‘Loving Vincent’ Filmmakers Next Project Is A Goya-Inspired Horror Feature Titled ‘Cave Of Dreams’

It’s been a big week for animation based on the work of legendary Spanish painter Francisco de Goya.

On Tuesday, we went behind the scenes of The Quinta’s Ghost, a gothic animated mystery centered on Goya’s famed country home and his Black Paintings. Now, a major feature project has been revealed by the team behind 2017’s Oscar-nominated Loving Vincent, who are creating a horror film inspired by the artist’s darkest period.

According to Deadline, Oscar-winning filmmaker Hugh Welchman and director Dorota Kobiela, whose Loving Vincent became the first fully oil-painted animated feature, are developing Cave of Dreams. Like Loving Vincent, the film will use hand-painted animation, but this time to plunge into the nightmarish imagery of Goya’s later years.

Speaking at Madrid’s Iberseries, Welchman explained: “Our next project is going to be based on the paintings of Goya and mainly on his dark paintings and his later work. It’s going to be a painted-animation horror film … such a big project that we’ll likely have several Spanish co-producers and others abroad.”

Goya (1746–1828) began as a celebrated court painter but turned to unsettling, deeply personal visions around the time that France declared war on Spain. Historians suggest that he may have suffered prolonged viral encephalitis or a series of mini strokes that led to his mental deterioration. Works like Saturn Devouring His Son and Witches’ Sabbath, painted on the walls of his rural home and now displayed at Madrid’s Prado Museum, will heavily inform the themes and aesthetic of Cave of Dreams.

The film is being produced by Welchman and Kobiela’s Breakthru Films in Poland with support from the Polish Film Institute. Spanish partners already include leading Catalan producer Alba Sotorra (Rock Bottom) and David Baute’s Tinglado Films (Black Butterflies). Welchman is assembling a team of painters in Spain to tackle the labor-intensive production; Loving Vincent required more than 120 artists to complete its 65,000 oil-painted frames.

No release date has been announced, but with the hype that both Loving Vincent and The Peasants generated, Cave of Dreams will surely be a title to keep an eye on once it enters production.