You know what would happen if Rob Zombie ran The Hunger Games?  It’d probably be a little like the idea behind this new project he’s putting together called 31.  In the movie, five carnival workers are abducted the night before Halloween and thrown into a secret facility called Murder World.  That’s where they play the game 31 during which they’ve got to survive 12 hours in the compound packed with maniacs dressed as clowns trying to kill them.Protagonist Pictures is gearing up to bring the project to the international marketplace at AFM next month.  Production is expected to begin in February.  Hit the jump for more on 31.According to Variety, the production companies behind the film include Spectacle Entertainment Group, Bow + Arrow Entertainment and Protagonist Pictures.  Bow + Arrow and Protagonist are co-financing the project as well.  Zombie and Andy Gould will produce for Spectacle while Eddie Vaisman will do so for Protagonist alongside Michael Sherman and Matthew Perniciaro of Bow + Arrow.Here’s what Zombie had to say about the project:

“I love movies about Halloween, in fact my first film, ‘House Of 1000 Corpses,’ is set on Halloween.  In looking for a new angle I found that more people go missing and are never found this day than any other in the year.  I thought that’s a good premise for a film.  Add in the fact that everyone I know seems to really hate clowns and now you got a film and without the fans raising funds and helping to build buzz, a crazy film like this would have been almost impossible to get off the ground.  I owe the fans big time on this one.”

Zombie is actually just about to wrap up a crowdfunding campaign for the film.  The page doesn’t say how much has been raised, but Zombie does have 5,377 backers, a number of which have claimed the bigger rewards so it’s got to be a decent sum.  There’s also some sketches of what the five victims will be up against in Murder World, although it doesn’t seem like they’re all dressed as clowns.  In fact, I’m pretty sure I caught The Master from The Strain in there.

Here’s some additional information on the movie from the film’s Fan Backed page:

“This whole crowd funding thing is about us making the type of movie we all wish we could see.  Not a mellow PG-13 affair but hardcore R-rated movie you can scream about.  Obviously the more contributors and the more contributions the purer we can be in making the film we want to make for you.  But the main thing is we want everybody to be a part of it.  If you can't contribute that's okay, maybe you can help by reposting this image and helping us spread the word.  Everything helps.  Gore Hounds unite!”