Now that some beloved children's stories have entered the public domain, some filmmakers have taken advantage of the opportunity to give them a different and twisted take. Different from the duo we all grew to love, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet will now be murdering people for their next meal in the forthcoming slasher film, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. While some of A.A. Milne's characters appear to be receiving sinister treatment, the director behind the film explained why the enthusiastic Tigger won't be joining the two anthropomorphic characters in a murder spree.
Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the filmmaker shared via SFX Magazine that they had to be particularly careful in selecting the characters because some of them, like Tigger, are still largely associated with Disney. "When we were coming up with this, we knew that we would have to be really careful about what elements we used. We couldn't be influenced by the Disney version at all, so I consciously didn't watch anything by them. I went through the book and I purposefully tried to make our Pooh and Piglet as distinct as I could."
Tigger first appeared in the 1928 children's book "The House At Pooh Corner," which is still not available in the public domain, where some filmmakers can legally use it in varied and creative ways. Since Tigger, in particular, is still covered by copyright, the director said: "Tigger, for example, isn't in the public domain. So he wasn't allowed to be used in the story."
In addition to directing Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, Frake-Waterfield will also produce two other films that will give a dark spin on Peter Pan and Bambi. Given the number of beloved childhood characters that will be receiving dark interpretations in the coming years, perhaps it's for the best that the bouncing tiger will be protected from a twisted and chilling update for a little while longer.
Blood and Honey follows Winnie the Pooh as he loses interest in honey and develops a craving for human flesh. After Christopher Robin leaves them for college, he and Piglet struggle for survival, leaving the two with no option but to fend for themselves—even if it means killing people in the process. Taking abandonment issues to a new level, Blood and Honey will chronicle a gruesome tale about how childhood friendship can only go so far when survival and hunger are at stake.
The upcoming film stars Craig David Dowsett and Chris Cordell as Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. The rest of the cast includes Nikolai Leon, Amber Doig-Thorne, Maria Taylor, Danielle Ronald, Natasha Tosini, and May Kelly. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey hits theaters on February 15, 2023.