10 Planned Horror Remakes That Never Happened
John Squires
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For many horror fans, the word “remake” tends to send chills up the spine more than ghosts, goblins and gore ever could. Intense hatred of remakes is common among the genre community, as an influx of them in the past decade has left fans yearning for the days when filmmakers were still coming up with original ways to scare us.
It seems that pretty much every horror movie we love has either already been remade or is on the remake chopping block – to the point where it’s getting hard to rattle off a list of films that haven’t been remade by now. Try it sometime; you might be surprised.
That being said, we hope today to instill in you some small sense of comfort by showing you that just because a studio wants to remake a movie, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to happen. If the big studios had their way, the list of horror movies that got the remake treatment would be even longer than it already is. A frightening thought, for sure.
So let’s breathe a big ole sigh of relief and take a look at ten horror films that were on their way to being remade… but ended up getting spared!
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON
In the summer of 2009, right around the time the film was gearing up to make its Blu-ray debut, John Landis revealed that Dimension Films was looking to acquire the rights to An American Werewolf in London with the intention of remaking it. We learned about a year later that the remake was on the fast track with The Number 23 writer Fernley Phillips attached to give the tale a modern-day upgrade. It was even announced at one point that the remake would be in 3D. Werewolves the world over let out joyful howls when other commitments resulted in Dimension scrapping its plans.
THE FLY
One film that almost got a second remake was The Fly with both Apparition director Todd Lincoln and horror legend David Cronenberg interested in directing. Lincoln was attached to the project in 2003, intent on making a dark and twisted re-imagining with a heavy focus on practical effects, but Fox wasn’t interested in the ideas he pitched to them. Years later he opened up and revealed that the studio wanted to essentially remake Cronenberg’s 1986 version with teen stars in the lead roles and that his idea for a fresh new take on the subject matter was just not what they were looking for.
As for Cronenberg, he ended up writing a script a few years later that would essentially serve as a pseudo-sequel to his remake of the 1958 film, which Fox also swatted down. Not a peep has been heard of the fate of their Fly remake in the last couple of years, and I think it’s pretty safe to say that no matter what direction they end up going with it, it’ll never be as awesome as whatever Cronenberg had in mind.
THE GATE
One of my personal favorite films found itself on the chopping block in 2009, when Bill & Ted star Alex Winter announced that he would be directing a 3D remake of the 1987 classic The Gate. Apparently the initial plan was to make a new sequel to the original (ignoring the events of the lackluster 1990 follow-up), but it was ultimately decided that it’d be a straight-up remake. A few pieces of concept art were released onto the internet, and the plan was for it to be shot in Germany in 2010.
More recently, Winter put his focus on making a documentary about Napster, and though he still talks about the remake from time to time, it’s been a few years since anything has been officially reported about it. For now, this Gate remains unopened.
MORE UNMADE REMAKES ON NEXT PAGE!
