The Weinstein Company was trying to develop a new HALLOWEEN movie a few months back with Platinum Dunes, and Federico D’Alessandro was one filmmaker who worked on a pitch for the potential remake. Mr. D’Alessandro is primarily a storyboard artist, getting his start on James Cameron’s ALIENS OF THE DEEP, and known more recently for his work as Head Storyboard Artist and Animatics Supervisor at Marvel studios, working on THOR, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, and THE AVENGERS.
For his HALLOWEEN pitch, he created a technically impressive nine-minute animatic along with some keyframes, but the project ultimately dissolved. Mr. D’Alessandro told /Film:
“It turned out pretty cool, but unfortunately while I was in the middle of working on it, talks fell through between Platinum Dunes and the Weinsteins…so I missed the boat on that one. With Halloween being re-released to theaters soon, and October coming up, I’m hoping that readers could get a kick out of seeing a horror-themed pitch animatic for a major property.”
Mr. D’Alessandro continues:
“As a lifelong HALLOWEEN fan it would be a dream to direct a reboot of the franchise that’s so near and dear to my heart. I created this animatic to show the tone and storytelling that I would bring to the project if I were lucky enough to have that chance. If you like it, please repost…if this gets enough hits, who knows, maybe I’ll get that opportunity!
For more of my work, including my short film which won Best Horror Short at Comic Con, please go to www.thefilmartist.com
Also huge thanks to the Maya wizard Craig Guessford for creating the end title design.”
Over at /Film’s original post, Mr. D’Allesandro seems to be rather open to suggestions about his pitch animatic and says that it could be a sequence in any slasher film, not necessarily a HALLOWEEN movie. Here’s what he wrote in the comments section:
The reaction to this little animatic has been beyond my wildest expectations. I really appreciate the positive reviews, and even the negative ones because it just shows there are other HALLOWEEN fans out there as passionate and opinionated as myself. Just to clarify, this scene is not necessarily how I would open up my take on Halloween (I’ve got other ideas for that, which I can’t go into in case I still get an opportunity to pitch this to Dimension). I unfortunately didn’t have much of a heads-up when I got the opportunity to pitch for Halloween, so I created this animatic solely to show the kind of storytelling that I would bring to a project — establishing atmosphere and tone, creating tension, camera work, etc. That being said, I totally stand by the work and am happy with how it turned out. I also agree with some of the reviews I’ve gotten — that this doesn’t have to be a Halloween film, it can just as easily be the opening scene of a different slasher film. I’m developing exactly that at the moment, so hopefully I’ll at least get the chance to make that movie. If not, the animatic was fun to work on so it wasn’t a total waste of time! Thanks again for all the comments, good or bad. Happy Halloween (in advance).
I think he did a great job on the animatic and it’s really cool that he’s so enthusiastic about his work, but I will say that I’m not bothered that his version didn’t get made into a HALLOWEEN movie, precisely because “it doesn’t have to be a HALLOWEEN film.” I understand that the animatic was created to pitch himself as a capable storyteller, and not solely as a premise for the movie. And judging from the his “Halloween Animatic Keyframes,” which are rather generic, there doesn’t seem to be anything new he would have brought to the franchise in terms of a unique point of view. Am I wrong?
