The Haunting of Hill House

Genre: Horror/Thriller.

Studio: Dreamworks SKG.
Production Company: Roth/Arnold Prods.

Project Phase: Greenlighted.

Who's In It: Liam Neeson (Jeffrey Marrow); Lili Taylor (Nell); Catherine Zeta-Jones (Theo); Owen Wilson (Luke).
Who's Making It: Jan De Bont (Director); David Self (Screenwriter); Colin Wilson, Susan Arnold, Donna Roth (Producers); Eugenio Zanetti (Production Designer); Ellen Mirojnick (Costume Designer); Michael Kahn (Editor); John Frazier (Special Effects Supervisor); Phil Tippett (Visual Effects Supervisor); Jerry Goldsmith (Musical Score); based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

Premise: Four people are drawn to a forbidding old mansion in New England for a mysterious psychological test. Inside the mansion's dark hallways and dusty rooms, an ominous presense intrudes into Professor Jeffrey Marrow's experiment. Before they know what's happening the professor and his three subjects become the latest victims of Hill House.

Release Date: Summer 1999.

Comments: This film marks a departure from De Bont's earlier work: his two Speed films and Twister were jammed with credits-to-credits action sequences. After Speed 2 ran his batting record aground, this project could send him in back to the top of the A-list of Hollywood directors.

Rumors: Unknown.

Scoop Feedback:

[Page draft submitted by the haunted columnist 'Deadpool'.]

December 1, 1998... Shooting began yesterday in Los Angeles, while future filming is scheduled to take place on location in England. ['Deadpool'.]

December 9, 1998... Jerry Goldsmith has been hired to compose the musical score of this film. [Scoop provided by 'Puck28' and 'C'.]

January 3, 1999...The Thin Red Line: "Saw the teaser trailer for Hill House before The Thin Red Line. Looks pretty bad. Terrible CGI effect of a face forming out of the front of the house. The trailer subsequently recieved a series of boos and hisses from the audience. Looks like Jan DeBont has another winner." [Anonymous.]

January 12, 1999... Sometimes the memory of script readers can be a dangerous thing to possess...

"I saw the name David Self listed as screenwriter of this film on your site. I remembered trying to read a script by him called Firestorm, about fighting oil fires in Kuwait. It was an absolutely unreadable piece of shit. Just awful. I gave up after page 40 because I had no idea what was happening and couldn't tell any of the characters apart. I can't believe he was hired on this major movie. How?" Well, to be fair we haven't read any of the script for Hill House, so we can't give you our review of Self's work. But Firestorm was in development at one time, with Eddie Murphy attached to it. Now...it sits in our limbo category on this site. [Critical commentary sent in by anonymous.]



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