Guillermo Del Toro Teams With Angry Films On ‘The Bloody Benders’ Spec
EXCLUSIVE: Guillermo del Toro’s Necropia Entertainment and Angryfilms’ Susan Montford and Don Murphy are teaming to option The Bloody Benders, a spec script by Adam Robitel. The scribe, a protege of Bryan Singer, based his script on the true story of the Benders, a husband, wife, son and daughter who ran a hotel in Kansas on the outskirts of the prairie in 1873. It might have been a precursor for the Bates Motel: As many as 20 guests checked in, and never checked out. The guests were robbed and murdered by their hosts, and the killers were never punished. ”It is a beautiful and brutal yet poetic story, based on a very famous case,” del Toro told me. “If you consider America back then, it was a great transition to modernity, but on the prairie, these were huge landscapes where people traveled and days and weeks on end would pass without communication. So nothing happens, then there is this brutal murder, and then it’s back to pastoral peace and quiet. That rhythm was very attractive to me.”
Del Toro just finished shooting the Legendary Pictures tentpole Pacific Rim, and will be doing post-production for the next year on the film. He said he will work on a polish with Robitel, but felt he and his Angryfilm partners would want to move quickly to set a director and not wait for him. “The time was so lax back then that the sheriff would show up and say, ‘What is that odor coming through the vent that smells like decomposing flesh?’ and the Benders said they didn’t know. And the sheriff said, ‘Would you mind if I take a look…tomorrow?’ Nobody was in a hurry, and that is a big reason why they got away with it.”
Montford said she liked the love story aspect, and Murphy called the script “the perfect mixture of genres — Western, horror, thriller and love story. The duo most recently produced Real Steel.
As far as I’m concerned, I hope all this is a warmup for the other film del Toro is collaborating on with the Angryfilms partners, At The Mountains Of Madness. That film had Tom Cruise ready to star at Universal until the film’s plug was pulled because the director could not guarantee the studio that the film would not be R rated, and the studio found that too risky for a $150 million film — even one that was going to be shot 3D with Avatar‘s James Cameron producing. They are all determined to get the film made elsewhere.
“It feels like Prometheus is a very similar proposition to our film,” said del Toro, giving another reason to root for Ridley Scott’s film this summer. Robitel is repped by APA, del Toro by WME and Exile Entertainment.
Gotta love Guillermo. The man seemingly doesn’t let any thing get in the way of his passion project. I have never met the man, but I imagine that he’s probably the coolest person ever.
Brian, I have met Guillermo and yes, he really is very, very cool. There was no ego, just a very talented guy with stories to tell.
Adam is a ridiculously talented writer, THE BLOODY BENDERS is an amazing read, and this is going to make one hell of a film!
This might be based on real events, but I sure hope that experienced comics hound producer Don Murphy doesn’t think he can get away with not simultaneously licensing Rick Geary’s graphic novel “The Bloody Benders,” about these very events, and without which I doubt Adam Robitel would know these events happened. Considering Murphy’s standing in the comics-to-film world, it’s going to be impossible to claim he’s never heard of Rick Geary or read his book, and thus difficult to avoid a lawsuit here, so my advice is to dial up Rick before he finds out that they’ve gone to script without optioning his book first.
Does Geary own Lizzie Borden, Jack the Ripper and John Wilkes Booth? I think you should never give out legal advice to anyone you dancing macaroon.
hey don. how’s your stupid hat?
Hey Cheech, I’ve been to Del Toro’s house- he has four orginal covers from the Geary true crime series. He’s a fan. Do you think Geary owns the Lizzie Borden story or the Ax Man of New Orleans story? He probably read about them the same place Robitel did.
Hey Cheech, I am working with Murphy and Montford on a project. They are the most hard working, honest people I have met in Hollywood. They’ve been going through some tough health times recently, but their taste in material is impeccable.
Hey Cheech you should learn what you are talking about before typing something. It makes you look super dumb.
Sounds a lot like Real Steel. Looking forward to it.
Who represents the estate of Procrustes? Better ping them, too.
Actually, Adam read about The Bloody Benders on Wikipedia because he was looking at true-life historical murders for inspiration. I remember him calling me after reading the Wiki story and being fascinated by it. Yes, I’m obviously a friend of Adam’s, but I saw where this idea started from (the pages of Wiki…not someone’s graphic novel.) There are also a ton of historical stories about The Bloody Benders, but Adam found a unique way in to the story.
AFTER he wrote the script, he reached out to Don Murphy.
I know cyberland isn’t a place known for congratulating people for their success. But getting ones facts straight, before sullying the names of others, would, at the very least, be a nice alternative.
Every other week I’m reading what Guillermo’s attached to next. Would be nice if he actually, I don’t know, MADE A MOVIE
Wow. This sounds like the usual kind of underwhelming project Del Toro claims he’s involved with just to pad out his development slate and get his carcass in print, only for it never to happen.
This man is an albatross, Angry Films Guys. He’s the Kevin Smith of the horror genre. Over-exposed, over-hyped, and under-talented.
How is Scott’s Prometheus even remotely like one of GDT’s movies? This filmmaker will say anything to get a soundbite.
Uh, “Prometheus” and “At the Mountains of Madness” are both science-fiction horror stories about a team of scientific explorers who voyage into uncharted territory and discover an ancient alien civilisation which created humanity and now threatens to destroy it.
If you think that’s anything other than a great big whopping similarity, you’re an idiot.
Congrats to Adam. Benders was a long gestating project of his. He’s a great emerging writer.