In the first trailer for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, not even Christopher Robin is safe from a wild Winnie the Pooh.
As was said before, the “tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff” will take a very dark turn in the direct-to-VOD slasher movie after Christopher Robin, who is now in college, leaves it. Because he and Piglet have had to take care of themselves in Christopher’s absence, writer/director Rhys Waterfield told our sister publication Variety that they have “gone back to their animal roots” and are “no longer tame.” “They’re like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey.”
When will the movie Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey come out?
Variety says that filming for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey ended in early May of this year, but there hasn’t been an official release date announced yet.
“Because of all the press and stuff, we’re just going to start expediting the edit and getting it through post-production as fast as we can,” Waterfield told the outlet. “But also, making sure it’s still good. It’s gonna be a high priority.”
The movie was shot in 10 days in England, not far from Ashdown Forest, which was the model for Milne’s made-up Hundred Acre Wood in the “Winnie the Pooh” stories. Waterfield wouldn’t say how much the slasher movie cost, but he did say that people “shouldn’t expect this to be a Hollywood-level production.” The movie was made by Waterfield and Scott Jeffrey’s company, Jagged Edge Productions, and ITN Studios has already agreed to distribute it (the release date is TBD).
Waterfield said that, given the premise, the hardest part was finding the right balance between scary and funny. “When you try and do a film like this, and it’s a really wacky concept, it’s very easy to go down a route where nothing is scary and it’s just really ridiculous and really, like, stupid. And we wanted to go between the two.”
Waterfield gave the still (above) of a girl relaxing in a jacuzzi while Pooh and Piglet stand nearby looking scary as an example. “She’s having a good time and then Pooh and Piglet appear behind her, chloroform her, take her out of the jacuzzi, and then kind of drive a car over her head,” Waterfield said. “It’s scary but there are also funny bits because there’s shots of Winnie the Pooh in a car and seeing him with his little ears behind the wheel and like slowly going over there [to kill her.]”
The only thing keeping me up at night is whether or not Disney will have anything to say about “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey,” especially with all the recent attention it has received. Disney has sole rights to utilize their Pooh Bear and friends adaptations, even though Milne’s early stories are no longer protected by copyright. ‘We’ve tried to be extremely careful,’ Waterfield added. “We knew there was this line between that, and we knew what their copyright was and what they’ve done. So we did as much as we could to make sure [the film] was only based on the 1926 version of it.”
That’s why Piglet is wearing all black and Pooh Bear has ditched the red t-shirt for a lumberjack outfit in Waterfield. This is why Tigger and the other characters who are still protected by copyright can’t make an appearance, though Pooh and Piglet do visit the grave of poor old Eeyore after they’ve eaten him out of hunger.
“No one is going to mistake this [for Disney],” Waterfield said. “When you see the cover for this and you see the trailers and the stills and all that, there’s no way anyone is going to think this is a child’s version of it.”
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