Last year, a new horror franchise took off with Bear: Blood and Honey. With the iconic bear now in the public domain, the film transformed Pooh and Piglet into two sinister slasher villains carving up postgraduate Christopher Robin and several university students. It performed as well as expected, but did well enough financially to launch both its own sequel and a larger universe – sorry, Poohunivers– so that more public domain characters get the horror treatment.
Blood and honey 2 already dropped this year, so now we have our first look at the whole “expanded universe” part of the thing. Classic characters Pinocchio and Peter Pan are set to headline their own films, both of which are currently selling out at Cannes, according to Variety. Pinocchio: unstrung The boy puppet will be welcomed into the Poohniverse “with flying colors”, says director Rhys Frake-Waterfield, who also directed both Pooh movies. The film is billed as a subversion of Carlo Collodi's classic 1883 book, and one that will lean more heavily on practical gore: one scene, according to Variety, will see the main character wearing the skin of one of his victims to “feel like a real boy.
In the meantime, Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare puts Martin Portlock (The cry of the wolf) in the title role, who went to kidnap Michael (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney), the younger brother of Wendy Darling (Megan Placito). She tries to save him with the help of Tinker Bell (Kit Green), who in this universe is a heroin addict convinced that it's actually pixie dust. Once you're done rolling your eyes, the cast is rounded out by Charity Kase as Captain Hook, and by Kierston Wareing, Nicholas Woodeson, Olumide Olorunfemi and Teresa Banham in currently undisclosed roles.
Like the Marvel films this attempts to emulate, Peter and Pin are getting solo films to prepare them for a bigger future in what's called the Twisted Childhood universe. The two characters will converge with Winnie the Pooh and Piglet in Poohniverse: the monsters gather in 2025, which will also feature characters like Sleeping Beauty and the Mad Hatter. The TCU intends to continue after the crossing, because a third Blood and honey is locked for 2026, while solo films for Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are also reportedly in the works. Yay?
At the time of writing, Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare is expected to be released later this year after production ends, while Pinocchio: unstrung will be released in 2025 before The monsters are gathering.
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