Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll

From Twitch Film (via Film Rot) comes news that the first images have appeared online for Marilyn Manson’s upcoming film Phantasmagoria: The Visions Of Lewis Carroll. Wait a minute — hold the phone. Marilyn Manson is directing a movie? I vaguely recall hearing something about this, but I guess I missed the official announcement a couple months ago. Isn’t it bad enough that we already have Rob Zombie unleashing his “uncompromising artistic vision” on the film world? Okay I know some people actually like Zombie’s films, and to be honest, I do think Marilyn Manson is a talented and interesting guy beneath all that make-up. Plus this movie sounds like a perfect fit. Phantasmagoria is not based on the 1995 Roberta Williams video game, but rather it is a biopic of sorts about Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, where his disturbing and strange imagination overlaps with his real life. I guess it’s kind of like a twisted version of Finding Neverland. Manson had said before that he would do a series of short films to be released on his website, followed by the feature film, although it is unclear whether or not the short films are still happening. RooTV has a video of a press conference from the Berlin Film Festival where Manson discusses his motives for making the movie. Check out images from the movie at the link below.

Manson's pet project Phantasmagoria, which is based on Lewis Carroll living by himself in a castle terrified of each night and his visions of Alice, is budgeted at $4.2M and backed by none other then Wild Bunch. Shooting was reportedly supposed to start recently after a tour to promote his 7th album. This will be Manson's directorial debut with him also starring as Lewis Carroll, and reportedly he's using a "new camera" he's very excited about and the film won't contain any cgi, instead relying on a "magician" he hired to create special effects. To boot, he's going back to do the days of Roman Polanski and Hitchock horror where the desire is to allow the viewer to "do their own damage". Damn, it sounds good already and knowing Manson it'll be really twisted. Unfortunately there's not much more right now, but you can check out three promo stills after the break.

http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2008/07/11/Marilyn-Mansons-Phantasmagoria-The-Visions-of-Lewis-Carroll

http://www.filmjunk.com/2006/03/29/marilyn-manson-directing-phantasmagoria-the-visions-of-lewis-carroll/