated by an evil genie into committing murder and falling in love with a witch who is not who she appears to be. The book was previously adapted as 1968's Viy and it also served as an inspiration for Mario Bava while he developed Black Sunday (1960).(read more...)

Universal's remake of The Wolf Man is currently sans a director, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Mark Romanek has left the production due to disputes over the final cost of the film. Although the film is budgeted at a not-unimpressive $100 million, Romanek was requesting more money. Since Universal is aiming for an audience-limiting R-rating for the film, his requests were denied. The studio is currently seeking a new director, but due to the Writer's Strike, anybody coming on to the production will be unable to do any rewrites to the script. They will have to work with the screenplay developed by Romanek and Sleepy Hollow scribe Andrew Kevin Walker as-is.

Stars Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, as well as makeup artist Rick Baker, are still attached to the film. The Wolf Man follows a man (Del Toro) who returns home only to be bitten by a werewolf.