10 Planned Horror Remakes That Never Happened
John Squires
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HELLRAISER
It was back in 2006 that Dimension Films first announced they were looking to remake Hellraiser, and the project has been on-again/off-again since then. Creative differences between the talent and studio began when scripts from the makers of both Inside and Feast were rejected. From there, Martyrs director Pascal Laugier was attached to direct, but he apparently wanted to make a much darker and more serious film than Dimension had in mind – because, ya know, Hellraiser shouldn’t be dark and serious.
After Laugier left the project, My Bloody Valentine 3D writing/directing duo Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier were brought on board, and the plan was for them to write the film together, which Lussier would direct; their idea was to expand on things Clive Barker presented in the 1987 original rather than remake it. Despite several versions of their script, Dimension never saw eye-to-eye with the two, and Farmer announced in 2011 that they were no longer involved.
More recently, Clive Barker announced that he was penning his own remake of Hellraiser, though all has been quiet on that front for quite some time now.
THE MONSTER SQUAD
We found out back in 2010 that The Monster Squad producer Rob Cohen was interested in directing a remake of the fan-favorite film, which was to be produced by Platinum Dunes and Paramount. Though James Gunn’s brother and cousin, Brian and Mark, wrote what Cohen described as a “great script,” he recently revealed that Paramount got cold feet about the film and was holding off on going forward with the project. “I’m hoping that one day we just get a call that they’ve finally seen the light of day,” said Cohen last year. For now, that day has yet to come.
I attended a screening of The Monster Squad a few years back with director Fred Dekker doing a Q&A beforehand, and he talked about the remake, essentially saying that he wasn’t worried about it because there was no way they’d be able to make that movie nowadays in light of Universal’s strict rules about licensing the likenesses of their monsters – I can’t help but wonder if that’s been the reason for Paramount’s cold feet.
MOTEL HELL
MGM expressed interest in bringing Farmer Vincent and his delicious fritters back to the screen in 2007 with a remake of Motel Hell set to come out in October of the following year. The rights to the film then ended up at Twisted Pictures (known for the Saw franchise) before reverting back to MGM after the folks at Twisted couldn’t come up with a script that they felt comfortable moving forward with.
Back in MGM’s hands, director Steven C. Miller was attached to direct the remake in 2009, which was going to keep the quirkiness of the original film while telling what was described as a “more cohesive story.” Miller went on to direct the Silent Night, Deadly Night remake, and it seems that Motel Hell found itself in development hell.
NEAR DARK
When it comes to vampire movies, it doesn’t get much better than Near Dark, so it’s no surprise that the 1987 film nearly got a remake a few years back, when vamps were all the rage. Platinum Dunes was set to produce the project, which oddly enough got derailed by the massive success of the film that spawned all the vampire love: Twilight. How so, you ask? Well, according to producer Brad Fuller, the two films were far too similar from a story standpoint: “I think Twilight was the same type of thing we were going for,” said Fuller.
Despite both featuring a vampire and a human falling in love, I wouldn’t exactly consider Near Dark and Twilight to be similar, but I for one was very thankful to Twilight for driving a stake through the project – especially if Platinum Dunes intended on turning it into something that resembled the love story between Edward and Bella. So for once, let’s all be thankful for the existence of Twilight!
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