David Howard Thornton is trading in his Art the Clown digs for something a little…different. Variety has released the first image from Screamboat, the upcoming horror film based on the 1928 animated short Steamboat Willie, which entered the public domain last year.
The upcoming film follows “a group of New Yorkers on a late-night ferry ride that turns deadly when a mischievous mouse begins a rampage, targeting unsuspecting passengers. The unlikely crew must band together to thwart the murderous menace before their relaxing commute turns into a nightmare.” Thornton’s killer is awfully big for a mouse, but then again, if Jason Voorhees can take a stroll through Manhattan, what’s one more oversized rat in a city seemingly full of them, if locals are to be believed?
“I’m so excited to share our mischievous monster mouse with the world. ‘Screamboat’ is my way of paying homage to Disney while putting a sinister, yet comedic twist on the classic,” writer-director Steven LaMorte told Variety. “Watching David Howard Thornton bring Steamboat Willie to life with the magicians at Quantum Creation FX has been nothing short of amazing — he’s hilarious and murderously entertaining. I can’t wait for audiences to meet Willie and experience the chaos we’ve created.”
Screamboat also stars Allison Pittel, Tyler Posey, Amy Schumacher, Jesse Posey, Jesse Kove, Kailey Hyman, Rumi C Jean-Louis, Jarlath Conroy, and Charles Edwin Powell, as well as cameos from Brian Quinn and stand-up comedian Joe DeRosa. The prosthetics and creature design for Thornton’s killer rodent were designed by Christian Cordella and built by Quantum Creation.
Screamboat is not the first, nor the only horror film to take popular characters that have entered the public domain and put a gruesome twist on them. There are not one, but two films based on Popeye hitting screens this year, including Popeye’s Revenge and Popeye the Slayer Man.
Screamboat is set to hit theaters in April. Check out the new image below:
