In celebration of October and all things associated with Halloween, horror, and the macabre, this week’s pick is the John Landis comedy/horror classic An American Werewolf in London (1981). The film stars David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, and Jenny Agutter.

After making a name for himself in Hollywood with such comedy classics as The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), Animal House (1978), and The Blues Brothers (1980), director John Landis’ next project would further solidify him as one of Hollywood’s newest breed of film makers. An American Werewolf in London is a tongue-in-cheek film that has always been considered a comedy, but Landis says that it’s a horror film with comedic elements.

Landis had come up with the concept of the film while he was a production assistant in Yugoslavia working on the classic war film Kelly’s Heroes in 1970.  While driving through the Yugoslavian countryside, Landis and his driver/interpreter came to a crossroad where they witnessed a gypsy funeral. Landis and his driver watched as these gypsies performed rituals over the dead man’s corpse in an attempt to make sure that he didn’t come back to life and caused mischief.

This week’s pick is director John Sturges’s classic World War II thriller The Eagle Has Landed. The film stars some of Hollywood’s best talent: Michael Caine (Col. Kurt Steiner), Donald Sutherland (Liam Devlin), Donald Pleasence (Heinrich Himmler), Robert Duvall (Col. Max Radl) Jenny Agutter (Molly), Anthony Quayle (Adm. Canaris), Jean Marsh (Mrs. Grey), Treat Williams (Capt. Clark), and Larry Hagman (Col. Pitts).

The Eagle Has Landed supposes the theory that a team of German commandos clandestinely enters England and kidnaps Prime Minister Winston Churchill (the least heavily guarded world leader) and hold him for ransom in order to make the British sue for peace, thus allowing the Germans to continue on as the masters of Europe.

Amazed by the rescue mission to free Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from his mountain prison, Hitler proposes the idea to kidnap Churchill. The high command brings in architect colonel Radl (Duvall) to devise the plan in how to kidnap Churchill. Radl settles on Col. Kurt Steiner (Caine) a decorated paratrooper whose anti-Nazi reputation and crack unit are just the ones to pull off a mission considered too risky.

For a time it looked like director Brian Singer was going to bring a reboot of Logan’s Run to the big screen. But then, the project seemed to stall as Singer’s interest turned to other projects (like Superman Returns or Battlestar Galactica). But now, it would seem the project is back on the fast track at Warner Bros. and even has a new director: Carl Rinsch.

Don’t worry if you can’t quite place the name because although he’s a big name in the commercial directing world, Rinsch has never done a feature film before. Logan’s Run would be his first. Although, he has been attached to films previously including the Alien prequel, before Ridley Scott decided he wanted that one, and 47 Ronin for Universal.

For those of you who don’t know about Logan’s Run, it was already a 1976 film starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter and Farrah Fawcett and is based on a 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. The story concerns a future society that decrees death to anyone reaching a certain age. If you try to fight this edict, you are dubbed a “runner” and hunted by a pseudo police force known as Sandmen. Logan is a Sandman who is forced to go on the run. Hence Logan’s Run.

Now that Rinsch is supposedly on board, development will turn to crafting an acceptable script. If all goes well, expect to see Logan’s Run hit theaters late next year.