.gif)
Maniac (1980 film)
Encyclopedia
Maniac is a 1980
American
slasher film
(though considered more of a splatter film
), about a disturbed and traumatized serial killer
who scalps
his victims. It was directed by William Lustig
and written by Joe Spinell
and C. A. Rosenberg. Joe Spinell also developed the story, and stars as the lead character.
living in an unspecified borough of New York City
, where he works as the landlord
of a small apartment complex. Unbeknown to his tenants, Frank is a schizophrenic serial killer who spends his nights stalking and killing women, scalping
them and bringing the scalps and their clothing back home to decorate his steadily growing supply of mannequins. Once a mannequin has been decorated to his satisfaction, Frank sleeps with it for several nights, using them to carry on one-sided conversations with his deceased mother, an abusive prostitute who subjected him to years of physical abuse before dying in a car accident and leaving him orphaned. Inexplicably, after several nights, Frank grows tired of each mannequin, posing them around different parts of his apartment before seeking out another victim.
One afternoon, Frank sees that his picture has been taken by a fashion photographer named Anna. Getting her name off of the luggage tag she keeps on her purse, Frank tracks her down, but is impressed enough with her artwork that rather than kill her, he begins dating her. While visiting her on the set of her latest photo shoot, he is so taken with Rita, one of Anna's models, that he steals a piece of Rita's jewelry, using it as a pretext to come to her apartment later that night so that he can kidnap her. Frank takes Rita home, where he addresses her as his mother, declaring his undying love for her before stabbing her to death. He then mutilates her body and disposes of it, later attending the funeral with Anna.
His grip on reality quickly deteriorating, Frank takes Anna to his mother's grave one night on the way to the movies. At the cemetery, Frank tries to kill Anna, but she wounds him with a shovel left lying by a freshly dug grave and escapes. Frank begins suffering disorienting, disturbing hallucinations of his mother's corpse rising up from its grave and of his mother beckoning to him from her bed. He returns to his apartment, where he has a vision of the mannequins transforming into the vengeful reanimated corpses of his victims and tearing his body apart.
The next morning, two police detectives, apparently alerted by Anna, break down the door to Frank's apartment. They find him on his bed, bleeding from the stomach as the result of a self-inflicted knife wound. The detectives, upon seeing Frank's mannequin collection, leave the apartment, at which point Frank opens his eyes and the film ends.
, playing a small role and dressed in full 1970s disco regalia, has his head blasted off with a double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun
while making out with a woman in the front seat of a vintage car fired by the killer through the car windshield at close range (loosely inspired by the real life Son of Sam killings of serial killer David Berkowitz
who shot people in parked cars with a .44 Magnum
revolver). The scene, filmed in slow motion from three different camera angles, and lit entirely by the reflected headlights of the car, is extremely graphic and realistic in its depiction of the damage caused by the man's head being blown apart at point blank range by 12-gauge buckshot. Savini was a Vietnam War
veteran and used his firsthand knowledge of the carnage he saw on the battlefield to create the effect.
Film critic Gene Siskel
vociferously described how sickened he was by the film on Sneak Previews
, and walked out thirty minutes into the film (after the shotgun murder scene), saying the film "could not redeem itself" after the amount of violence shown up to that point. However, in the 1990s Siskel was asked if he had ever walked out of a film and did not mention this one, instead saying he left the 1996 film Black Sheep, because of his dislike for Chris Farley
, and the 1971 Disney film The Million Dollar Duck
.
Vincent Canby
of The New York Times
wrote, "Good sense, if not heaven
, should protect anyone who thinks he likes horror films from wasting a price of admission on "Maniac," a movie that shows how an aging, pot-bellied maniac slices up young women of no great intelligence."
Stuart Galbraith IV DVD Talk
said of the film, "Despite some good direction and a sincere, even daring performance by character actor Joe Spinell
(Rocky
), who also co-produced and co-wrote its screenplay, Maniac (1980) is alternately repellent and boring, despite the obvious intelligence that went into its making. A low-budget slasher film notable for its extremely graphic splatter effects by Tom Savini
- who also appears in the picture - Maniac is mostly a character study, anticipating the much superior (if no less unpleasant) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
(1986)."
