Holy Crap!! We're Making A Horror Movie On KICKSTARTER And We Need Your Help!

Announcing ROOM SERVICE, a horror short film by James Tynion IV, Elsa Charretier and PK Colinet, live on Kickstarter RIGHT NOW!

I wish I remember where exactly I was driving home from.

I know I was driving south toward my home in New York City. So, I must have started somewhere in the Catskills or New Jersey. It was about a three hour drive, due to heavy traffic, and I was tired. It was just after Thanksgiving.

My last Batman issues had gone to the printer, and I was deep in the throes of getting a slate of new Substack books out the door. I’d already started to recognize how much work I had bitten off for myself over the next year, and started making hollow promises to my therapist not to take on any new commitments until I finished the work that was already on my plate.

Traffic was at a standstill, when I saw my phone light up. There was an email in my inbox from Elsa Charretier. Now, I’d loved Elsa’s work for years. When we started looking for artists to handle the fill-in issues of Department of Truth, her name was right at the top of my list. Working with her on THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH #6 had been a delight, particularly to see the level of thought she put into each page. I remember an early Zoom in that process where I hopped online bleary eyed after an all nighter working, and listened as she laid out the symbols she would be leaning into, and how she wanted to lay out the issue.

I’d been equally delighted to watch her set up a new YouTube channel about the craft of making comics, which she had developed with PK Colinet. If you haven’t checked it out, you are missing out in a big way.

Beyond that, I admired the independent spirit that had guided her through her career. She was measured, precise, and wanted to accomplish each work and make it the best it could be. And then she always executed on that plan. I had in the back of my mind that when my slate cleared, I hoped to work on something more substantial together.

And so, there I was, in standstill traffic on the road to the city, keeping one eye on the road, and using the other to read an email from her. She was emailing me to say that she and PK Colinet were thinking about getting back into film, she wanted to know if I’d be interested in writing a short film, that she would storyboard, and PK would direct.

It’d be hours before I would be able to respond. My initial thought was that I absolutely didn’t have time to write a short film. But the traffic stretched on, and my mind started to wander. And some little story pieces that had been roiling in the back of my brain for months started to come together and congeal into something singular and strange. Something I thought would make an excellent short piece of horror.

By the time I pulled into my parking spot in Brooklyn, I knew what I wanted to pitch them.

Just shy of a year later, you all get to find out what the three of us have been cooking.

OKAY, ENOUGH PREAMBLE JAMES! WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!

Elsa Charretier, PK Colinet and myself are making a short horror film called ROOM SERVICE, and we’re funding it on Kickstarter!

This Kickstarter not only funds the creation of the short film, but also funds the creation of an incredible Art Book that will include my script, Elsa’s storyboards, a short horror story by me illustrated by Elsa, and all sorts of behind the scenes making-of material from the three of us making the dang thing. We recruited Tiny Onion stalwart, Department of Truth co-creator Martin Simmonds, to design the Movie Poster that will also serve as the cover of the Art Book. Take a look at this beauty right here!

We announced the project yesterday on THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, and went live just a few minutes ago! If you’re already sold, you can hit the link RIGHT HERE and be one of our first backers!

We’ve got all sorts of other goodies for you, like these phenomenal art prints by a murderer’s row of comic book talent. We have prints from Francesco Francavilla, Rafael Albuquerque, Jim Mahfood, Cliff Chiang, and our very own Elsa Charretier! And a whole lot more. Huge thanks to the amazing Emma Price for designing the logo for the project, our Campaign Assets, and the Artbook itself. Go check it all out on Kickstarter and back this project today!

WHAT’S ROOM SERVICE ABOUT?

ROOM SERVICE opens the door into a hidden world that caters exclusively to the ultra-rich, and provides them experiences that only their money can buy. It is the story of a man, down on his luck, who agrees to participate in a grisly transaction in that world, and what happens to him when he decides he wants to back out.

Beyond that… It’s a short horror film! I can’t reveal too much without giving away the twists and turns we hope will terrify you when you finally sit down to watch the finished product. What I can say is this is one of my most brutal ideas. Also, like many James Tynion IV brand horror projects, a lot of the horror centers around a terrifying figure with a haunting iconic look. We call this character “The Caretaker” and recruited the phenomenal Tonci Zonjic to bring his design to life.

It's been a thrill developing this story, and getting to know the phenomenal PK Colinet, bonding over our mutual love of Korean cinema, and trading our key influences as we crafted my story into something we hope will be deeply, deeply unsettling once we bring it to film.

WHY KICKSTARTER?

There are a few ways of looking at the question, and I’ll answer them all!

I’ve been supporting Kickstarter projects for years, and at a few points I’ve considered trying to have a go at it myself. I had a lot of conversations about Kickstarter and rival crowdfunding programs around the launch of RAZORBLADES: THE HORROR MAGAZINE, but at that moment, I was in the rare position of being able to fund the magazine out of pocket, and I didn’t feel right about trying to ask my fans to fund something I was in the position to fund myself. I developed a kind of philosophy about the platform, then.

Whenever I made the jump into the Kickstarter space for the first time, I wanted it to use it to fund something that I knew I couldn’t do myself. I would want it to be something different and exciting. Something I could only get done by turning to all of my incredible fans and saying, “Hey, I need your help to make something really fucking cool.” The moment Elsa, PK and I started to talk about financing the project through the platform, it felt like a project with the precise ambition I was hoping for with my first ever Kickstarter campaign.

There’s another benefit to Kickstarter, particularly trying to fund a film on this platform. I’ve been having a lot of fun working in the Hollywood system over the last few years, trying to bring a few of my fan-favorite comic book series to the screen. But it can be frustrating, being accustomed to the freedom of creator-owned comics… Where a group of like-minded people can team up together and decide to make something on their own terms, because they have a common vision. And that’s what we’re hoping to do here. We’re making the short film on our own terms, bringing all of the craft and skill we’ve learned in the comics space, and we want to see that vision come to life without having to get permission to do it our way.

I think we’d all be thrilled if ROOM SERVICE has a second life beyond the short film, but there’s a real joy in being able to develop something outside the system, guided by our common sensibilities.

Finally, there’s nobody better to be partnering with on this project than Elsa and PK. They have successfully run and fulfilled three incredible projects over the last few years, and the beautiful artbooks they’ve made together have been sitting in prime position on my shelf. I wouldn’t be able to do this without their expertise.

ANYWAYS… LET’S WRAP THIS UP!

The Kickstarter is now LIVE! Please help us bring Room Service to the big screen. I’m so unbelievably excited for what Elsa, PK and myself have cooking here, and I can’t wait to bring it all to life.

In the meantime, I’m (briefly) back on Twitter @JamesTheFourth, to help bang the drum for this bad boy. If you could help us get the word out, I’d be extremely grateful.

More Soon.

James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
10.19.22