Can it really be 14 years since Michele Soavi's DELLAMORTE, DELLAMORE (known Stateside as CEMETERY MAN) was released?! I remember seeing it in New York at a really nice theater on West 57th Street which was first called the Lincoln Art Theater, the Biograph, and last of all the Angelika 57 among others and is now a (ugh) supermarket.
Soavi is no stranger to horror. He began his career as an actor in bit parts in Italian films by Umberto Lenzi, Lucio Fulci, and Dario Argento while also working behind the scenes as an assistant director, personal assistant and screenwriter. His directorial debut came in 1986 in the form of DELIRIA (better known as STAGE FRIGHT), one of the best Italian horror films ever made. He followed it up with the atmospheric THE CHURCH and the silly THE SECT before making what is widely considered to be his best film, DELLAMORTE, DELLAMORE, based upon Tiziano Sclavi's Dylan Dog comic. Since then, Soavi has worked almost exclusively in Italian television. Those of you who follow the genre diligently have all wondered the same thing I have will Michele Soavi ever return to making horror films? Fangoria has reported that this appears to be the case as Soavi is due to be in London and Romania this summer shooting a new film called CATACOMBS CLUB.
The film has been written by Charles McKeown who co-wrote Terry Gilliam's THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN, a film that Soavi also worked on and was featured in briefly. CATACOMBS CLUB is about a wealthy Russian husband and wife who are building a casino/disco in London's West End. The wife, who is deaf and therefore unable to properly sing, wants to be the headliner! Her husband gets a singing teacher to help her. Unfortunately, an accident leads to the teacher falling through a recently discovered gateway to another world populated by strange creatures whose environment was covered over by the invasion of the Romans over 2000 years ago. These creatures are oblivious to modern society's existence hundreds of feet above their world. Soavi said that the film, like THE CHURCH, has a flashback scene at the beginning to ancient times. Alina Nadelea is confirmed as being part of the cast. Conchita Airoldi is one of the producers on the film. She actually played Carol Peterson in Sergio Martino's TORSO under the name of Cristina Airoldi.
This is something to look forward to in 2009!
