If you go down in the (Hundred Acre) woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise. And right now, thanks to the twisted mind of Winnie The Pooh: Blood & Honey writer-director Rhys Frake-Waterfield, that big surprise is the sight of beloved childhood staples Pooh and Piglet on a murderous, bloody rampage. Ah, the joys of the public domain! And according to reports from THR, Frake-Waterfield no plans to stop there. Yes, friends – welcome to the Dark Pooh-niverse.
Ahead of Blood & Honey’s global release on 15 February – and coming off the back of the low-budget gorefest’s shock box office success in Mexico already – its director has been talking about plans for an entire cinematic universe of X-Rated adaptations of childhood classics. Last year, Frake-Waterfield – who runs prolific horror banner Jagged Edge Productions alongside producer Scott Jeffrey – already revealed two future projects that would certainly fit the bill. The first, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, would be a dark reimagining of J.M. Barrie’s iconic children’s book featuring a drug-addled Tinkerbell. The second, Bambi: The Reckoning, retools the already pretty dark story of nature’s perpetual struggle with the monstrosity of man, reframing it as a revenge saga with Bambi as a ‘vicious killing machine’. Drip-drip-drop bloody April showers, anyone?
With Blood & Honey set to open in 1500 screens stateside and destined to run the cult circuit at international venues, Frake-Waterfield is already thinking even further ahead. “The idea is that we’re going to try and imagine they’re all in the same world, so we can have crossovers,” he told THR. “People have been messaging saying they really want to see Bambi versus Pooh.” And it’s not just known Disney properties the writer-director is eyeing either. “There are many, many, many other ideas out there which aren’t tied to Disney, loads of old fairytales and urban legends, concepts that are synonymous with your childhood, and they’re the ones which I want to build up into a twisted alternative reality.” Oh, bother!