We’ve all, at some point in our lives, been haunted by a song; the infernal earworm that lodges in our heads and refuses – despite official eviction notices and burly bailiffs – to leave. Today’s Empire earworm, for reasons far beyond our ken, is Travis’ Writing To Reach You. Bastard bloody Travis, GET OUT OF OUR HEADS!
Anyway, Japanese director Takashi Shimizu – the guy who made us all jump with his haunted house flick, Ju-On (aka The Grudge) – has lined up his next film, and it takes the concept of an earworm to its logical conclusion: what if a song could actually haunt you?
The untitled English-language movie, written by Chris Philpott, concerns a song so haunting that it drives all who listen to it to suicide. Which means it’s not a million miles away from the haunted lullaby in Chuck Palahniuk’s, erm, Lullaby, and maybe even closer to Monty Python’s legendary killer joke. And closer still to Colourblind, by Darius Danesh.
It’ll be interesting to see how much tension Shimizu can wring out of this premise – after all, it should be fairly easy to turn off the song… unless, of course, it becomes incredibly powerful. And we’re also keen to see how he’ll tackle the thorny problem of playing the song in the movie – we recommend getting Nick Cave on it, stat.
The idea came from Shimizu and his producing partner, Taka Ichise. Ichise will produce the movie, along with Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer and Brad Fischer. Shimizu will move onto the film after he puts the finishing touches to his latest movie, The Shock Labyrinth, which has the honour of being Japan’s first 3D live-action movie.
So, readers – looking forward to this? After all, Shimizu can manipulate mood and a sense of dread like few other directors… but is a haunted song too cheesy for words? Vent below.