Preview of Maneater

Cast is consumed by 'Maneater'

Dean Cain, Conrad Janis among actors joining thrillerMichael Emanuel has ordered up his human buffet.

The actor-producer has cast Dean Cain, Conrad Janis ("The Cable Guy"), Stephen Lunsford ("Bratz"), Walter Phelan ("House of 1000 Corpses"), Maximillian Roeg ("7th Heaven") and Lacy Phillips ("Pushing Twilight") in his directorial debut, "Maneater."

Emanuel's Canal Street Films is producing, and Eric Lewald ("Trollz") is executive producing.

The horror thriller about a former FBI profiler and small-town sheriff investigating mysterious murders is derived from a Native American legend.The Windigo Returns in 'Maneater'Actor-producer Michael Emanuel (The Uninvited) is in preproduction on the thriller Maneater (announced exclusively on B-D last week on our indie section), which tells the story of an FBI profiler-turned-small-town sheriff who begins investigating a series of mysterious murders only to discover that the monster he's profiling might be himself. Emanuel co-wrote the script with John K. Anderson and will make the film his directorial debut. "It's a story that was told to me by an old Native American back in the late '70s," Emanuel said. "It's based on the Western Ojibwa (Chippewa) legend of the Windigo." "Maneater" is the second in a slate of 10 movies that Emanuel's Canal Street Films is producing with independent financing. It begins shooting July 30 around Los Angeles, though the producers are still casting the leads.Comment:  What is this...the 5th or 10th movie to use a Windigo as a savage, Native-based monster? How unoriginal can you get? How about making the Windigo a poor, misunderstood soul who's being framed for the human deaths?

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.