It looks like a happy ending is in the cards for Don Coscarelli’s adaptation of “John Dies At The End,” which is great news for fans of the director or the book or just plain weird movies.
“John Dies At The End,” or “JDATE” for short, has been on my mind the last few days as I’ve been reading “This Book Is Full Of Spiders,” the sequel to the novel by David Wong that inspired Coscarelli’s film in the first place. Having seen the movie, it’s hard not to picture the cast of that film going through the rather insane paces of the sequel, and I’d love for this film to eventually do well enough that Coscarelli gets the chance to do the follow-up.
Since its premiere at Sundance this year, Coscarelli’s been fine-tuning the film, and it’s gone through some fine edits as well as some work on the effects to bring the last act of the film to life. Now Magnolia/Magnet has stepped up to distribute the film, which is great news because one way or another, you’ll have access to the film.
I know some people who are still upset by the way Magnet blurs the line between a theatrical window and a home video window, but the great thing about this new distribution model is that the home video side of things has such wide reach that movies that would otherwise never play in someone’s neighborhood are now available to them pretty much the same exact time people get to see them in the theaters in NY and LA.
“John Dies At The End” has a great Paul Giamatti performance in it, and he serves as a sort of framing device to tell the story of David Wong (Chase Williamson) and his best friend John Cheese (Rob Mayes) as they come into contact with the mysterious drug called “Soy Sauce,” allowing them to see reality in a way that suddenly draws them into an inter-dimensional conflict that may affect the very fabric of the universe. Clancy Brown’s got a fun supporting part as Dr. Marconi, a New Age guru who may in fact know the truth about the universe, and the entire film has a lovely weird unbalanced sensibility, funny and dark and dangerous all at once.
It’s exciting that the year has been framed by this movie. The rough cut that screened at Sundance gives way to the finished version which will screen at Toronto as the closing night film for Midnight Madness. The film’s VOD window will be in December, with a theatrical engagement set for early 2013.
We’ll have more on the film between now and release.