Daniel Stamm to Direct Horror-Thriller Remake '13: Game of Death'

12:15 PM PDT 9/12/2011 by Pamela McClintock

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Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Stuart Ford's IM Global announces the project in Toronto; the original Thai film is a cult-classic and macabre satire of media culture.

TORONTO—Financing and sales company IM Global has set Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism) to direct the English-language remake of Thai horror-thriller 13: Game of Death.

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Stuart Ford said Stamm is currently working with writing partner David Birke to adapt the screenplay, and that they hope to go into production early next year.

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A cult favorite, the original Game of Death is a macarbre satire of media culture that follows a financially strapped salesman who receives an anonymous phone call informing him he's on a hidden camera game show, and that if he complete 13 tasks, he will receive a multi-million cash prize.

But, entrapped within the horrors manipulated by unseen spectators, the protagonist's need to complete the game escalates as the tasks grow more extreme, to a devastating point of no return.

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Ford and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones of Automatik, IM Global's production joint venture with Alliance Films, will produce alongside Kiki Miyake.

“Daniel is one of the most talented young genre directors in the business and we're really excited to see what he and David can do with such darkly riveting source material,” Ford said.

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Miyake's Little Magic banner initially brought the widely pursued project to IM Global's executive vice president of acquisitions Amal Elwardi. IM Global collaborator Jason Blum Paranormal Activity, Insidious) and Somsak Techaratanaprasert of Sahamongkolfilm (producer of the original Thai movie) will executive produce.

IM Global and Automatik are currently in production or post-production on 10 features they are producing and/or financing with various partners, including action-thrillers Safe (Jason Statham), Bullet to the Head (Sylvestor Stallone) and Welcome to the Punch (James McAvoy), and genre titles The Bay, from Barry Levinson, Scott Derrickson’s Sinister and Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salems.