Production company | |
Industry | Motion pictures |
Founded | 1999 |
Founder |
Joel Silver Robert Zemeckis Jared Bush |
Key people
|
Susan Downey Steve Richards |
Parent | Silver Pictures |
Dark Castle Entertainment is an American film production label, it is a division of Silver Pictures, a production house formally affiliated with Warner Bros., now affiliated with Universal Studios. It was formed in 1999 by Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler. Susan Downey 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, a horror filmmaker from the 1950s and 1960s. When first formed, the goal was to remake Castle's horror films (very similar to another production company Platinum Dunes). After two remakes, it moved on to producing original material, along with remakes of non-Castle films. Starting with RocknRolla, the company began producing films in genres other than horror. Initially, most of the company's films were mostly critically panned, however recently their film Splice has received better reviews by critics.
Dark Castle Entertainment originally acquired the US rights to The Loft, as they did for Splice, with the intention of releasing the film through Warner Bros. When Joel Silver moved his office to Universal, 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. Universal and Dark Castle dropped the film, which was then picked up by Open Road Films, who released the film on January 30, 2015. There hasn't been any news about Dark Castle since.
Jason Blum has spoken to Silver twice about doing a co-production with Blumhouse Productions for Universal to distribute but they haven't found the right project yet.