With two segments of the anthology feature TALES OF POE VOLUME 1 in the can, the third entry, titled DREAMS, is gearing up to shoot next year. Fango got a bunch of new info on the project, including the scoop on a FRIDAY THE 13TH veteran’s involvement.

Director Bart Mastronardi gave us the news that original FRIDAY heroine Adrienne King (pictured above) will be playing “the wicked Queen of Dreams” in this segment, based on the Poe-m of the same title. “You will see Adrienne like you’ve never seen her before—trust me,” Mastronardi, who’s also producing TALES OF POE, tells Fango. Another FRIDAY gal, PART 2’s Amy Steel, is part of DREAMS: “She’s the film’s narrator and playing the Mother of Dreams. We already recorded Amy last November in New York City [see photo below]. And [TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2’s] Caroline Williams will be playing the Angel of Dreams. Finally, I’m working with Caroline. We’ve been talking for two years, and now it’s happening.”

DREAMS will be the framing story in TALES OF POE, surrounding the other two short films, Mastronardi’s THE TELL TALE HEART (see previous story here) and Alan Rowe Kelly’s THE CASK (more on that one below). As opposed to those color minimovies, DREAMS will be shot in black and white, and Mastronardi, who’ll serve as cinematographer as well as director, adds, “It’ll be a silent film—no dialogue except for Amy Steel’s narration—surreal and visually poetic, inspired by Derek Jarman and Jean Cocteau, but with haunting visuals that will please the horror crowd. DREAMS is more emotional horror than anything, and Michael Varrati has written a wonderful script. It was challenging to create a screenplay based on a poem, but it was so much fun collaborating with Michael. He is a wonderful writer.”

DREAMS’ cast is rounded out by Bette Cassatt from Mike Watt and Amy Lynn Best’s upcoming RAZOR DAYS, Brewster McCall and Richard Thor Wenzel. Kelly (who will also edit the segment), Watt, Best and Robert Kuiper serve as co-producers, with Tom Burns doing the sound and musical score and Lee Simms providing makeup FX. SLICES OF LIFE’s Anthony Sumner, who assisted on TELL-TALE HEART, will be part of the DREAMS team as well. “Alan and I are working very hard on this one,” Mastronardi says, “due to the locations, sets, costumes and schedule required for the production, but we have an immense team of talented people working with us. The challenge will be in a visual sense, as there will be more practical, old-school, in-camera effects than CGI. I want to learn from the likes of George Méliès and that style of theatrical effects.”

Meanwhile, THE CASK, based on Poe’s tale “The Cask of Amontillado,” is now in the editing stage. “Bart gave me the green light to write and direct a new version of this classic,” Kelly tells us, “and we put quite a new stamp on the story: gay marriage gone very, very wrong! It stars Randy Jones as wine connoisseur Fortunato Montresor, handsome Brewster McCall as his business partner Marco Luchresi and myself as the object of their affections in a deadly love triangle of greed, deception, murder and revenge.

“Bart really set a high bar for me with this one,” Kelly continues. “It was a great challenge, because Poe’s novellas and short stories leave so much open for interpretation. While remaining true to the original, I was still able to have the flexibility to put my own elaborate spin on the tale and keep the plot intact.” Mastronardi served as DP on this one, with Burns scoring and Kuiper, Watt and Best co-producing, and “It has become its own animal, in the vein of a ’70s giallo crossed with film noir,” Kelly says. “The music and cinematography is breathtaking! And to add to a great mix of actors: Jerry Murdock, Zoë Daelman Chlanda, Douglas Rowan, Susan Adriensen, Amy Lynn Best and Carl Burrows.”

THE CASK should be ready for screening by the middle of next year, while TELL TALE HEART continues to screen around the country (it took prizes for Best Short Film, as well as Best Director, Best Actress for Debbie Rochon and Best Editing for Kelly in the Short or Medium Length category, at the Buffalo Screams Film Festival). DREAMS is set to roll in March and will continue to film through August, to accommodate the schedules of all the genre folks involved. The filmmakers plan to have TALES OF POE VOLUME 1 completed for festival screenings in late 2012 and distribution by 2013. “TALES OF POE has been a blessing for many of us,” Mastronardi says. “It has became a project I am so proud of as a filmmaker, and I know Edgar Allan Poe would be proud of it, too.” See the movie’s Facebook page here. 

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