Lately we know Vincenzo Natali as the director of the excellent Splice, but back in 1997 he was getting attention as the brains behind the micro-budget, super-inventive Cube. Further instalments from other directors emerged in the early 2000s, and after a bit of a lull following Cube 2 and prequel Cube Zero, rights holders Lionsgate are now looking to get back into the Cube business, with **Cube 3D.
The Kafkaesque premise of Natali's original sees a handful of strangers dropped into the titular edifice, with no idea of why they're there (someone must have been telling lies about them). The structure is divided into an unknown number of cube-shaped rooms which, it transpires, are mostly lethally booby-trapped. Progressing through the cube and solving the code that identifies the safe rooms becomes the name of the game.
It's a tense psychological thriller, cleverly filmed on a single set, and like the Cube itself, is beautifully self-contained. Its refusal to provide any answers or context however, meant that there was plenty for sequels to pick at. Cube 2: Hypercube went bigger and more complicated (more spectacular traps; moving rooms; time distortion), while prequel Cube Zero went outside to focus on the technicians observing the players.
Fundamentally though, neither was much good, so fans of the original will be hoping that, if the series must start up again, it's for better reasons than Lionsgate simply having run out of the (superficially) similarly trap-happy Saws.
Nobody's attached yet in any capacity, but the studio are "inviting pitches"... Forumites can get started below!