While the list of those who make the transition from primarily helming music videos and commercials to directing feature films is certainly a long one, the success rate isn’t necessarily high. For every David Fincher, Mike Mills, or Spike Jonze, there’s a McG or yes, a Marcus Nispel. Still, the director who recently drudged up the better-left-dormant “Conan The Barbarian” series, is managing to find work.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nispel is now set to helm the adaptation of horror-action comic “Hack/Slash” for Relativity Media. Created by Tim Seeley and Stefano Caselli, “Hack/Slash” centers on Cassie Hack, the type of female heroine who’d usually survive until the last reel of your favorite slasher flick. Only now, instead of living only to be killed off in a sequel, Hack has become a killer all her own. Only Hack hunts down those who prey upon the horny teenagers of the world, slaughtering Jason, Freddy, and Michael-type slashers.
Nispel is no stranger to the slasher landscape, having already directed two mind numbingly dull Platinum Dunes horror remakes in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Friday the 13th,” so he’s definitely heading back into familiar territory with this one. Apparently the project sat at Universal Pictures old Rogue Pictures genre imprint, before being acquired by Relativity Media as a potential project. According to THR, it’s a project Nispel previously flirted with, while fellow music video director Fredrik Bond was previously attached to direct as well.
While “Hack/Slash” certainly isn’t a time-tested comic classic, it’s a fun little read for fans of the horror genre, though featuring its seemingly endless possibilities of killers for Cassie Hack to take on, it certainly does scream “FRANCHISE!” Nispel couldn’t even make the machismo ridiculousness of “Conan the Barbarian” work, so we don’t see much hope for the film adaptation here.