When The Earth Gives Up The Dead – YouTube release…

They’re here!

That’s right, my new film ‘When The Earth Gives Up The Dead‘ has landed. The last film in the loose ‘Sekurig’ series of horror films based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Not only has the film landed – its free to view on Halloween 2022.

So now, you can enjoy all three films in the Sekurig Trilogy free of charge:

When The Earth Gives Up The Dead

At The Mountains of Madness

Markham

At The Mountains of Madness – film version

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham was released in 2020 and the first part of a trilogy of horror films based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft – called the ‘Sekurig trilogy’ , his second feature film as director (and second in the trilogy) ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ hit the screen in 2021, and the final film in ‘When The Earth Gives Up The Dead’ was released on Halloween 2022 – you can watch all three films for free on Mat’s YouTube Channel

When The Earth Gives Up The Dead – release date drops on GOTH CHRISTMAS 31st OCT 2022

Crash bang wallop – When the Earth Gives Up the Dead the last of the Sekurig trilogy of horror films will be released on HALLOWEEN 2022 – that’s right GOTH Christmas.

When The Earth Gives Up The Dead POSTER

Keep checking back for more updates…

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ hit the screen in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb. Matthew is also a  judge in the Page Turner Awards 2022.

Is there a film version of ‘At The Mountains of Madness?’ – YES and you can buy it here!

At The Mountains Of Madness’ is horror writer H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous and chilling story – and when it comes to chilling and unknowable horror – Lovecraft is one of the genre’s masters.  Has the story ever been made into a film?  Yes, it has.

Lots and lots of filmmakers have attempted to change the story into a film, including James Cameron and more recently Guillermo del Toro who tried to get NetFlix to finance a version featuring Tom Cruise.    But neither Del Torro or Cameron could get the film finance together and both of their versions of the famous story withered on the filmmaking vine.

The only version of the film that made it to production is a low budget, arty black and white indie horror directed by Matthew Cooper (your’s truly) and starring Tony Coughlan, Ashe Russell and Gary Geeson. 

At The Mountain of Madness – feature film

The film was made in 2020/21 during the height of the Covid Pandemic, on a budget below £10,000 and was mostly shot in and around Yorkshire in the UK – although you wouldn’t be able to tell from the snowy wastelands on screen.

You can also buy At the Mountains of Madness on VOD here or for the DVD click here.

The same team of filmmakers made Markham which was released in 2020  and are currently in post production on When the Earth Gives up the Dead (2022) both of which are also inspired by H.P. Lovecraft stories.

All three films are great additions to the Lovecraft cannon – and no matter what you make of the low budget version of At The Mountains Of Madness’ – at least these filmmakers made it – which is a step further than Del Toro or Cameron ever managed.

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ hit the screen in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

When the Earth Gives up the Dead (2022) – Principle Photography has WRAPPED

When the Earth Gives up the Dead (2022) is a wrap – the live action sequences at least are now in the bag – this, the third film in my Lovecraft Trilogy (which includes ‘Markham’ and ‘At the Mountains of Madness’) is now moving into a heavy post production phase that will include loads of exciting SFX sequences as well as some knock-out old school Stop Motion animation provided by the Warehouse Transmedia Wrecking Crew.

Below are a few behind the scenes shots from our last day of shooting.

Keeping checking back for more exciting updates.  

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ hit the screen in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

Dark Eyes of London put their focus on Matthew Cooper director

David Dent is a horror and fantasy films critic who has set himself an incredible task of cataloguing every British fantasy film from 2020 onwards across on his blog Dark Eyes of London.

While doing this, David came across my feature debut as a director Markham (2020), which he was enthusiastic about.  He then followed this up with some very kind words about my second film At the Mountains of Madness (2021).

David has been so supportive that when he launched his Dark Eyes of London fanzine in print, he feature both films in the first issue, and myself and the team are really honoured to feature in the fanzine – because apart from anything, the magazine is a brilliant read.   

 
With the world wide web appearing many moons ago printed fanzines kind of died a death – but it’s so nice to actually have a printed copy of something (and I say this as a digital first person).


I remember buying horror fanzines like Deep Red back in the 80s and this magazine is along those lines.


If you want to buy a copy its £3 and you’ll have to track down the author on Twitter – David Dent – Dark Eyes of London – Twitter handle (@darkeyesofldn)


Also in the mag are directors Louisa Warren (Curse of the Scarecrow) , Tom Lee Rutter (The Pocket Film of Superstitions) and Charlie Steeds (Death Ranch).


I guarantee you’ll end up buying some DVDs or streaming some films you’ve never heard of – which is kind of the point.

You can buy Markham on VOD here. You can also buy At the Mountains of Madness on VOD here.

If you want to purchase either film on DVD click here.

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ hit the screen in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

Tip of the hat to Phil – the genius behind Mad God

After the two low budget horror films Markham and At The Mountains Of Madness one of my upcoming projects requires a lot of old school stop motion effects and miniature work.  I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty one-frame at a time – but any sort of stop motion work is a huge undertaking.

One of the last great practitioners of stop motion animation is Phil Tippett – Phil was the AT-AT man on Empire Strikes Back as well as the genius behind Robocop and Starship Troppers amazing special effects.

But almost in secret and in his spare time between Hollywood projects Phil has been working away on his own feature length stop-mo epic.  Mad God has been 30 YEARS! That’s right -30YEARS- in the making, but from the trailer below it looks like it will have been more than worth the wait.

I just hope that my project using these effects doesn’t take as long to finish.

