Neil Marshall to direct 1800's Wild West Horror!

Newcastle born Neil Marshall's latest apocalyptic horror Doomsday is set to open in the States on Friday for Rogue Pictures but attention has now turned to his next feature, which he is setting up to write and direct at Rogue's genre arm, Focus Features.

Variety say the movie will be Sacrilege, a horror tale set in the Old Wild West which Marshal describes as his "ambition movie".

"It is set during the Gold Rush, a time remembered for incidents like the Donner Party," Marshall said. "It is meant to be a pitch-black, gritty, period horror movie."

For those that don't know, The Donner Party (WIKI entry) was a group of California-bound American settlers who got caught in the snowbound of Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846 who resorted to cannibalism. Although that isn't specifically what this movie was about, Marshall clearly cites that as being an aspect that could be in his film. Marshall also cites Unforgiven, H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness and John Carpenter'sThe Thing as being heavy influences for his feature, focusing on the isolation and paranoia of man. Those themes are what Marshall has played around with in both his movies to date Dog Soldiers and The Descent, to an impressive but often over-rated degree. Sounds good to me. I love Westerns and I love Horror, so blending the two is something I've wanted to see for some time now. And seen as though it opens on Friday, here's that trailer for the Escape from New York/28 Days Later/Mad Max hybrid Doomsday which opens on Friday in the States. I think it looks awful despite the addition of the awesome Malcom McDowell and Bob Hoskins...