'Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey' isn't allowed to include Tigger.
This won't be like any other Winnie the Pooh
A.A. Milne's beloved characters are being given a horror twist in the upcoming slasher helmed by Rhys Fake-Waterfield after the characters entered the public domain and became open to interpretation on the big screen.
However, the filmmaker told SFX Magazine: "Tigger, for example, isn't in the public domain. So he wasn't allowed to be used in the story."
Tigger's first appearance was in 1928 children's book 'The House At Pooh Corner', which hasn't yet entered public domain.
When it came to crafting the story and choosing which characters they could use, the director was keen to create something "distinct".
He explained: "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."
Meanwhile, Frank-Waterfield is also looking to make two movies giving a darker twist to 'Peter Pan' and 'Bambi'.
The movie will follow Winnie as he loses his love for honey and instead craves human flesh.
He and Piglet are struggling after Christopher Robin leaves for college, and they have to take care of themselves by going to sinister lengths.
The film will see Craig David Dowsett and Chris Cordell as Winnie and Piglet respectively, while the cast also includes Nikolai Leon, Amber Doig-Thorne, Maria Taylor, Danielle Ronald, Natasha Tosini, and May Kelly.
The controversial movie is set to hit the big screen on February 15, 2023.