26 Directors Assemble for 'The ABCs of Death'

Banjong Pisanthanakun, Jason Eisener, Simon Rumley, Srdjan Spasojevic and Ti West are planning to get bloody for the Drafthouse Films-Timpson Films anthology project The ABCs of Death.

Magnet Releasing is also producing and distributing the horror project, which will involve 26 directors contributing deadly shorts to the feature.

Additional helmers on the roster include Angela Bettis, Adrian Garcia Bogliano, Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, Bruno Forzani & Helene Cattet, Gadi Harel & Marcel Sarmiento, Thomas Malling, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Tak Sakaguchi & Yuji Shimomura, Timo Tjahjanto, Andrew Traucki, Nacho Vigalando, Jake West, Ben Wheatley and Adam Wingard, plus one contest winner chosen through a worldwide competition.

Each director will be assigned one letter from the alphabet as a starting point. Production is scheduled to begin in June and end precisely six months, six weeks and six days later (666!!).

Alamo Drafthouse CEO and founder Tim League is producing; Timpson Films CEO Ant Timpson will co-produce. Magnolia International is repping international sales.

"Helming Fantastic Fest for the past seven years has brought us in touch with an amazing community of filmmaking talent,” said League. “The ABCs of Death offers us a chance to work closely with a large number of visionary filmmakers to create a film with more jaw-dropping moments than a whole summer of blockbusters.”

Added Timpson: "This project was inspired by my young sons being introduced to the world through their ABCs books. The idea of subverting that format to reveal a study in all the dastardly and humorous ways a person can leave this world appealed on multiple levels.”

Magnet exec Tom Quinn negotiated the deal with League, Timpson and Jason Janego. Several of the involved filmmakers, such as Eisener (Hobo With a Shotgun) and West (The House of the Devil), have seen previous work go out through Magnet.

The genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, Magnet has recently released Let the Right One In, Centurion, Red Cliff, Monsters, Bronson, I Saw the Devil and Rubber.

Drafthouse Films has released Four Lions.

Email: jay.fernandez@thr.com