Dario Argento shoots a GIALLO with Liotta & Gallo

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Italian horror legend Dario Argento will shoot GIALLO as his next feature, a movie's who title and tone will be reminiscint of the Giallo genre which made the helmer's name in the 70's. His suspense Giallo movies like THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and THE CAT O'NINE TAILS would focus on heavy amounts of blood and gore with a heavy operatic tone and slasher film whodunit plots and sexual eroticism. They were films that were as exciting and fresh in the 70's as the Hammer Horror films playing in England and since the end of that decade they have quickly been dying out. Argento did return to the dead genre six years ago with SLEEPLESS but now comes word from Variety that he is going full-on homage with GIALLO, an English-language slasher film written by American scribes Jim Agnew and Sean Keller.

GIALLO will star French actor Vincent Gallo and will be the typical slasher affair, with Gallo expected to play the psycho killer and Ray Liotta in talks to play the solitary cop who wants to take him down. The director's daughter Asia Argento has also been cast. Filming begins next month in Turin, the same place he shot THE MOTHER OF TEARS, his most critically well recieved movie in years though I can't comment because I've yet to see it. I will say that prior to that movie, Argento's films felt a little flat and his style out-dated so the thought of him once again going back to a genre that has long been dead doesn't really thrill me but...I do really like the idea of a cat-and-mouse slasher/thriller chase movie between Liotta and Gallo. I would love to see Argento at his best with this kind of acting talent in his film.