Related Sections: Horror Interviews Movies News
Wes Craven updates remakes of Stairs and Shocker, plus Hills III
Wes Craven told SCI FI Wire that his proposed remakes of The People Under the Stairs and Shocker still have momentum, even though Relativity Media has taken over Rogue Pictures, which signed a deal with Craven's Midnight Entertainment to develop the films. The first remake under that deal, The Last House on the Left, opens March 13, following the success of his Hills Have Eyes remake and sequel at Fox.
"I think that there is some momentum on both of them," Craven said in an exclusive interview on Monday in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was promoting Last House on the Left. "So there's a lot of activity right now at Midnight Entertainment on both original and remakes. We're a long way from announcements."
Midnight Entertainment is also developing a sequel to Last House and a third Hills Have Eyes. "I think we're at the point where it's now 'What's the next [project]?'" Craven said. "If there's a remake, which one of those films is it? Or a potential Hills sequel, there's a potential Last House sequel, so there's a lot of options floating right now."
The People Under the Stairs centered on a suburban house full of booby traps, where two "parents" kidnap kids to try to create the perfect Reagan-era nuclear family. When the children disappoint, they are locked in the basement, where they turn into cannibals. Shocker was the story of a serial killer who is executed only to transform into a lethal electrical being.
"People Under the Stairs and Shocker are things that they're owned by Universal, but I have control over whether they get made or not," Craven explained. "My partner in the original films, Shep Gordon, each of the three of us [Craven, Gordon and the studio] has to say yes, which we have, so it's just the beginning of the process of thinking about writers and how to approach it."
One potential film, The Waiting, which was to have been directed by Mirrors helmer Alexandre Aja, seems to be stalled. "He was interested in doing that, but then he went off and did Mirrors, and I don't know that right now that's something that he's interested in doing," Craven said. "[Producing partner] Marianne Maddalena and I had a kind of division of projects, and that became one of her projects, so I haven't been focusing on it. We kind of had a yours-mine-and-ours deal. That's something that if it's done, she'll do that."
A new version of Craven's most famous film, A Nightmare on Elm Street, is in development at Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes. Though he wrote and directed the original film and the sequel A New Nightmare, Craven does not own the rights to Freddy Krueger, and he said that he has not followed the remake's development even out of curiosity.
"I haven't, and there's been no contact," Craven said. "I mean, I know Platinum Dunes is doing that, and I heard there was a director on it, or a writer on it a couple months ago, but I haven't been following it. I don't have anything to do with it, really. I don't have any control over it, and I don't get anything from it, so I say godspeed."
Even original Freddy actor Robert Englund gave Platinum Dunes his blessing to hire a new actor. "Yeah, I don't know if he had a choice or not, but anyway," Craven joked.
Check back for more with Craven on Last House on the Left, leading up to its March 13 release.
By gorehound696 at 7:56 AM ON 03/03/09
stop the remakes.YARM (yet another remake) sucks.
don't see,rent,or buy them and they might stop.
Frak Hollywood.
By Dancing Monkey at 9:20 AM ON 03/03/09
Bottom line, Wes Craven is a hack. The fact that "A Nightmare on Elm Street" was an effective horror film was a fluke. Every other film this man has had a hand in making has been a piece of crap, and that's being polite. Seriously, why they keep insisting on remaking his catalog of unwatchable dreck is mind boggling.
By Paul B. at 9:23 AM ON 03/03/09
Why keep remaking BAD movies? "People Under the Stairs" wasn't worth making once.
Hollywood has always borrowed, adapted, remade, sequelized--but these last few years it seems to be accelerating.
There are films that could be remade for good reasons: "Silent Running" could be a great updated environmental SF film; a modern-day "FailSafe" would scare the crap out of people (not the shot-for-shot, B&W thing George Clooney made).
Some films should be remade so their stories can reach new generations, but do we really need updated versions of 1980s splatter-fest films?!
Is it almost time for a remake of "Saw?"
