A new cinematic universe based on the works of Stan Lee is on the way. But you won’t find any superheroes in this one. Deadline brings word that Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov is teaming up with ZQ Entertainment and Lee’s POW! Entertainment to bring some of the late writer’s horror stories to the big screen.
The first order of business to develop new films based on Sawbones and Carnival of Killers. And if you’ve never heard of them, you’re not alone. Deadline describes these stories as “unexploited horror works,” but it isn’t clear if they were comics or if they were even published at all during Lee’s lifetime. Regardless, they promise to showcase the “darker side” of Lee’s storytelling ability.
Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, who co-directed the 2019 remake of Pet Sematary, are adapting Carnival of Killers. The story takes place during the Dust Bowl period of the 1930s and follows a young girl with psychic abilities who takes refuge with her mother in a traveling carnival. However, she soon learns that this carnival is ground zero for an alien invasion.
Pet Sematary co-writer Matt Greenberg, whose other credits include 1408 and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, is tackling Sawbones. That film will center on 12-year-old Alex Covin, who, while reading a mysterious comic book, is suddenly transported to the fictional world of a haunted Juvenile Detention Center. To make matters worse, the facility is crawling with demonic forces led by the titular homicidal entity. Faced with no other choice, Alex must find a way to defeat the creature in order to escape.
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“There is no other mastermind who has created more successful entertainment than Stan Lee,” said Bekmambetov. “I’m excited to bring to the screen the darker side of his creative genius and imagination.”
“Some fans may not know this, but Stan Lee wrote several horror comicbook series in the 1940s and 1950s before superhero comics became big in the 1960s,” added POW! president Gill Champion. “Stan relished revisiting the genre a few years ago when he wrote these stories, and we are excited to bring them to life with a director as visionary as Timur Bekmambetov. We think fans will be surprised to experience a darker side of Stan Lee that they’ve never witnessed before!”
Are you excited to see these stories come to life? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee
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