Peter Ramsey to direct supernatural thriller 'Blood Count'
Feb 05, 2022
Washington [US], February 5 : Peter Ramsey, the first Black filmmaker to win the animated-feature Academy Award as co-director of 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse', is all set to helm a period vampire thriller titled 'Blood Count'.
Ramsey wrote the script of the feature project, which is in early development. LeBron James and Maverick Carter's SpringHill is on board to produce, with James, Jamal Henderson and Spencer Beighley acting as producers.
Details are being kept under wraps, but it is described as a film noir social thriller set in 1950s LA with supernatural elements. Intriguingly, it is also said to be loosely inspired by the life of Ramsey's father, a jazz musician.
Ramsey made history as the first Black filmmaker to direct a big-budget studio animated feature with DWA's 2012 movie, 'Rise of the Guardians'. He co-directed 'Into the Spider-Verse', released in 2018 and hailed as a zenith in comic book moviemaking. He serves as an exec producer on the two back-to-back Spider-Verse sequels and has the live-action/CG hybrid fantasy miniseries 'Lost Ollie', which he directed and executively produced, coming out later this year from Netflix.
'Blood Count' is the second live-action project that Ramsey has set up, although it's unclear which will ultimately serve as his debut. He is also developing 'Love in Vain', a biopic centring on Blues pioneer Robert Johnson, as a directing vehicle. That one, too, is set up at Paramount and has Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Mike Menchel and Lionel Richie producing.