Horror filmmaking and professional cooking share lots of things in common – sharp knives and stressful environments, to name but a few – which is perhaps why Boston-based private chef, author and television host Chef Joe Gatto (Pluto TV's From Scratch) feels so at home in the genre. Following his award-winning short Chompers, Gatto is teaming up with martial arts icon Jeff Speakman (The Perfect Weapon) and acclaimed Bram Stoker Award-winning author Joe R. Lansdale (Bubba Ho-Tep) for a new adaptation of the latter's supernatural thriller, Lost Echoes.
Originally published in 2007, Lost Echoes centers on young man haunted by an extraordinary ability: certain sounds allow him to experience violent events that happened in the very place where he is standing:
As he begins to understand what these echoes are showing him, he unwittingly starts to uncover the trail of two serial killers and is pulled deeper into a nightmare he was never meant to see. His only real guide is Tad, played by Speakman, a damaged but formidable mentor who teaches him not only how to understand what he is experiencing, but how to survive where it leads him.
Speakman is set to star, with Gatto also producing. Production on Lost Echoes is scheduled to start early next year.
Gatto cites a number of influences not only from the horror genre, but also from classic film noir like The Night of the Hunter and psychological thrillers like Seven, and plans to bring that world to the screen with an unapologetically old school approach to filmmaking: “practical effects, real locations, physical stunt work and atmosphere created in camera whenever possible.”
Per an official press release, for Gatto, the opportunity to bring Lansdale’s story to the big screen with Speakman at its center is the culmination of years of filmmaking ambition. Gatto says:
“Joe created an incredible world, Jeff brings a presence and authenticity you simply cannot fake, and I get to take all of that and build a movie around it. I could not be more pumped to bring Lost Echoes to the big screen.”
Find out more about Lost Echoes right here, and look out for more on the movie as we get it.
