It’s hard to talk about the French horror film “Martyrs” in any detail without giving up the twist, but the film’s claim to its infamy is its extended, brutal torture sequences which make “Hostel” seem like a Disney film. The film is grim, unrelenting stuff so who better to try and remake it for American audiences than producer Wyck Godfrey, the man behind such films as “Twilight,” “Dear John” and “Daddy Day Care”?
Even though he openly admits that the French original is “not remake-able in its form for an American audience,” he’s gonna give it a whirl anyway. And if you’re gonna dream, why not dream big? Godfrey says he “would love for Kristen [Stewart] to do it.” But if the film plans to go in front of cameras this year, it will be without Stewart whose schedule is pretty much filled up for the rest of 2010 with Walter Salles’ “On The Road” and Bill Condon’s two-part “Breaking Dawn.”
Regardless, it will take a major leading actress to get this thing made because of its subject matter, no matter how toned down the film is for Americans. Again, without giving away the twists, the plot does essentially require the lead actress to be tortured endlessly and harshly for a good chunk of the film’s running time (and really, for anyone who thinks Lars Von Trier is a misogynist, he’s got nothing on “Martyrs”). Really, this film is essentially women screaming in anguish for ninety minutes. It’s a difficult watch.
The film currently has a script by Mark L. Smith (“Vacancy”) but no director is yet attached. Needless to say, this is a bad idea and isn’t the torture porn craze over?