Tom Becker of DVD Verdict
said, "That the film is so effective is due in no small part to the performance of Joe Spinell as Frank, the schlubby-looking guy whose darkness overwhelms him. This is not the standard, amateurish, paint-by-numbers horror villain turn. Spinell creates a fully formed portrait of this monster that goes far beyond the surface. He mutters to himself, talks to mannequins, growls like an animal when stalking his prey—yet he can be charming as well, and while the pairing of Spinell and Munro as lovers has a definite Beauty and the Beast
quality to it, it's not entirely unbelievable. Had Maniac been more of a mainstream film, Spinell might have been remembered as one of the great horror heavies."
J.C. Maçek III of WorldsGreatestCritic.com wrote, "It won't ever be much more than a B-Movie
that never quite took off, but those in the mood for some Fulci-esque
violence, blood and gore all to the tune of a soundtrack so garish it makes The Hearse
sound like Beethoven, this is your flick!"
by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, USA, for Best Low-Budget Film in 1981.
Tom Savini got the part of the male shotgun victim because he had already made a cast of his own head. He then filled the head with left over food from lunch and fired live ammunition at it. Immediately after firing the shotgun Savini then threw it into the trunk of a waiting car, that an assistant then drove away with, in order to avoid being caught by police .
Spinell planned to make a sequel
titled Maniac 2: Mr. Robbie, in which he would have played a host of a children's television series
who murders the abusive parents
of his fans. A short promo film was made in 1986 which was filmed, produced and directed by Buddy Giovinazzo
and written by Spinell and Joe Cirillo, but Spinell was unable to find financial backers. Portions of the film can been seen on the latest 30th Anniversary DVD release. After nearly three years, financing for a Maniac 2 sequel was indeed raised and it was scheduled to go into production in March 1989, but the sudden death of Joe Spinell two months earlier cancelled all plans for the sequel.
" was written by Michael Sembello
and Dennis Matkosky, after Matkosky had been inspired by the film. Its lyrics about a killer were rewritten so that it could be used in the 1983 film Flashdance
. The song's use in Flashdance earned it an Academy Award nomination, but it was disqualified when it emerged that the song had not been written specifically for the film.
An extract of dialogue from the film's trailer was sampled on the song "Frank Zito, The Maniac" by metal band Frightmare on their album "Midnight Murder Mania".
Death Rapper Necro recorded a song titled Frank Zito on his album Brutality Part 1.
During the 2009 edition of the New York Horror Film Festival, while receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award, Lustig announced that the deal for a remake has been sealed. During a Q&A session at the Sunshine Cinema in New York City on November 19, 2010, Lustig announced that the remake rights had been acquired by a French production company with Alejandre Aja attached. He also stated that he would love to see Tom Sizemore take over the Frank Zito role, as he feels Sizemore is a lot like Spinnell, and that he had recommended as much to the French production company. On November 4th, 2011 Elijah Wood
has been cast as Frank Zito and plan is to begin filming later this year .
1980 in film
- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....
American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
(though considered more of a splatter film
Splatter film
A splatter film or gore film is a subgenre of horror film that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. These films, through the use of special effects and excessive blood and guts, tend to display an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human body and the...
), about a disturbed and traumatized serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
who scalps
Scalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
his victims. It was directed by William Lustig
William Lustig
William Lustig , also known as Bill Lustig, is an American film director and producer who has worked primarily in the horror film genre.-Movie career:...
and written by Joe Spinell
Joe Spinell
Joe Spinell was an American character actor, who appeared in numerous films in the 1970s and 1980s.-Biography:...
and C. A. Rosenberg. Joe Spinell also developed the story, and stars as the lead character.
