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One of the fun things we do at Mythraeum is host short story contests. And once a year, we pick one of the winning short stories and produce it as a short film.

Well, I’m happy to announce that this year, we’re developing K.N. Johnson’s story “Frigid!”

“Frigid” is a dark retelling of the Pygmalion myth. You can read K.N.’s short story here.

I love this story—if you’re not familiar with the myth of Pygmalion, the basic idea is that Pygmalion was the king of Cyprus, but Aphrodite had cursed the women of the island. They were incapable of genuine love and connection, and instead they used their island’s status as a popular port to become prostitutes. (Yep—all of them.)

Now, I’m not sure if Pygmalion had any issues with the world’s oldest profession from a moral standpoint. But when every woman in his kingdom engaged in it, he was left without any real prospects for finding himself a queen . . . or true love. (sad face.)

But Pygmalion was a creative guy. So he began sculpting his idea of a true love from marble. He created such a beautiful statue that he fell in love with it, and Aphrodite, moved by his depth of heart and imagination, brought the statue to life for him.

Lovely, right?

Well, K.N. Johnson had a different take.

She sat down to write about this story, and asked herself “Wait a minute—normal women weren’t good enough for this guy? What was wrong with him?”

And the idea for “Frigid” was born. (You know you want to read it! K.N. Johnson’s stories are delightfully dark. If you enjoy horror or suspense, I think you’ll enjoy them. You can find her on Facebook here.)

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We’re working with Parthian Enterprises and Loste Films to bring “Frigid” to life.

I’m so excited that these guys are available! They’re the team that helped us turn “Heat” into a short film in 2016, and the final product turned out excellent. We filmed over four days in June, and the short film managed to capture the tension, uncertainty, and fear that fills the short story.

You can read the short story “Heat” here, and CLICK HERE to watch the short film!

Loste Films and Parthian are especially good at crafting short horrors, and their short “Turn Around” has been recognized and won awards at numerous film festivals, including the Spotlight Horror Film Festival in Atlanta and Blissfest333 International Film Festival.

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I waited to write up this post until things were a sure go for “Frigid.”

We’ve got the script written up, K.N. Johnson has approved it and is happy to be involved, we have our location, and a budget of $2,500.

I know it’s possible to produce short films like this for even less than that, but I like to pay the people involved in these projects. Everyone works so hard and brings so much talent to the table, and I like to recognize people in all the ways that I can.

We’re going to run a Kickstarter campaign for this project too—stay tuned, subscribe to the blog and follow us on Facebook for updates on that.

Principle photography is scheduled for the first week of January 2017 (we need a wintery landscape for “Frigid”).

Next up, we need to get our actors cast and a few other crew members together. Let the fun begin!

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