Matthew Cooper has been a scriptwriter for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ hit the screen in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

At The Mountains of Madness (2021) – Horror Feature film – Buy on DVD or VOD

‘At the Mountains of Madness’ is one of horror author H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous tales of terror. It was said to be one of the great un-filmable novels.  Well, not anymore…

In 2021 scriptwriter and director Matthew Cooper, released  his take on the tale of terror and madness.

Finally, somebody had managed to film ‘At The Mountains of Madness’

Watch ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ (2021)

You can watch the film now on VOD below or buy the DVD on the director’s website.

At The Mountains of Madness (2021) from Matthew Cooper on Vimeo.

Matthew Cooper has been a scriptwriter for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller ‘Markham was released in 2020, his second feature film as director ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ will be released in 2021. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

Pre-order ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ (2021) RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!

When super talented Hollywood big shot, Guillermo del Toro put together the proposal to film his long cherished ‘dream project’ – an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ – the budget was over $100 million dollars.   With the kind of budget, you’re nearly talking serious money.

Unfortunately for Guillermo, the studio bean counters thought 100 mill was way too rich for their blood, and his project remains unmade.

When me and my team decided to film an adaptation of ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ our budget was below £2,000.  That’s probably not enough to cover the biscuit bill for a Hollywood production, but, myself and a select few dedicated actors and technicians completed our version of Lovecraft’s’ story in Feb this year (it was even shot during lockdown 2).

Pre-Order At The Mountains of Madness

You can now pre-order the low budget horror feature ‘At The Mountains of Madness‘ on Vimeo.   It’s out for all to see on 28 July.

The DVD will be available soon for fans of physical media.

You can pre-order on Vimeo below:

Watch At The Mountains of Madness (2021) Online | Vimeo On Demand on Vimeo

Matthew Cooper has been a scriptwriter for hire and UK script consultant for over 20 years. His short film script ‘Family Style’ won the first ever Lloyds Bank Channel Four Script Writing Challenge in the UK in 1993. The film was commissioned by Channel Four and starred a then unknown actor called Ewan McGregor.

Matthew went onto write award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, Hollyoaks and Eastenders (where he wrote the episode where ‘Alfie’ told ‘Kat’ he loved her for the first time). Matthew has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a scriptwriter.

In 2020, Matthews’s first film as a director, the low budget rubber reality horror film ‘Markham’ was released. The innovative independent production was nearly two years in the making, shot partially on Super 8mm film, and was almost entirely improvised by the actors.

You can find out more about Matthew’s work on his website and follow him on Twitter and Instagram too.

https://www.instagram.com/matcoop23/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1247639/?ref_=tt_ov_dr

http://www.matcoop.co.uk/

At The Mountains of Madness (2021) Rough cut completed

At The Mountains of Madness (2021)

My second feature film as a director – the micro budget Lovecraft themed ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ had its first rough cut completed this week, and has been sent off to the composer to start work on the score.

A few clients in my day to day work as a UK script consultant, have asked how we could have possibly shot a feature film (on any budget) during the last 12 months – most of which were spent in Lockdown in the UK, due to the pandemic.

The answer is, it wasn’t easy.  But, making a feature film never is, and it often feels like trying to walk a very strong dog, which has ideas of where he wants to go.   You try and pull the leash, but a lot of time, the dogs superior strength means it gets to go exactly where he decides, however hard you pull.

At the Mountains of Madness’ is due for release later this year. I’m very pleased with the film and especially pleased with the effects work, nearly every shot in the film has had something done to it from a special effects POV, but it has retained its naturalistic black and white look, which at times was hard to do.

Keep checking back, as I intend to reveal more about the making of the film as we approach the release date.   

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

Matthew’s directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

Matthew Cooper Director looks back on The Long Goodbye

I’m quite near to a first cut on my second feature film as a director – the low budget horror ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ and I’m pleased to say it’s coming together nicely.  There have been a few surprises in the edit suite, but nothing too bad, so that’s good.

As a break this week I watched Robert Altman’s ‘The Long Goodbye’ his hip 70s, update on Phil Marlowe.

I’m an Altman fan, chiefly because of this film – and ‘McCabe and Mrs Miller’, ‘The Player’, ‘MASH’ and ‘Gosford Park’ are all great too.  That’s a handful of very interesting and original movies right there. I’d say McCabe is my favourite. There are few westerns like it, and Warren Beatty has never been better.

But Altman made a ton of films, a lot of them hard to see, or considered disasters. He himself said that he just carried on doing the same thing, sometimes the films hit, and sometimes they didn’t.  Sometimes the films didn’t work themselves and he knew it. 

Altman was a gambler, and made a very good film about gambling called ‘California Split’. He also knew that filmmaking, like gambling, depended a lot on luck.  Sure, skill and know how is involved, but luck too.  And when the films didn’t work, it was down to luck, the same as when everything came together and you’d shot a masterpiece like McCabe.  

So, on my second film as a director, I’m slowly learning that being lucky sometimes helps.  I’m sure Altman will tell you he worked as hard on the films that didn’t work as on the films that did. And I’m sure that’s true, and other directors will tell you the same.

‘The Long Goodbye’ works, it transcends the detective genre, it’s funny and cool and sad as well.  It’s Jazzy. The camera slips and slides, Elliot Gould is doing his own thing in scenes, listening to another beat. This whole thing could come crashing down around the story and crush the film, but luck keeps it together. And some directors are luckier than others.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

Matthew’s directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.