The movie that started off a frightful decade of ‘90s horror movies that also included The Silence of the Lambs, Candyman and Scream was Frank Marshall’s Arachnophobia, which explored the fear of spiders to a ridiculously entertaining level as it followed a killer spider infestation. The horror comedy is so memorable that an actual spider-killing worm species was named after its star, Jeff Daniels. Soon we’ll get to see a remake of it from Happy Death Day and Freaky’s Christopher Landon, and the filmmaker provided an update to us on the project.
CinemaBlend spoke to Landon in anticipation for his latest movie, We Have A Ghost, hitting Netflix this Friday. When looking ahead to his next announced movie, Arachnophobia, the filmmaker teased his plans for the upcoming remake.
Well, I'm very excited about that film. And, I'm really excited because I love the original so much. I think it's such a thrill ride and I'm excited because I feel like I get to make a movie that will honor the original film, but will definitely stand on its own. It's different. And, I'm just very, very eager to get going on that one. And I think we're, we're pretty close.
It was announced in June 2022 that Landon would be directing an Arachnophobia movie alongside James Wan, the famed filmmaker behind the Conjuring universe, as a producer. Plus, the 1990 movie’s original director, Frank Marshall, is producing too. The movie has yet to land on our upcoming horror movies release calendar as it has not begun production just yet, but just last month, Landon posted this to Twitter:
Fun day at the office. pic.twitter.com/H5nt8Vl5caFebruary 1, 2023
It looks like he’s already auditioning spiders! When Arachnophobia hit theaters in the summer of 1990, it was welcomed with positive reviews and did well for itself at the box office, earning 19th place in the domestic market after scoring $53 million against a $22 million budget.
The director is clearly hard at work behind the scenes prepping his first remake after being a key writer in the Paranormal Activity franchise and making a number of original projects throughout his career, including the Happy Death Day movies (for which he still hopes to make a trilogy) and Freaky for Blumhouse. Landon’s latest movie is We Have A Ghost, a family movie with a supernatural flair.
The new Netflix release stars David Harbour as Ernest, a ghost without the ability to speak to the living who is haunting a home that a family moves into. The father (played by Anthony Mackie) uses the spirit to go viral on the internet, whereas his son tries to help Ernest pass to the other side by investigating his death.
Interestingly enough, Landon was inspired by the Amblin films of his childhood when making We Have A Ghost, and next he’ll be working with Frank Marshall, who was also one of the founders of Amblin Entertainment, to reimagine Arachnophobia for the next generation of moviegoers.