Plot outline
Frank Zito is a middle-aged, overweight, Italian-American lonerLoner
A loner is a person who avoids or does not actively seek human interaction or prefers to be alone. There are many reasons for solitude, intentional or otherwise, and "loner" implies no specific cause. Intentional reasons include spiritual and religious considerations or personal philosophies...
living in an unspecified borough of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he works as the landlord
Landlord
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant . When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner...
of a small apartment complex. Unbeknown to his tenants, Frank is a schizophrenic serial killer who spends his nights stalking and killing women, scalping
Scalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
them and bringing the scalps and their clothing back home to decorate his steadily growing supply of mannequins. Once a mannequin has been decorated to his satisfaction, Frank sleeps with it for several nights, using them to carry on one-sided conversations with his deceased mother, an abusive prostitute who subjected him to years of physical abuse before dying in a car accident and leaving him orphaned. Inexplicably, after several nights, Frank grows tired of each mannequin, posing them around different parts of his apartment before seeking out another victim.
One afternoon, Frank sees that his picture has been taken by a fashion photographer named Anna. Getting her name off of the luggage tag she keeps on her purse, Frank tracks her down, but is impressed enough with her artwork that rather than kill her, he begins dating her. While visiting her on the set of her latest photo shoot, he is so taken with Rita, one of Anna's models, that he steals a piece of Rita's jewelry, using it as a pretext to come to her apartment later that night so that he can kidnap her. Frank takes Rita home, where he addresses her as his mother, declaring his undying love for her before stabbing her to death. He then mutilates her body and disposes of it, later attending the funeral with Anna.
His grip on reality quickly deteriorating, Frank takes Anna to his mother's grave one night on the way to the movies. At the cemetery, Frank tries to kill Anna, but she wounds him with a shovel left lying by a freshly dug grave and escapes. Frank begins suffering disorienting, disturbing hallucinations of his mother's corpse rising up from its grave and of his mother beckoning to him from her bed. He returns to his apartment, where he has a vision of the mannequins transforming into the vengeful reanimated corpses of his victims and tearing his body apart.
The next morning, two police detectives, apparently alerted by Anna, break down the door to Frank's apartment. They find him on his bed, bleeding from the stomach as the result of a self-inflicted knife wound. The detectives, upon seeing Frank's mannequin collection, leave the apartment, at which point Frank opens his eyes and the film ends.
Cast
- Joe SpinellJoe SpinellJoe Spinell was an American character actor, who appeared in numerous films in the 1970s and 1980s.-Biography:...
as Frank Zito - Caroline MunroCaroline MunroCaroline Munro is an English actress and model known for her many appearances in horror, science fiction and action films of the 1970s and 1980s.-Early career:...
as Anna D'Antoni - Gail Lawrence as Rita
- Kelly PiperKelly Piper-Filmography:*Rawhead Rex as Elaine Hallenbeck*Riding Fast as Carol*Scarecrow and Mrs. King*Cocaine: One Man's Seduction as Toni Baylor*Vice Squad as Blue Chip*Maniac as a nurse-External links:...
as Nurse - Rita Montone as Hooker
- Tom SaviniTom SaviniThomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...
as Disco boy - Hyla Marrow as Disco girl
- James Brewster as Beach boy
- Linda Lee Walter as Beach girl
- Tracie Evans as Street hooker
- Sharon MitchellSharon MitchellSharon Mitchell is a former erotic actress, with a pornography career spanning over two decades.- Adult film career :...
as Nurse #2 - Carol Henry as Deadbeat
- Nelia Bacmeister as Carmen Zito
- Louis Jawitz as Art director
- Denise Spagnuolo as Denise
- Billy Spagnuolo as Billy
- Frank Pesce as TV reporter
- William LustigWilliam LustigWilliam Lustig , also known as Bill Lustig, is an American film director and producer who has worked primarily in the horror film genre.-Movie career:...
as Hotel manager
Rating
The film is unrated because it was not submitted to the MPAA; if it had been, it almost certainly would have been given an X rating. The poster does say that "No One Under 17 Will Be Admitted", a practice theatres used for ultraviolent unrated films such as Dawn of the Dead.Reception
The film's, arguably, most graphic scene is the "Disco Boy Scene", in which special effects man Tom SaviniTom Savini
Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...
