After wowing audiences with his stop-motion animated horror film ParaNorman three years ago, Sam Fell is ready to make his live-action debut with Croak. Switching formats but remaining firmly in the same genre, the project is said to be one peppered with supernatural goodness – and fine actors – with The Hollywood Reporter revealing that Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson, Jemaine Clement and Stanley Tucci are all on board to star.
Supplanting Kodi Smit-McPhee in Fell’s comedy feature, Butterfield – best known for his roles in Ender’s Game and Martin Scorsese’s delightful Hugo – plays a young grim reaper, haunting the everyday folk as he controls the flow of souls from our world to the next. Beyond that, there’s really not an awful lot to go on, though it seems safe to assume that the likes of Anderson, Clement and Tucci will form the living component of the director’s new picture.
Indeed, it is next month’s American Film Market event that could prove crucial for Fell’s Croak, as the project looks to lock down distributors before getting the cameras rolling. Penned by Lucy Moore, Croak – which was initially hatched as Teen Reaper – would have marked a ParaNorman reunion had Kodi Smit-McPhee remained attached, though we have every confidence that Butterfield can turn in a convincing performance as the harbinger of death.
It’s still to early to peg down a release window for Sam Fell’s Croak. In terms of the actors assembled though, Anderson can be next seen reprising her iconic role as detective Scully for next year’s X-Files TV reboot early next year, whereas Butterfield has Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children on the horizon, too.
