Soon after Avengers: Age of Ultron slammed into theaters, writer-director Joss Whedon took a much-needed hiatus from the film industry at large, quietly retreating from Twitter in the face of asinine criticism and abuse. Thanks to his impassioned Save the Day campaign, though, Whedon is beginning to rear his head once more – thank the heavens – even expressing his burning desire to direct a Star Wars movie.
Buried in that same interview with Complex were some fleeting details regarding what Whedon is currently working on, and though it’s unclear if he will go on to helm the project itself, it immediately piques our curiosity for blending horror with World War II.
First up, Whedon revealed that he is, in fact, “in the middle of a screenplay that I am extremely passionate about, and I am going to be extremely passionate about it again on November 9. It’s definitely a departure from the things that I’m known for. It’s as dark as anything I’ve ever written.”
Whedon, who has become actively involved in the ongoing presidential campaign via his Save the Day initiative, shed a little more light on the script as the interview wore on, describing the as-yet-untitled project as a “historical fiction/horror movie.”
Yeah, because I just said, ‘OK, id, your turn.’ I would write scenes and be like, ‘Oh this is great! I shouldn’t be allowed near people.’ It’s a historical fiction slash horror movie about a time when the world was going insane, World War II. I got to tell you, I was in Germany and Poland doing research for this movie and I was seeing so many parallels [to the U.S.]. And I know it’s a shopworn thing to compare the orange guy to the little guy with the mustache, but you see things, indelible things in terms of propaganda, the state of the country, and the parallels are eerie as fuck.
A chilling horror project set during the throes of WWII sounds more in line with Guillermo del Toro’s M.O., but the fact that Joss Whedon pitches it to be “as dark as anything [he’s] ever written” is enough to turn heads and raise eyebrows. Stay tuned for more.