, playing a small role and dressed in full 1970s disco regalia, has his head blasted off with a double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
while making out with a woman in the front seat of a vintage car fired by the killer through the car windshield at close range (loosely inspired by the real life Son of Sam killings of serial killer David Berkowitz
David Berkowitz
David Richard Berkowitz , also known as Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer and arsonist whose crimes terrorized New York City from July 1976 until his arrest in August 1977.Shortly after his arrest in August 1977, Berkowitz confessed to killing six people and...
who shot people in parked cars with a .44 Magnum
.44 Magnum
The .44 Remington Magnum, or simply .44 Magnum, is a large-bore cartridge originally designed for revolvers. After introduction, it was quickly adopted for carbines and rifles...
revolver). The scene, filmed in slow motion from three different camera angles, and lit entirely by the reflected headlights of the car, is extremely graphic and realistic in its depiction of the damage caused by the man's head being blown apart at point blank range by 12-gauge buckshot. Savini was a Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran and used his firsthand knowledge of the carnage he saw on the battlefield to create the effect.
Film critic Gene Siskel
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
vociferously described how sickened he was by the film on Sneak Previews
Sneak Previews
Sneak Previews was an American film review show, running for over two decades on Public Broadcasting Service . It was created by WTTW, a PBS affiliate in Chicago, Illinois. It premiered on September 4, 1975 as a monthly local-only show called Opening Soon at a Theater Near You, and was renamed in...
, and walked out thirty minutes into the film (after the shotgun murder scene), saying the film "could not redeem itself" after the amount of violence shown up to that point. However, in the 1990s Siskel was asked if he had ever walked out of a film and did not mention this one, instead saying he left the 1996 film Black Sheep, because of his dislike for Chris Farley
Chris Farley
Christopher Crosby "Chris" Farley was an American comedian and actor. Farley was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1995....
, and the 1971 Disney film The Million Dollar Duck
The Million Dollar Duck
The Million Dollar Duck is a 1971 Disney comedy film that was directed by Vincent McEveety, and stars Dean Jones, Sandy Duncan and Joe Flynn.-Plot:...
.
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote, "Good sense, if not heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
, should protect anyone who thinks he likes horror films from wasting a price of admission on "Maniac," a movie that shows how an aging, pot-bellied maniac slices up young women of no great intelligence."
Stuart Galbraith IV DVD Talk
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a website for DVD enthusiasts founded in January 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman when DVDs and DVD players were first beginning to hit the market.The site started as an online forum, an email newsletter, and a page of DVD news and reviews...
said of the film, "Despite some good direction and a sincere, even daring performance by character actor Joe Spinell
Joe Spinell
Joe Spinell was an American character actor, who appeared in numerous films in the 1970s and 1980s.-Biography:...
(Rocky
Rocky
Rocky is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and both written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind-hearted debt collector for a loan shark in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
), who also co-produced and co-wrote its screenplay, Maniac (1980) is alternately repellent and boring, despite the obvious intelligence that went into its making. A low-budget slasher film notable for its extremely graphic splatter effects by Tom Savini
Tom Savini
Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...
- who also appears in the picture - Maniac is mostly a character study, anticipating the much superior (if no less unpleasant) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a 1986 crime horror film directed and co-written by John McNaughton about the random crime spree of a serial killer who seemingly operates with impunity. It stars Michael Rooker as the nomadic killer Henry, Tom Towles as Otis, a prison buddy with whom Henry is...
(1986)."
Tom Becker of DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict is a judicial themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. Current editor in chief is Michael Stailey, who also reviews for Rotten Tomatoes...
said, "That the film is so effective is due in no small part to the performance of Joe Spinell as Frank, the schlubby-looking guy whose darkness overwhelms him. This is not the standard, amateurish, paint-by-numbers horror villain turn. Spinell creates a fully formed portrait of this monster that goes far beyond the surface. He mutters to himself, talks to mannequins, growls like an animal when stalking his prey—yet he can be charming as well, and while the pairing of Spinell and Munro as lovers has a definite Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version of the fairy tale was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740...
quality to it, it's not entirely unbelievable. Had Maniac been more of a mainstream film, Spinell might have been remembered as one of the great horror heavies."