By SupremeMango at 11:04 AM ON 03/03/09
Well other than the original Nightmare on Elm street the Scream series was also pretty good. That's about it though. and Shocker was a pretty stupid movie. Please. Get some new ideas
By Lisa C at 11:08 AM ON 03/03/09
Wes rocks luv all his movies i can watch his movies 24 /7 remakes would be the bomb being its 2009 i applaud him for bringing us grt movies :) keep em coming
By Bob H at 11:44 AM ON 03/03/09
I agree with the comment about Craven being a hack. A lot of these horror directors made crude , amateurish or cheesy teen films at a time when standards were abysmally low and all that mattered for that type of film was to make a small profit , anway they could whether it was pandering to the teen market with cheese, gore and T&A or shock value.
It was even worse when they laughably try to awkwardly insert some cliched, political angle with the sophistication of a 10th grader. "The People Under the Stairs" fails miserably as a horror film and the paper thin politcal angle some critics have claimed was in the film is inane. The Nightmare series was part of the flood of really low budget, cheesy teen horror flicks in the 80's that were were also abysmal. You can make anything a lot better looking with the level of expertise, special effects and budgets nowadays so I imagine it'll be a vast improvement over the original but that's not saying much.
By Nausicaa'sLover at 12:47 PM ON 03/03/09
Wes Craven isn't the greatest director, but he is NOT a hack! I'd say half of his films are pretty decent: "Serpent and the Rainbow" was a unique zombie film, the first "Scream" was pretty good, his recent "Red Eye" (although not a horror film) was a simple story but EXTREMELY suspenseful, his production of "They" was truly creepy, and of course his hand in the "Elm St." movies is what made the better installments any good. There are NO perfect directors out there, and even the best are less than (and that includes Cameron, Jackson, Spielberg, and Scott, the best of the best).
People are way to critical. The way I see it if you follow the age old dictum "Beauty is Truth, and Truth....Beauty" and you fail to see the qualities in something you fail to see the truth of it. This has allowed me to enjoy countless more films than ever before-- and this is coming from some one who used to be INSANELY critical (I would RARELY enjoy a new film). Now that doesn't mean I don't have standards.....I just have a much broader range.
Good words to live by...take it for what it's worth.
By Mandy at 2:28 PM ON 03/03/09
People under the stairs, Shocker, Witches, Last house on the left, Highlander, Children of the Corn, Child's Play, Friday the thirteenth, Friday the thirteenth 2, Halloween, Halloween 2, Never-ending story, The Witches, Escape to Witch Mountain...
We're being strangled to death with remakes!
I don't care if you call them reboots (if there were sequels in a franchise) or reimaginings (if it was based on a book) they are STILL remakes and they're still not interesting.
By gorehound696 at 5:21 PM ON 03/03/09
Do what i do and post how much you hate YARM and don't support YARM in any way.
ignore the theater.buying.or renting the newer YARM coming out.
we have to hurt hollywood in its pocket before it wakes up.
By splatterjack at 12:48 PM ON 04/08/09
I just have to say that if it wasn;t for filmmakers like Wes Craven, someone who dared to push bounderies, we would not have the films that are around today. Keep it real
By Paul Wege at 9:22 PM ON 06/08/09
Wes Craven is not a hack. He has made creative films and has creative ideas. I find "A Nightmare on Elm Street" to be one of the most creative horror movies ever made. "Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes," and The People Under the Stairs" are all great movies. The fact that he created Freddy Kreuger alone makes him one of the best directors. He certainly isn't a hack.
By Paul Wege at 9:28 PM ON 06/08/09
Now as fars as remakes, I hate the idea. All horror movies should be left alone, even though I did find "The Hills Have Eyes" remake enjoyable. I just wish there were new ideas in the American horror industry.
Visit mobile.syfy.com/wire on your mobile device.
Paul Wege:
Now as fars as remakes, I hate the idea. All horror movies should be left alone, even though I did find "The Hills ...More »