10 Planned Horror Remakes That Never Happened
PET SEMATARY
Rumors of a Pet Sematary remake have been circulating for many years now with various different writers, directors and stars being linked to the project. At one point George Clooney was rumored to be starring, and at another Guillermo del Toro had allegedly expressed interest in directing. What we know for sure is that Blood Creek writer David Kajganich penned an early draft of a script several years ago, which Paramount rejected because they wanted the film to appeal to a younger audience.
After Kajganich left, he was replaced by 1408 scribe Matthew Greenberg, who was said to be working on the screenplay in 2010. About a year later, High Tension/The Hills Have Eyes director Alexandre Aja was in talks with Paramount to direct the film with Greenberg still tapped to write – and that’s the last we’ve heard of it. The project seems to be dead in the water at this point, and if the original film taught us anything, it’s that dead is sometimes better!
SCANNERS
Back in 2007, we learned that the Weinstein Company and Dimension Films were planning a remake of David Cronenberg’s Scanners, the 1981 movie most known for that epic head explosion scene that we all just love to watch GIFs of. Blade and Dark City scribe David S. Goyer was signed on to write, with Saw 2–4 director Darren Lynn Bousman directing.
At that time an October 17, 2008, release date was planned – a date that of course came and went without any exploding heads on the big screen. Last we heard, Dimension was working on turning the movie into a TV series – a show that Alexandre Aja was going to executive produce and possibly direct the pilot episode of. Just like the movie, that project also seems to have been shelved.
SUSPIRIA
Finally, 2008 saw the announcement that a Suspiria remake was in production with Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green in the director’s seat. According to Green, his remake was going to be faithful to Dario Argento’s original, only set in an all-girls boarding school rather than a ballet academy. Early in the proceedings, Natalie Portman was apparently interested in starring; Portman of course went on to appear in the similarly themed 2010 hit Black Swan. Green in fact cited that film for inspiring him to do something different with his own movie – he wanted to focus on younger characters rather than older ones – and in 2012 it was announced that Orphan’s Isabelle Fuhrman would be playing the lead role.
Budgetary and legal issues plagued the project for years, and Green put the final nail in the coffin last year, when he revealed that the project was dead – at least for now. He said he wanted to make an elegant, graphic and classy horror film, though nobody in Hollywood was interested in doing the same. I’m actually kind of bummed about this one; as a huge fan of the original, Green seemed the perfect man for the job and was intent on doing it the justice it deserved.
