Chilean horror maestro to film modern “Hunchback of Notre Dame”

November 27, 2014 - 16:40 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Chile’s pioneering horror maestro Jorge Olguin is developing an ambitious English-language $2 million plus, modern Chilean version of the classic, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” with Peter Carlisle co-penning the screenplay. “I really think it’s what will catapult [Olguin] to the next level,” said Chris Sablan of Original Artists who is Olguin’s U.S. agent and producer’s rep as well as Carlisle’s agent.

Sablan is in talks with potential U.S. co producers for what is tentatively titled “The Hunchback.”

“Visually he wants to shoot it a la “Sin City,” but storywise it’s “Batman” meets “Sherlock Holmes,” said Sablan.

Olguin is also prepping drama “Indolencia” from a screenplay he is penning about the true case of a serial killer who murdered 16 young girls in Chile’s Atacama Desert region. Incidents caused an uproar as the government made little effort to solve the cases given the lower class stature of the missing girls. “This is probably my next film, which will shoot in early 2015,” said Olguin.

Olguin hopes to tap Chilean incentives for both project. His “Whispers in the Forest,” Chile’s first 3-D pic, kicks off international sales at Mar del Plata. Although pic had its market debut at Cannes’ Marche du Film where it received a number of offers, “we thought it would be best to hold off until the film was completed,” said Olguin.

A fantasy-horror pic grounded on local mythology, “Whispers…” recently took home two Works in Progress awards at the Guadalajara Construye in Los Angeles.

Shooting mainly in a forest with a 3D Camcorder Sony PMW-TD300, and a barebones cast and crew, Olguin kept the budget down to a paltry $500,000.

Based on a bi-lingual screenplay by Carolina Garcia, pic turns on a two sisters of indigenous origin who guide an American geologist and his surveying team into the haunted forest. Co-producers include Olguin’s own shingle Olguin Films, Demente Prods and Sablan. BF Distribution has slated a March 5 bow in Chile.