Despite our constant pleas to go into the light, the remake of Poltergeist continues to inch into reality, courtesy of Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, which previously remade Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On: The Grudge and is currently in post-production on a remake of Raimi’s first feature, The Evil Dead. The new version of Tobe Hooper’s suburban ghost story has a new screenwriter, David Lindsay-Abaire, who also co-wrote the script for Raimi’s upcoming fantasy film Oz: The Great and Powerful.
Our sister site Shock Till You Drop got the scoop on the news from David Lindsay-Abaire himself, following a screening of Rise of the Guardians, an upcoming animated feature written by Lindsay-Abaire and executive produced by Guillermo Del Toro. The screenwriter said Sam Raimi personally requested that he tackle the new version of the 1982 horror classic, which was originally based on a story by Steven Spielberg and ultimately co-written by Spielberg, Michael Grais and Mark Victor. David Lindsay-Abaire says that he’s starting from scratch with the material, ignoring previous attempts to revive the property. While Shock Till You Drop does not include the exact quote, they do report that the screenwriter “loves the original movie” and “hopes to pay tribute to it with this version.”
Poltergeist is by now quite famous for ruining childhoods with its terrifying killer clown doll sequence which, combined with scenes like a guy ripping his own face off, caused many parents to question the film’s family-friendly PG-rating and, along with such other questionably PG-rated films like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins (also produced and/or directed by Steven Spielberg), helped usher in the now ubiquitous PG-13 rating in its wake.
It’s also really, really, really good, so David Lindsay-Abaire, producer Sam Raimi and whomever he hires to direct the remake if it goes into production have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders to bring the goods.
CraveOnline will be back with more Poltergeist news after we transition to a different sphere of consciousness.
