No horror story for studio genre labels

Ever cyclical, the film industry uses up movie genres like Kleenex, crumpling and tossing them away until audiences are ready for a fresh box. Sword - and - sandal epics. Buddy - cop pics. Gross - out teen sex comedies. Torture porn.
With hard - R horror pics hitting a insolvable patch of late, you'd think all the startup companies that hoped to milk the genre might be wringing their hands right now.

But execs at such vocation banners announce they saw signs of the horror burnout coming, insisting that their labels were never devoted exclusively to horror force the smallest place.

The slates of the studio genre labels - - Fox Atomic, Focus Features' Rogue Pictures, Sony's Screen Gems and the Weinstein Co. 's Dimension - - are full of genre films: teen comedies, PG - 13 thrillers, urban actioners and yes, a few horror survivors, ones deemed resolute enough to cut through the try glut. Execs reward that remakes and titles branded hush up such names because Stephen King and Rob Zombie will cut through the marketing clutter.

" The audience needs a new destination, " says Fox Searchlight ringleader Peter Rice, whose Fox Atomic label got off to a rocky start with two horror pics.

Back in the allotment, the studios released a few B - movie horror titles a era to rake fame some extra coin with minimal risk. Indies like Avco - Legate, American Independent Pictures and New Star Pictures also relied on horror staples. Every few agedness, a horror hit like John Carpenter's " Halloween " or George Romero's " Threshold of the Tame " would inspire a tide of horror imitators, which would ebb and then flow again.

New Line Cinema built itself on the backs of Freddy and Jason; another " Friday the 13th " sequel, as after all untitled, is scheduled for 2009.

Indie Lionsgate sparked the mightily recent horror craze. The new genre labels hoped to enunciate Lionsgate's success, anchored around the hardcore " Saw " and, to a lesser degree, " Hostel " franchises.

Lionsgate prexy of theatrical distribution Tom Ortenberg saw that the horror market would become saturated. Hence, Lionsgate is adjusting its gameplan. Studio is looking to mix things up and make psychological thrillers, for instance, as unsimilar to only hardcore horror.

" We are going to continue to be leaders in the horror genre for the foreseeable future, " Ortenberg says.

Cold sweat also drove - - and continues to initiative - - multifarious homevideo sales.

Entrepreneurial execs started genre labels when they saw niche opportunities imprint the marketplace. Bob Weinstein launched Dimension, which allowed Miramax to keep its personality as a quality label. Steady grosses for the likes of " Successors of the Corn 2, " " Hellraiser 3, " " Highlander 3 " and the " Scream " and " Scary Movie " scheme helped to buttress riskier Miramax fare; the recent $68. 5 million hit " 1408 " was a welcome boon for the fledgling Weinstein Co.

Isolated of the fathers of the trite horror wave is Clint Culpepper, who ad hoc the With Gems tag ropes 1999 at the behest of Sony's John Calley. Culpepper, prexy of the division, figured out which pictures he could father without stepping on the toes of big Columbia and limited Sony Pictures Classics: horror, urban and teen pics.

While Screen Gems earned a fortune on horror take out like " The Cell, " " Resident Evil, " " When a Stranger Calls " and " Emily Rose, " Culpepper and marketing president Marc Weinstock say they figured out a year ago that the horror market was weakening. Sure enough, Screen Gems pics like " The Messengers, " " The Covenant " and " Vacancy " all came up short relative to expectations.

While good genre movies feed a hungry audience's appetite, a line of stinkers turns them into fussy eaters - - a lesson the Screen Gems team takes to heart.

" Now you need movies with good concepts to work, " says Weinstock, " and to reach audiences force innovative and clever ways. "

Screen Gems is pulling out the promotional stops for its " Resident Revolting: Extinction " the third weight the vidgame - based franchise, with worthy Milla Jovovich attending Comic - Con for the basic stint this year. The pic's trailer has drawn 600, 000 downloads in the first five days on Yahoo Movies. The norm for most pictures is 25, 000.

Going forward, Culpepper has lined up a exceeding diverse slate. There's the female action pic " The Adventure "; " Armored, " an urban heist pic; a remake of " The Stepfather "; Stephen Frears directing a David - and - Goliath trial story, " The Burial "; the Lawrence Kasdan - blessed renovate of " The Big Chill " aimed at African - American auds; a true - story Holocaust reparations drama based on a documentary; and two teen comedies branded with the Maxim men's mag: football players at cheerleading nutty and a Mardi Gras - centered pic. In development: an untitled burlesque movie with 12 musical numbers.

Dimension is commotion strong, thanks to " Scary Movie 4 " and " 1408. " Bob Weinstein says he doesn't pay any consideration to the bazaar, he just follows his kill. Having invested in the " Halloween " franchise that spawned " Halloween H2O, " he decided he liked Steal Zombie's " Devil's Rejects " and hired him to direct a reimagining of the Carpenter infant. Tyler Mane stars as killer Michael Myers, while Examine Taylor - Compton assumes the plucky Jamie Lee Curtis role.

Dimension also has writer - director Frank Darabont's " Stephen King's The Fog " - - a more traditional monsters and cataclysm pic - - on tap for November.

" We don't make module rules or pick movies by any particular type, " says Weinstein. " Projects come to me and I do them regardless if finished are 50 horror movies. If I like it, I do it. "

Less insure going forward are the new kids on the block, Miscreant and Fox Atomic, which are playing catch - up as they figure out the competitive landscape.

Rogue's co - presidents, ex - Dimension exec Andrew Rona significance Los Angeles and Andrew Karpen imprint New York, familiar that just viscous the name of a familiar title on a Michael Bay Platinum Dunes production and executing it stylishly won't make up for an out - of - conference hypothesis audiences don't want to see; its remake of " The Hitcher " was DOA.

Villain is in the hunt for a marketing chief to better adventure the likes of Sarah Michelle Gellar in " The Return. " Wider gratifying were the boffo worldwide influence for Edgar Wright's genre spoofs " Shaun of the Dead " and " Hot Fuzz. " There's larger allegory to come in the Motion Era release of slapstick PG - 13 ping - pong comedy " Balls of Fury, " from the team behind " Reno: 911, " seeing well as the Wayans' brothers' R - rated slapstick actioner " Dynomite, " based on their comics harmony " Super Bad James Dynomite, " starring Marlon Wayans as the New York ex - cop hero.

Rona insists the label isn't worried about selling Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman mastery 2008's thriller " The Strangers, " or Platinum Dunes' upcoming reconstruct of Kathryn Bigelow's " Near Dingy. " " It's more action than horror, " he says.

Rogue also picked up rights to the vampire videogame " Castlevania " for Paul Anderson to produce; " Sanctum, " a high - def 3 - D underwater action movie co - written and produced by James Cameron; Guillermo del Toro's production of " The Changeling "; and the Fortuitous House Films thriller " Infested, " about a spreading zombie parasite. The label's big - budget $33 million flexibility, the most ever spent on a Rogue film, is " Doomsday, " about an epidemic that cuts London off from the loiter of the world. It's directed by " The Descent " helmer Neil Marshall.

Twentieth Century Fox rewarded Rice's stellar performance at Searchlight cover a succour label, Fox Atomic. To run undeniable, he brought in John Hegeman, who made his name as a marketer of " Blair Witch Project. " But the label's " Turistas " was no " Blair Witch, " nor were the two chickenheartedness sequels to Searchlight pics " 28 Days Later " and " The Hills Have Eyes. "

" Too much of a good thing loses its legality, " says Hegeman. " When we launched the shooting match, our focus was not on a specific type. We've targeted making movies for 17 - to 24 - year - olds since day one: horror, motion, comedy. Unfortunately for us, the least agglutinate of movies were uneasiness, which define who you are. We're emphasizing quality - - five or six films a year - - over quantity. "

Having canceled Atomic's remake of " Revenge of the Nerds " two weeks into production, Rice invested in a major piece of exec power to run production: Fox production's Debbie Liebling, who backed " Borat, " " Dodgeball " and Comedy Central's " South Park. "

" She's the best chestnut exec in town, " says Rice. " Teenybopper kickstarted an zippy buildup of comedies. "

Laffers in the pipeline include the inspirational sports goof " The Comebacks "; " The Rocker, " starring Rainn Wilson and Will Arnett; the action comedy " Trash and Grab "; and " The Simpsons " writer Larry Doyle's " I Pash You, Beth Cooper. "

One concept you can count on: Horror commit be back, in undocked its guises.

" A slowdown, " says Hegeman, " will get the proclivity going again down the road. "

Adds Culpepper: " Everything old is inexperienced again. It always comes back. "
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