Often you can hear a piece of film news you don’t expect but this one has to take the award for the month’s craziest announcement. But these are Crazy, Crazy, Nights after all!
As Gene Simmons, yes of KISS fame, and Arclight Films chairman Gary Hamilton have joined forces to create a new movie production company, titled Simmons/Hamilton Productions (simples!).
Across the company’s first five years, they will be set to produce and develop around 25 feature films, with a sight on theatrical productions and franchise potential (when are folk ever not eyeing that up?) and global reach, with a particular focus on action/thrillers, and what better way to take a bite out of both sides of that genre than with a big ‘ol shark movie?!
The first film greenlit for production later this year is Deep Water, which sees a plane full of passengers forced to make an emergency landing on the water, waters which happen to be shark infested! This ain’t the first time KISS and sharks have crossed paths but get ready for some fierce new Creatures of the Night here.
How could this news get any better you ask? Well, directorial action legend Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2 and Deep Blue Sea) is going to be behind the camera!And who better considering his previous experience?
Harlin said of the film, “I’ve had my greatest success when working with planes or sharks, so getting to combine those two of my favourite thriller elements in a character-driven action adventure is a dream come true”.
“I am pumped and excited to be launching ‘Deep Water’ as our first project together, with the action maven Renny Harlin at the helm”, said Simmons of the merger and his and Hamilton’s first movie.
This is one film that really ought to rock (pun intended) and if this launching point is a hit, we eagerly await what other black diamonds Simmons and Hamilton have in store for us next.
‘Shout it out loud’ we can’t wait for Deep Water!