Variety is reporting this morning that Alexandre Aja, helmer of Haute Tension and the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, has been hired by Dimension (shudder) to direct the long-discussed remake of Joe Dante’s Piranha. Aja will work a re-write of the existing script, penned by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger.
Aja plans on making the film a horror/comedy like the original, which is almost a shame as I’d love to see him tackle it as a straightforward horror film. He did say he wants to pay homage to all the creature films that made him “fall in love with the genre”, and I just hope knows that the genre loves him right back.
Aja is in pre-production on another remake, the mall-set horror story Mirrors, so don’t expect to hear more about Piranha for a while. Original helmer Joe Dante will be in attendance at next week’s Fear Fest convention in Texas so if you’re going, be sure to ask him about it! I know I will!