J.C. Maçek III of WorldsGreatestCritic.com wrote, "It won't ever be much more than a B-Movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
that never quite took off, but those in the mood for some Fulci-esque
Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...
violence, blood and gore all to the tune of a soundtrack so garish it makes The Hearse
The Hearse
The Hearse is a 1980 horror movie starring Trish Van Devere and Joseph Cotten.- Plot :Jane Hardy arrives in the town of Blackford to stay in an old house left to her by a late aunt...
sound like Beethoven, this is your flick!"
Awards
Maniac was nominated for a Saturn AwardSaturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, USA, for Best Low-Budget Film in 1981.
Production
Many scenes had to be filmed guerrilla-style because the production could not afford city permits. The infamous shotgun sequence was one of them; it was filmed in just an hour.Tom Savini got the part of the male shotgun victim because he had already made a cast of his own head. He then filled the head with left over food from lunch and fired live ammunition at it. Immediately after firing the shotgun Savini then threw it into the trunk of a waiting car, that an assistant then drove away with, in order to avoid being caught by police .
Spinell planned to make a sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
titled Maniac 2: Mr. Robbie, in which he would have played a host of a children's television series
Children's television series
Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...
who murders the abusive parents
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
of his fans. A short promo film was made in 1986 which was filmed, produced and directed by Buddy Giovinazzo
Buddy Giovinazzo
Buddy Giovinazzo is an independent filmmaker and author who is known for his gritty-low budget debut film, Combat Shock, and his collection of harrowing short stories of low urban life in his 1993 novel, Life is Hot in Cracktown....
and written by Spinell and Joe Cirillo, but Spinell was unable to find financial backers. Portions of the film can been seen on the latest 30th Anniversary DVD release. After nearly three years, financing for a Maniac 2 sequel was indeed raised and it was scheduled to go into production in March 1989, but the sudden death of Joe Spinell two months earlier cancelled all plans for the sequel.
Popular culture
The song "ManiacManiac (song)
"Maniac" is a synthpop song performed by Michael Sembello. The song was used in the 1983 film Flashdance and was inspired by the 1980 horror film Maniac.The film Maniac was about a serial killer who stalks his victims in New York City...
" was written by Michael Sembello
Michael Sembello
Michael Sembello is an American musician and songwriter from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Career:Sembello was born and raised in Philadelphia. He studied with jazz great Pat Martino and began his career as a professional musician by becoming a session musician, working increasingly with...
and Dennis Matkosky, after Matkosky had been inspired by the film. Its lyrics about a killer were rewritten so that it could be used in the 1983 film Flashdance
Flashdance
Another song used in the film, "Maniac", was also nominated for an Academy Award. It was written by Michael Sembello and Dennis Matkosky, and was inspired by the 1980 horror film Maniac. The lyrics about a killer on the loose were rewritten so that it could be used in Flashdance...
. The song's use in Flashdance earned it an Academy Award nomination, but it was disqualified when it emerged that the song had not been written specifically for the film.
An extract of dialogue from the film's trailer was sampled on the song "Frank Zito, The Maniac" by metal band Frightmare on their album "Midnight Murder Mania".
Death Rapper Necro recorded a song titled Frank Zito on his album Brutality Part 1.
Remake
Lustig planned a remake of his movie.During the 2009 edition of the New York Horror Film Festival, while receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award, Lustig announced that the deal for a remake has been sealed. During a Q&A session at the Sunshine Cinema in New York City on November 19, 2010, Lustig announced that the remake rights had been acquired by a French production company with Alejandre Aja attached. He also stated that he would love to see Tom Sizemore take over the Frank Zito role, as he feels Sizemore is a lot like Spinnell, and that he had recommended as much to the French production company. On November 4th, 2011 Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood is an American actor. He made his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II , then landed a succession of larger roles that made him a critically acclaimed child actor by age 9. He is best known for his high-profile role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's...
has been cast as Frank Zito and plan is to begin filming later this year .