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EXCLUSIVE: MGM has found a director for its remake of the horror classic Poltergeist. It’s Gil Kenan, who’s best known for helming Monster House and City Of Ember. He separately has set up an original, A Giant, with Lava Bear and The Henson Company. The remake of the 1982 Tobe Hooper-directed pic is being produced by Sam Raimi, Nathan Kahane, and Roy Lee. The original starred Craig T. Nelson and Jobeth Williams as parents in a family whose dream house turns into a nightmare. Kenan is repped by WME and attorney Robert Offer.
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Here we go again, a remake of a film that doesn’t need it. The original “Poltergeist” is still creepy, well-done, and quite scary. I am not sure what Gil Kenan can bring to it that will improve it.
Though he can do a lot to screw it up.
Brian, I completely agree with your opening statement, but for a different reason. What makes Poltergeist so brilliant is the presence and quality of the scenes BETWEEN the scary action. Which is, of course, exactly why the remake will fail. First, modern, original big budget action/horror films, let alone remakes, won’t give the actors the scenes (or decent enough dialogue) to develop the characters before placing them in jeopardy. See also Jaws, Alien, The Exorcist or just about any Hitchcock film. Second, the film was made at a time when movie characters and the audiences that watched them were not so cynical as to the possibility of the supernatural, or at the very least not yet jaded by the inundation of violent/gory imagery. Lastly, there are hardly any actresses working that could pull off the scene done so brilliantly in the original by Beatrice Straight where she talks to ‘Robbie’ about what happens when we die, a moment, however brief, where she makes you believe that there must be something more. That scene is the crux of the film; the belief in an afterlife. Today’s actors & actresses (& directors) can sell vampires, aliens, superheroes and vindictive ghosts all day, but an afterlife separated by good and evil, a horror film taking spirituality seriously, not a chance. No one will buy it.
Oh, great, now they’re greenlighting remakes from Spielberg’s catalogue, as if they can improve this “horror classic”.
I am now interested in the Poltergeist remake – Monster House and City of Ember were both brilliant.
City of Ember was okay but not brilliant IMHO
and if I remember correctly, quite the box office flop for the cost of production.
Is Spielberg in? He definitely helped make the first one so special and awesome.
I am never one of those people to scoff at a remake but Poltergeist? Come on, thats a classic!
A remake? Couldn’t it just be about a family that builds a house on that property thirty years later?
I shouldn’t despair yet, the Poltergeist Curse may still prevent this remake from happening.
Would like to see Cameron Diaz and Edward Norton in parents roles. They would be great.
Don’t go into the light, MGM. Run away from the light.
This has big bag of fail written all over it…
Is Spielberg involved?
Too soon.
Why, Why, Why! Nothing is “sacred” anymore. Are studios so lacking in new content that they have to keep remaking their old movies?
All we do are remakes it’s why we are in business to remake every single film we ever made. We have nothing in development that isn’t a remake or as we prefer to call them reimaginings or reboots. We never call them remakes it’s a dirty word around here. MGM Means Great Movies.
WOW! Cool! hey, how about remaking…
JAWS…with new FX we can finally see the shark a few minutes into the movie and all the blood and gore because the old way just isn’t cool enough in this video digital age…
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK…because Harrison Ford is too old in it and the new fx in the video digital age will make the final scene at the end much more cooler to watch…especially in 3d…
SPIDER MAN…because the past 5 movies are just really dull and obvious after their first run…and SAM RAIMI needs a few more chances at doing some new ideas…
X-MEN…because Bryan singer needs more time and money to do more cooler-looking stuff…
OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUl…because SAM RAIMi needs more money to do more, new and cooler-looking green screen FX.
Did the marketing on the original and remember that Steven (who was based at MGM then) also had ET coming out. He was not sure about how it would do (until a Houston preview sent it into orbit) and was more sure about Poltergeist. “They’re Here” was a great campaign. Now a whole new audience is available with more spooky pic experience and expectations so I hope Kenan & Co. don’t screw it up!
I’m merely an audience member and a big fan but, to me the “hook” of the original was that it took the haunted house trope and moved it to the brand-new suburbs where the audience lived. It wasn’t set in a creepy old mansion in the woods or the Amityville Horror house, it was set on your street. By definition a remake can’t capture the freshness of that idea again. I think this film starts off at a deficit because of that.
I’m ok with this, I’m one of the few people that thought Monster House was an excellent movie reminiscent of 80s kid flicks. I think he’ll do well with this property.
So do executives wake up in the morning and think, “Gee, I wouldn’t know a good original idea if I saw one, so why don’t I just endlessly remake movies I liked as a kid in the 80s?”
Yes that’s exactly what they do it’s what’s expected of them. Original scripts are very risky. The job of an executive is to stay employed as long as possible and if they can minimize risk by remaking a movie that worked before then that’s what they do to keep their cushy job.
Very cool to read. I worked with Gil on CITY OF EMBER and he it was a pleasure. He’s smart, focused, creative…he’ll do a great job.
“He separately has set up an original, A Giant, with Lava Bear and The Henson Company.”
Meaning it will never get made.
Kenan’s perfect to helm a remake since he’s incapable of executing an original thought. Without Spielberg he’s nothing.
It has already been remade. It’s called “insidious”.
A few months ago I was going through HorrorHound magazine and I noticed there was a horror movie released theatrically every week throughout 1981. Now special effects artists are creating Halloween haunted houses, and Fangoria and Rue Morgue magazine are highlighting a classic horror movie on their front cover since there are so few quality horror movies made any more. Sad days for the genre.
Hollywood is so dull these days. Remakes after remakes. I don’t mind some remakes; they can sometimes produce really good movies. But so many? I get the minimize risk aspect, but without risk where are the new great movies to be found?
Nooooo! I’d pay to see the original re-released, even though I’ve seen it dozens of times, before I’d see an awful remake.
Any day now, I expect Paramount to announce the reboot of ‘The Godfather’, Universal ‘Jaws’, Warner Bros ‘Lethal Weapon’ (been rumored but nothing has come of it yet) and Fox ‘Die Hard’..
‘Poltergeist’ is one of a hand full of movies that don’t require a reboot (IMO) it’s story is tight, well made on a small budget and a perfect time capsule of the era.