Press Play and Record

Brief last-minute post to document today's release of Quarantine, American remake of the shockingly recent Spanish production [REC]. Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's project had its first showing on August 29 of '07, making this surely one of the quickest turnarounds in remake history. Last year's version is a fine flick, a punched-up little mostly-single-locale, mostly-real-time aggressive-infection flick that I'd happily set alongside Mulberry Street, Cloverfield, or even Shivers at my next Halloween party (or all of the above, if only my friends were a little more devoted).

Remake is directed by John Eric Dowdle, whose last assignment was The Poughkeepsie Tapes, some sort of faux-snuff pseudodoc project that did what seemed to me like a fair bit of internet viral marketing before completely disappearing from anyone's radar. Cursory research reveals that after screening at Tribeca in April 2007, it was scheduled for February 2008 release (hence the marketing machine kicking in) before being delayed to sometime in 2009.

[REC]² is in the script stage, set for sometime 2009. Teaser poster confirms Balaguero and Plaza both on as writers/directors.