Iggy Pop to star in Christmas thriller

Horror movie the brainchild of David Tully, who teaches film studies at Middlesex University in Dubai.

David Tully with his wife Daniela. Reem Mohammed / The National

DUBAI // Casting Detroit music legend Iggy Pop as a masked serial killer who scoops his victims’ eyes out with a melon spoon is perhaps one of the darkest ideas for a Christmas movie yet, but a university lecturer is hoping that adding a little horror to the festive season will make it a hit with film fans.

The brainchild of the gruesome flick is scriptwriter David Tully, who teaches film studies at Middlesex University in Dubai.

The script for The Sandman, which is based on a 19th-century German story, was picked up by Italian horror director Dario Argento. Pop later agreed to play the lead role.

“It was like a dream come true, I got to work with all my childhood heroes,” said Mr Tully.

His wife, Daniela, is also a lecturer at Middlesex University in film production. The pair worked in Los Angeles for about 10 years before moving to Dubai last September.

“Kudos to David for coming up with that wintry story while looking out on the beach at JBR,” she said.

The husband and wife both worked on the script and production for the recent RAK-based horror film Djinn, which was produced by Image Nation and directed by Tobe Hooper – the man behind 80’s horror classic Poltergeist. It broke Dh1 million in the local box office on its first weekend.

Ms Tully will also produce The Sandman.

Since The Sandman did not have major studio backing, it was financed on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo.

In six weeks it managed to raise more than US$196,000 (Dh720,000) having set out to raise $165,000. Backers were given incentives, such as being an extra who is killed by Pop, or owning the melon spoon that will serve as the murder weapon.

The film will begin shooting in November this year, primarily in upstate New York.

Argento, who will direct The Sandman, said that the script was “a kind of tribute to my movies and my whole career”.

“I am tired of these Christmas movies showing goodness, beauty, snowflakes, sledges pulled by reindeer.

“I’d rather have a Christmas movie where there is also strength, violence, horror, and this is what I’m going to do.”

The film cast Pop as the serial killer after the US singer said he admired the films of Argento as “compellingly strange, beautiful, and full of relentless terror”.

“If I could play the Sandman for him it would make my life complete,” he said. “I hope I have not just written my own epitaph.”

The singer is most famous as the bare-chested lead vocalist for proto punk group The Stooges, although he has appeared in several films including The Crow: City of Angels.

Mr Tully said Pop – known throughout his long career for performing stripped to the waist – was “not contractually obliged” to wear a shirt during the making of the film.

The lecturer has written another script that may also be made into a film – an adaptation of MR James’ classic, Casting the Runes. It has been picked up by Gremlins director Joe Dante, and there was speculation that the British actor Simon Pegg might play the lead.

Mr Tully will be hosting a film conference next month at Middlesex University. He said his successful sideline in the movie business has not changed him, nor his wife.

“It’s written into my contract that no one is allowed to look directly at us,” he said, jokingly. “Seriously though, having real industry experience has made it easier to teach students in class.

“We have some real stories from the trenches that we’re able to share with them. And they tend to respond positively to that.”