• The Hollywood Reporter predicts Saw IV will open huge this weekend, and Variety concurs. The Variety story is a bit more skeptical as to whether or not this latest installment in “the flagship hardcore horror franchise” can reverse the course on the torture porn down-turn, but THR is looking at the bigger question of “whether the gore-filled sequel can pump some blood into a recently lifeless fall theatrical season.”
• Variety’s headline says there’s “new life” in pre-strike talks between the WGA and the AMPTP, but the story reads like you literally couldn’t pay the Writer’s Guild not to strike. The Reporter’s headline seems more accurate: “WGA seems unimpressed with new AMPTP proposals.”
• Kurt & Courtney director Nick Broomfield has hopped from the William Morris Agency to ICM. Broomfield is looking for North American distribution for his second narrative feature in two years, Battle for Haditha, and his new agency has been tasked with aiding that cause.
• Reason #907 why this Taking of Pelham 123 remake seems like a bad idea: John Travolta.

Another Halloween season is ’round the corner, and that means Lionsgate is promoting yet another Saw movie and yet another tie-in blood drive. Paul sent me an email this morning, asking my thoughts on this “softer side of torture porn.” I’m certainly not against it–at the end of the day, it’s just William Castle stuff with a humanitarian twist. But it is interesting that last year, although Saw III grossed about $7 million less domestically than its predecessor, the 2006 blood drive more than doubled the volume collected in 2005. As the films have become less popular with the general public and more of a niche concern, Lionsgate’s influence over that core, horror fan audience has seemingly increased.

Or maybe, they’re just moving away from the torture and upping the porn.

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