Dark Castle Entertainment is an American film production label and a division of
Silver Pictures
Silver Pictures is an American film production company founded by Hollywood producer Joel Silver in 1980. The Silver Pictures logo, also called The Chip, is modeled on a block pattern that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the exteriors of the Sto ...
and
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of liv ...
, It was formed in 1998 by
Joel Silver
Joel Silver (born July 14, 1952) is an American film producer.
Life and career
Silver was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of a writer and a public relations executive. His family is Jewish. He attended Columbia High School i ...
,
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...
, and
Gilbert Adler
Gilbert Adler (born in New York City, February 14, 1946) is an American film producer who has collaborated with several notable filmmakers including Richard Donner, Brian De Palma, Walter Hill, Todd Phillips, and Bryan Singer.
In 1999, Adler -- ...
.
Susan Downey
Susan Nicole Downey (née Levin; born November 6, 1973) is an American film producer. Until February 2009, she was co-president of Dark Castle Entertainment and executive vice president of production at Silver Pictures, Joel Silver's production ...
was the Vice President of Development until February 2009, a term running congruent to her tenure as a VP of Production at parent company Silver Pictures.
Dark Castle Entertainment's name pays homage to
William Castle
William Castle (born William Schloss Jr.; April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor.
Orphaned at 11, Castle dropped out of high school at 15 to work in the theater. He came to the attenti ...
, a horror filmmaker from the 1950s and 1960s. When first formed, the goal was to remake Castle's
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
s. After two remakes, it moved on to producing original material, along with remakes of non-Castle films. Starting with ''
RocknRolla
''RocknRolla'' is a 2008 action crime film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, featuring an ensemble cast that includes Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandiwe Newton, Mark Strong, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Toby Kebbell, Jeremy Piven, and Chris ...
'', the company began producing films in genres other than horror. While most of the company's films were initially poorly reviewed by critics, their 2009 film ''
Splice'' eventually received better reviews.
Dark Castle Entertainment originally acquired the US rights to ''
The Loft
The Loft may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* The Loft (British band), a British indie band
* The Loft (Danish band), a Danish band
* ''The Loft'' (film) (2014) an American film
* The Loft (Sirius XM), a music channel on satellite r ...
'', as they did for ''Splice'', with the intention of releasing the film through Warner Bros. When
Joel Silver
Joel Silver (born July 14, 1952) is an American film producer.
Life and career
Silver was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of a writer and a public relations executive. His family is Jewish. He attended Columbia High School i ...
moved his office to
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
, he took Dark Castle, and the film, with him. Universal planned to release the film on August 29, 2014, but the studio pulled it from the schedule in favor of ''
As Above, So Below
"As above, so below" is a popular modern paraphrase of the second verse of the ''Emerald Tablet'' (a compact and cryptic Hermetic text first attested in a late eighth or early ninth century Arabic source), as it appears in its most widely divulg ...
''. Universal and Dark Castle dropped the film, which was then picked up by
Open Road Films
Open Road Films, LLC (formerly Global Road Entertainment from 2017 to 2018) is an American film production and distribution company based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded by Eric Hohl on March 26, 2011 as a joint venture between the t ...
and released on January 30, 2015.
Jason Blum
Jason Ferus Blum "Jason Ferus Blum was born in LA in 1969 to Shirley Neilsen, an art professor, and Irving Blum, an art dealer" (; born 1969) is an American film and television producer. He is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, whic ...
reportedly has spoken to Silver twice about a co-production with
Blumhouse Productions
Blumhouse Productions (; also known as BH Productions or simply BH) is an American film and television production company founded in 2000 by Jason Blum.
It is known mainly for producing horror films, such as ''Paranormal Activity'', ''Insidio ...
, for Universal to distribute, but they have yet to find the right project.
When featured at the start of a film, the studio's logo is presented with the
point-of-view focused a roaring gargoyle head. As the
camera
A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...
zooms out, it's shown that the statue is on the titular castle, with a full moon shining behind it, after which lightning strikes across the entire scene.
Filmography
Lifetime grosses
(A) Indicates minimum, as that is only two countries totals merged.
See also
*
William Castle
William Castle (born William Schloss Jr.; April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor.
Orphaned at 11, Castle dropped out of high school at 15 to work in the theater. He came to the attenti ...
*
Susan Downey
Susan Nicole Downey (née Levin; born November 6, 1973) is an American film producer. Until February 2009, she was co-president of Dark Castle Entertainment and executive vice president of production at Silver Pictures, Joel Silver's production ...
*
Joel Silver
Joel Silver (born July 14, 1952) is an American film producer.
Life and career
Silver was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of a writer and a public relations executive. His family is Jewish. He attended Columbia High School i ...
*
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...
*
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of liv ...
*
Blumhouse Productions
Blumhouse Productions (; also known as BH Productions or simply BH) is an American film and television production company founded in 2000 by Jason Blum.
It is known mainly for producing horror films, such as ''Paranormal Activity'', ''Insidio ...
*
Ghost House Pictures
Ghost House Pictures is an American film production company that was founded in 2002 by Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi, which usually co-produces films with Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane. The company produces horror films such as ''Don't Breathe'', ...
*
Gold Circle Films
Gold Circle Films is an American independent film production and sales company, mainly focusing on horror and romance films founded in 2000 by former co-founder of Gateway Computer, Norman Waitt Jr. Titles released by Gold Circle include ''Whit ...
*
Platinum Dunes
Platinum Dunes is an American production company founded in November 2001 by filmmakers Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form. The company produces horror films, such as ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'', ''The Purge'', ''Friday the 13th (20 ...
*
Twisted Pictures
Twisted Pictures is an American production company and a division of Evolution Entertainment that specializes in horror and thriller movies. The company was founded by Evolution's Mark Burg, Oren Koules, and Gregg Hoffman in 2004. The company i ...
*
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
References
{{Authority control
American companies established in 1999
Film production companies of the United States
Companies based in Los Angeles
Mass media companies established in 1999