Winnie the Pooh is getting the slasher film treatment.
In a recent interview with Variety, filmmaker Rhys Frake-Waterfield shared details about his much-anticipated horror flick Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. Still shots from the project began circulating on social media this week, depicting the beloved children’s book character as a nightmarish villain.
Waterfield—who directed, co-wrote, and co-produced the film—said the movie will follow Winnie and the equally sinister Piglet going on a deadly rampage after they were abandoned by a college-aged Christopher Robin.
“Christopher Robin is pulled away from them, and he’s not [given] them food, it’s made Pooh and Piglet’s life quite difficult,” the director explained. “Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral. So they’ve gone back to their animal roots. They’re no longer tame: they’re like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey.”
Winnie the Pooh became popularized in the 1970s with the release of Disney’s The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which was based on A.A. Milne’s book series. Although the studio still retains rights to its version of the iconic character, Milne’s work entered the public domain earlier this year, which effectively took away Disney’s exclusive rights to Winnie and Co.
“No one is going to mistake this [for Disney],” Waterfield said. “When you see the cover for this and you see the trailers and the stills and all that, there’s no way anyone is going to think this is a child’s version of it.”
Waterfield told Variety the film took 10 days to shoot in England and is now in the post-production stage. He said he and his team have expediting the editing process in wake of all the media attention the film has received. However, he insists they will not comprise its quality.
“When you try and do a film like this, and it’s a really wacky concept,” he continued. “It’s very easy to go down a route where nothing is scary and it’s just really ridiculous and really, like, stupid And we wanted to go between the two.”
Jagged Edge Productions has yet to announce a release date for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.
