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James Wan Producing Movie Adaptation of Milk Horror Short Film
James Wan will be producing a feature length movie adaptation of the horror short film Milk. The short horror film by filmmaker Santiago Menghini has grabbed some serious attention at this year’s film festival circuit, and it has become one of the standout short films of the year.
Milk follows the chilling story of a young teen boy with a controlling mother who soon begins questioning the nature of his reality. The short film has succeeded in winning a number of awards at different film festivals over the course of this year, including the prestigious Midnight Shorts Jury Award at SXSW.
News of James Wan’s involvement in a feature length adaptation of the horror short came via Collider. As word of Milk’s success traveled around, New Line snapped up the rights to the short film and handed over the project to Wan. Santiago Menghini has been chosen to stay on and direct the feature length adaptation of his short, while Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski will write the script. Michael Clear and Roy Lee will join Wan as producers on the project.
Wan is a busy filmmaker as of late, balancing both directing and producing duties though a number of movie projects. Though he is perhaps best known for his construction of an expansive horror universe starting with his 2013 film The Conjuring and his upcoming DCEU debut with Aquaman, he is also heading a number of other exciting projects that many of his fans might not know about. Over the summer it was announced that he will produce an reboot of the horror/comedy Arachnophobia, while he is also producing a feature film adaptation of Stephen King’s famous novel The Tommyknockers. He is also attached as a producer on the planned reboot of the popular sci-fi Resident Evil.
Some of the most unique works in contemporary horror filmmaking have come from prominent filmmakers, like Wan, producing feature length adaptations of promising short films that caught Hollywood’s attention at film festivals. Fans of the horror genre will remember Guillermo del Toro’s decision to produce a feature length adaptation of Andrés Mushietti’s short Mama, which went on to become one of the most talked-about films of 2013. Of course, Wan has already had some success with this formula of expanding a horror short into a full length picture: his debut film Saw was in fact based off of a short film of the same name. Plus, Wan produced the movie adaptation of David F. Sandberg's Lights Out, which was based on Sandberg's short film. Considering Wan’s mastery of the horror genre as reflected in his previous work and Milk’s success on the film festival circuit, this feature length adaptation definitely has the recipe for success.
