Following on the heels of the announcement of Puppet Master: Axis Termination, we now have even bigger news regarding the Puppet Master franchise. Di Bonaventura Pictures (the production company behind Transformers) has joined forces with Caliber Media (Some Kind of Hate) to reboot the Puppet Master series and even create a new cinematic universe based around the property, with multiple storylines. Charles Band, head of Full Moon Features (the company that distributed the original Puppet Master films) is also on board to executive produce this redux.
S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk) has been tapped to pen the screenplay for the new film, which is going to be called Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich.
According to the press release: “Zahler’s completely new take on Puppet Master will maintain all of the brutally inventive puppet kills infused with the comedic tendencies that made the original franchise so popular with fans, while expanding upon Toulon’s backstory and developing richer dialogue, characters, and narratives.”
“The storyline for The Littlest Reich follows a recently divorced young man who discovers a mint condition Blade doll in his deceased brother’s closet and plans to sell the toy at a convention in Oregon celebrating the 30th anniversary of the infamous Toulon Murders. All hell breaks loose at the Postville Lodge during the auction when a strange force animates all of the various puppets throughout the convention as they go on a bloody killing spree.”
As we’ve said before, Puppet Master is the longest running and most successful independent direct-to-video franchise ever. The David Schmoeller helmed original has seen a combined total of nine sequels plus a spinoff effort that Full Moon was not directly involved with.
