1 month ago
EXCLUSIVE: QWGmire, nan independent accumulation and movie financing institution founded by Molly C. Quinn, Matthew M. Welty, and Elan Gale, has entered into a improvement and financing pact pinch Taka Ichise, nan famed Japanese shaper who was integral to bringing J-horror to world prominence, pinch titles for illustration Ring and The Grudge, successful nan precocious ’90s and early 2000s.
Under nan pact, Ichise and QWGmire will create and finance a caller slate of scary films for nan U.S. market. Already, they person 4 projects successful improvement pinch an oculus toward shooting complete nan adjacent 18 months.
The collaboration marks Ichise’s return to nan American marketplace for nan first clip since Nicolas Pesce’s reboot of The Grudge for Screen Gems successful 2019. Specifics arsenic to projects successful improvement stay nether wraps. But nan volition is to create a caller procreation of scary films that tie from nan unsettling power, psychological intensity, and cinematic ambition that made J-horror a defining unit successful world genre filmmaking.
“Since I was a child, I person ever loved nan emotion of sitting successful a movie theatre and being genuinely amazed by what unfolds connected screen,” Ichise told us. “With this caller partnership, we want to create that benignant of acquisition again done stories that enactment pinch audiences agelong aft they time off nan theater. I americium excited to activity pinch QWGmire because they stock nan aforesaid passion for bold, unforgettable filmmaking, and I look guardant to bringing these caller projects to life together.”
QWGmire’s Gale said, “Taka Ichise crafted my favourite mysteries and authored galore of my nightmares. The opportunity to thief create a caller procreation of scary films for a caller procreation of viewers is beyond my wildest dreams. We are honored to collaborate pinch him and cannot hold to stock his caller visions pinch nan world.”
Ichise is known for championing atmospheric, psychologically driven scary films intertwining folklore and modern anxieties that person transcended their roots successful Japan to go world sensations, generating astir $1 cardinal astatine nan world container office. His movie Ring, directed by Hideo Nakata, centered connected a cursed videotape that kills viewers 7 days aft watching it. Gore Verbinski directed nan classical 2000 U.S. remake starring Naomi Watts, which spawned galore sequels, nan astir caller being Paramount’s Rings successful 2017. Directed by Takashi Shimizu, his movie Ju-On: The Grudge centers connected a vengeful tone calved from a convulsive decease that infects anyone who enters a haunted space. It besides spawned galore films for a world audience, opening pinch nan Shimizu-helmed The Grudge, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, successful 2004. Ichise is represented by UTA.
Repped by WME, QWGmire’s caller credits see Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King adjustment The Life of Chuck, released by Neon, Molly Gordon’s Oh, Hi!, and nan recently released Normal, starring and co-written by Bob Odenkirk.
