2010’s Mexican cannibal horror film, We Are What We Are, has been in the running for an American English-language remake after Memento picked up the rights to develop the project earlier this year.
Eager to get underway, after the first film found substantial success and critical acclaim internationally (not often a cannibal horror film does that), the rising star Riley Keough (the upcoming Jack & Diane and Magic Mike) has been set as one of the leading sisters, as well as Julia Garner (Martha Marcy May Marlene) opposite.
Here’s the synopsis for writer-director Jorge Michel Grau’s original film, Somos lo que hay:
Three teenagers are wary about holding up a rather disturbing family tradition in writer and director Jorge Michel Grau’s unusual blend of horror, suspense and family drama, WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (SOMOS LO QUE HAY). Alfredo (Francisco Barreiro), Julian (Alan Chavez) and Sabina (Paulina Gaitan) live with their father (Humberto Yanez) and mother (Carmen Beato) in a run-down section of Mexico City. When father dies unexpectedly during a visit to a shopping mall, it throws the family into chaos, but not just for the usual reasons. The family has an unusual custom in which father would capture a stranger and bring them home, after which the family would kill the stranger in an elaborate ritual and then eat their flesh. With father gone, mother insists that it’s time the children stepped up and took over the rite, but Alfredo is too timid to find a proper victim, Julian is bold but too clumsy, and Sabina is thought to be poorly suited for what’s always been a man’s job. As the brothers try to learn to do things the way dad once did, a police detective (Jorge Zarate) is trying to get to the bottom of a long string of disappearances in the area.
Jim Mickle (Stake Land) will be behind the camera for the remake, co-writing the script with frequent collaborator Nick Damici. Their last film together, Stake Land, took the Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award at 2010’s Toronto International Film Festival, so expect good things.
The film is set to go into production at the end of this month, shooting through until the start of July, with an eye to delivering the project by January next year. eOne have already acquired the distribution rights for the UK, so you can rest assured that we should be able to look forward to this sometime next year. More as we get it.
And to give you an idea of what to expect, here’s the trailer for the original:
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBkNz3_pzsw’]
Source: ScreenDaily.
