Saw director remaking movie about murderous mama's boys in Winnipeg

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Bousman, on the set of Saw IV, is planning to remake Mother’s Day here in Winnipeg. (LIONS GATE)

THE director of three Saw movies is com­ing to Winnipeg this summer to remake a notorious cult horror film from 1980.

To quote the tagline for Saw II : Oh yes, there will be blood.

Darren Lynn Bousman, the 30-year-old filmmaker who wrote and directed Saw II and directed Saws III and IV , as well as the horror-musical Repo: The Genetic Opera, has chosen Winnipeg to film Mother's Day, a redo of a banned­in- Britain horror-revenge movie directed by Charles Kaufman.

In the controversial original, a couple of back­woods psychos kidnap three women and subject them to rape and assault under the guidance of their insane mother. Eventually, two of the three women turn the tables on their attackers for a rip-roaring rampage of revenge.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the re­make will still include a crazed mother who con­trols her brutal offspring. But this time, they are motivated by a desire to reclaim her house, lost in a foreclosure and inhabited by a new family.

The original film had a darkly comic aspect that may not translate to the remake.

"This is going to be a hardcore experience," Bousman told the horror movie website Dread Central. " Mother's Day is about a seriously screwed-up family, so you can expect my version to be home to a lot of horrific stuff. It's going to be way more sadistic than anything you've seen from me thus far.

"The original is great, but I definitely want to do this on my terms. Every time I step behind the camera, it's my job to try to bring something new to the genre."

Bousman's three contributions to the Saw fran­chise grossed more than US$450 million world­wide, according to Box Office Mojo.

Winnipeg producer Kyle Bornais confirmed his company, Farpoint Films, would be acting as a service provider for the film, which will likely have an eight-week pre-production period starting next week before going in front of the cameras, starting in August, for a scheduled seven-week shoot. Bornais could not comment on the film's budget, but it will likely have a much larger price tag than the original's meagre $115,000.

Discerning readers of Bousman's Twitter ac­count might have been be able to ascertain the Winnipeg location as early as last week.

On Wednesday, June 17, Bousman twittered: "The location where we are thinking of filming -- it requires taking TWO PLANES, a massive layover -- and going through security TWICE.

UGH!"

There are no direct flights from Winnipeg to L.A.

Bousman may have also referred to the al­legedly haunted Fort Garry Hotel in a later Twit­ter missive: "Visited a hotel where we might be staying and its haunted, or so says our guide! Says no one likes staying on the 2nd floor!"

The film will be a production of Twisted Pic­tures, The Genre Company, and filmmaker Brett ( Rush Hour) Ratner's Rat Entertainment.

Bornais says the film has not yet been cast. If all goes according to plan, the remake will be re­leased in April of 2010... just in time for Mother's Day.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca