Director S. Craig Zahler turned heads and raised eyebrows late last year with his uber-violent western Bone Tomahawk – and it’s a genre mash-up that hasn’t gone unnoticed. For in an effort to resurrect dormant horror series Puppet Master, Di Bonaventura Pictures and Caliber Media have recruited the filmmaker to pen a script for the planned reboot.
Bearing the title Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, news of Zahler’s modern reimagining arrives by way of The Hollywood Reporter, revealing that those studios are gunning to hatch a new universe base on Charles Band’s cult horror franchise. The search for a director to take the reins is currently underway, but for now, Zahler will produce a script for the first entry in the rebooted series as he looks to “expand the mythology.”
Spanning 11 movies in total across its original run, Band’s unique blend of horror began life in 1989, centering on a ragtag group of puppets brought to life thanks to an ancient Egyptian spell. Pulling the strings on Di Bonaventura’s reboot, the report goes on to reveal that Zahler’s pitch for The Littlest Reich “follows a recently divorced young man who discovers a mint condition Blade doll in his deceased brother’s closet and plans to sell the toy at a convention in Oregon celebrating the 30th anniversary of the infamous Toulon Murders. All hell breaks loose at the Postville Lodge during the auction when a strange force animates all of the various puppets throughout the convention as they go on a bloody killing spree.”
Old-school horror fans can also take solace in the fact that Bonaventura Pictures and Caliber Media are eager to embrace practical horror effects for Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich. Now, it just needs to zero in on a director to steer the project into production.
