THE WOMAN IN BLACK director James Watkins currently has a pretty good cache as far as British film goes. This past winter he propelled THE WOMAN IN BLACK to serious box office heights and made a fairly decent film as well. Based on this a bunch of execs from British cinema belonging to companies like Optimum, Pathe and Exclusive Media got together and formed Altitude Entertainment and wasted no time signing up Watkins to develop a new film.

The film in question will be THE LOCH, an apparently bold and terrifying new take on the myth of the Loch Ness Monster. Watkins is co-writing the script with Simon Duric. I’m all for a new take on this as it’s never really been done before, unless you count that Ted Danson movie from 1996 which I’m sure we all are. A monster movie from the man who shook us to our core with EDEN LAKE could be just the shot in the arm the industry needs.

It’s good too to see a new company on the scene after the demise of the UK film council, no matter what David Cameron says we have some of the best talent around and it needs support, it can’t all be massive hits like THE WOMAN IN BLACK but more of these will allow greater creative freedom eventually. Altitude will also be producing an adaptation of John Niven’s novel KILL YOUR FRIENDS which is kind of an AMERICAN PSYCHO in the Britpop era following a murderous music executive. Good times…

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