The Box

See the trailer.

Based off of a short story by Richard Matheson (my absolute favorite author) called "Button, button", it's being written for the screen and directed by Donnie Darko's Richard Kelly.

Synopsis:

"What if someone gave you a box containing a button that, if pushed, would bring you a million dollars…but simultaneously take the life of someone you don’t know? Would you do it? And what would be the consequences? The year is 1976. Norma Lewis is a teacher at a private high school and her husband, Arthur, is an engineer working at NASA. They are, by all accounts, an average couple living a normal life in the suburbs with their young son…until a mysterious man with a horribly disfigured face appears on their doorstep and presents Norma with a life-altering proposition: the box. With only 24 hours to make their choice, Norma and Arthur face an impossible moral dilemma. What they don’t realize is that no matter what they decide, terrifying consequences will have already been set in motion. They soon discover that the ramifications of this decision are beyond their control and extend far beyond their own fortune and fate."

For those of you who don't know who Richard Matheson is (tsk, tsk), he is one of the greatest horror writers ever. Matheson has a talent for short stories, both horror and sci-fi. He wrote I am Legend. One collection of short stories is called "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", and it has some bad ass stories therein. You've probably watched more than one of the movie adaptations of his books. "Stir of Echoes" (Kevin Bacon) is one of them. Remember that episode (or sequence from the movie) of The Twilight Zone where the man is on the airplane and sees the gremlin on the wing, but nobody believes him? That is Matheson's work. The Shrinking Man is also a great one, as is Duel. Remember Duel? Thats the story about the man in the car "battling" a rogue 18 wheeler. It was also the very first movie that Steven Spielberg directed. He also has a knack for romance novels, both of which were made into movies, Somewhere in Time (Christopher Reeve & Jane Seymore) and What Dreams May Come (Robin Williams & Cuba Gooding Jr.). His most recent novel in "Hunted Past Reason", a suspense thriller novel about two men hiking in the deep wilderness of Yellowstone Park, and one hiker "snaps" and psychotically and sadistically chases and tortures the other hiker. My personal favorite is "Hell House", the grand daddy KING of haunted house novels. This is one of the few books I have ever read that actually made me sleep with my lights on.

Looks good, Frank Langella FTW.

I have always enjoyed Richard Matheson's works.. I will see this

I saw a trailer for this few days ago, and I think it will be interesting. Will be seeing it, for sure.

Not a fan of the two leads but will check it out. If it goes by the original source, it should be good.

Donnie Darko I adore, Southland Tales I didn't. Hope he has gone back to Donnie Darko good.

Hopefully this will be good. I really enjoyed the Twilight Zone version of this.

Looks quite interesting.

There was a [new] Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode done of this in the late 80's or early 90's.

I'd say the spoiler of that episode, but it might ruinthe movie.

I thought that put on a new ending different to the original story by Matherson?

I saw it, too, when I was younger. I wiki'd the plot summary because I forgot the names of the actors.

Originally posted by MildPossession
I thought that put on a new ending different to the original story by Matherson?

Matheson strongly disapproved of the episode.

YouTube video

Out of all the hosts to pick for "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", Jigsaw had to be the one to to get picked.

Embedding disabled by host.

looks exciting 🙂 i love these kinds of thrillers where it's all "but what if you did this instead of this?"

and the trailer isn't all *THIS IS THE PLOT* which is always a plus.

piqued my interest, i'll probably see it late in the theatre run.

i may pass on this, i will wait and see

Looks not bad, not a on big screen though. DVD its def a watch.

When I was at church camp a group from purdue used to do this as a skit. It barely worked as a 15 minute skit I don't see them stretching it into 2 hours believably

Originally posted by saintsaucey
When I was at church camp a group from purdue used to do this as a skit. It barely worked as a 15 minute skit I don't see them stretching it into 2 hours believably

It's a short story by Richard Matheson (I am Legend) called "Button, Button". In the late 80's The Twilight Zone did an episode based off of it, it to was only 20 minutes long. I still remember it.

the fact that i can't stand james marsden means i dunno if i'd watch this. it looks like a radical departure from the original story, which is interesting though.

is it me, or is there something up with frank langella's face in that trailer? at first i thought he was smoking a cigar, but it looks like he's deformed or something...

It's getting extremely rubbish comments from people who have seen it... somewhere I read that one group of viewers grade what they see like school grades, C is suppose to be a rubbish mark usually but most gave it F...

And sounds like they have changed the ending compared to the book too.