There’s always a certain level of chaos attached to the sheer possibility of what works entering the public domain can inspire, but just five months after A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh made the leap over to the public domain, our first look at a film starring the iconic bear shows just how wild it can get.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is an upcoming film by director Rhys Waterfield and the U.K.-based production company Jagged Edge Productions. Shot over 10 days, the film is centered around human adult-sized Pooh and Piglet, who “essentially become feral” after they’re abandoned by Christopher Robin and go on a killing spree; at one point, they eat another famous character residing in the 100 Acre Wood to survive.
“When you try and do a film like this, and it’s a really wacky concept, it’s very easy to go down a route where nothing is scary and it’s just really ridiculous and really, like, stupid,” Waterfield told Variety. “And we wanted to go between the two.”
It’s a film that’s possible because, at the start of 2022, Milne’s version of Winnie the Pooh (minus the red shirt that Disney’s still copyrighted version is famous for wearing) and Piglet became part of the public domain. Waterfield was more than cognizant of avoiding anything that might still be under copyright so as to not incur Disney’s wrath; Tigger, who’s still under copyright, is one such character.
At least some of the newfound interest in the project is due to its extremely gimmicky premise, which is raising plenty of eyebrows and inspiring outcries of, “Is nothing sacred?”
But the concept also amused others, who see a Winnie the Pooh-inspired slasher as a key indicator of what works in the public domain are capable of.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey does not yet have a release date, but Waterfield told Variety that finishing the film will be a “high priority.” But even if the film’s arrival—no matter how well it’s received—is more of a whimper, the film already won: Gimmick or not, more people are talking about Blood and Honey than they otherwise would’ve had it been a slasher that didn’t turn children’s book characters into bloodthirsty killers.
