Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard's THE CABIN IN THE WOODS Poster

Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's tongue in cheek, genre bending horror film The Cabin in the Woods may soon actually be coming to a theatre near you soon with Lionsgate announcing earlier this year that they have acquired the distribution rights for an April 13th, 2012 release. It's being a helluva long time coming. The Cabin in the Woods wrapped shooting in May 2009, with a release date slated as February 5th, 2010. That date was put back nearly a year so the film could be converted to 3D. However, MGM, who originally owned the rights, announced the film had being delayed indefinitely due to ongoing financial difficulties at the studio. The sale of the rights were confirmed by Lionsgate in April of this year, with rumors of a Halloween 2011 release. They proved to be false, but this new release date seems to be sticking. Whedon produced and co-wrote the film with Goddard, a writer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Cloverfield, who is making his directorial debut. Not much is known of the project, which stars a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth (his star billing a fortunate plus point from all this), Amy Acker, who has worked with Whedon before on Angel and Dollhouse and a few other fresh faces alongside veterans Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. Whedon has said he wants to turn the horror genre on it's head with the movie, but remains tight lipped on any details. Even the official synopsis is cryptic:

Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again. From fan favorites Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard comes THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, a mind blowing horror film that turns the genre inside out. Produced by Whedon and directed by Goddard from a script by both, the film stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford.

Harry Knowles at AICN had a brief chat with Whedon/Goddard regarding the mysterious film and he tried to get some info out of them. Here's an interesting excerpt;

Knowing that Joss has a habit of creating things that become action figures - I asked them if they had any characters in this film that they wish would get made. Joss answered instantly, "The Ballerina" - and Drew answered, "1 armed PATIENCE." Ballerina? What the hell does that mean? I mean, there was a that wonderful stop-motion BALLERINA scene in EVIL DEAD 2 - is that in this? Is it something different? He would not explain himself. Drew's answer was helpful, because on IMDB, there is a character named PATIENCE BUCKNER played by Jodelle Ferland... and now we know she has apparently 1 arm. Another look at IMDB tells me there's a bunch of BUCKNERs in this film. A Matthew, a Judah and a Mother Buckner. There's also some other curiously titled characters over there... like Richard Cetrone's MERMAN?!?!? Or Patrick Gilmore's WEREWOLF WRANGLER?!? Tyler Onassis' NOSFERATU?!!?

Shrouded in secrecy ever since it was first announced, The Cabin in the Woods is still a puzzlebox nobody has solved, however the supposedly touted €˜cerebral€™ horror film did get something of a reveal in Februray 2009 when /film reportedly came across a script. Possible spoilers below, but there report detailed that the film begins with the two white collar characters played by Jenkins and Whitford in the cabin where they are joined by the usual group of cliched horror victims when€

€the full extent of the white-collared ones€™ plan comes into focus. They are luring the kids here to have them €œtransgress€ so that they might then be €œpunished€. They are god-like manipulators, shady business dealers, adults to be suspicious of, aloof yet blood hungry audience and cyncial film makers all rolled into one. The cabin is rigged with carefully selected props, gimmicks and cameras that allow the overseers to both spy on and interfere with the college kids. As things are warming up we are given the idea that there are many different ways in which it could go very wrong for the victims, and that employees of the mysterious organisation behind this scheme have held a sweepstakes on just how it€™s going to pan out. The various possibilities are shown to include Vampires, Werewolves, Aliens, Clowns, Scarecrows, Zombies and, ho ho, an Angry Molesting Tree. The zombies come first€

Which sounds like Big Brother meets a horror film and if you€™ve seen a small time british horror by the name of My Little Eye, it kind of goes in the same direction as this and although I haven€™t seen it, the third act was described as being similar to Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. The movie still sounds cool despite the movie sounding very formulaic with it€™s treatment of classic horror genres but as I said at the time, I would hate for it to go through the motions so now it€™s a zombie film€ now it€™s a vampire movie€ now it€™s EVIL DEAD. You know? For now, officially, all we really have to go on is this new poster, revealed by Aint It Cool News which Joss Whedon is referring to as "Bartholomew". Apparently a floating heads and/or a shirtless Chris Hemsworth poster will come later but for now we are getting a writer/director approved piece of obscurity; (Article co-written by Matt Holmes)