You, our wonderful readers, are familiar with how Hollywood works, right? Then it should come as no surprise that the industry is now making headway on a reboot to a film franchise that was a remake in the first place. The convoluted webs they weave! Ghost House Pictures and Good Universe are going forward with a complete reboot of The Grudge series, which was already arguably one of the most disappointing remakes of the last decade or so. I’d keep complaining, but I really need to check out this croaking sound coming from my bedroom closet.
Ghost House was already trying to get a reboot going a couple of years ago with the production company Mandate, but that fell through at some point, and now Good Universe has filled the spot. They’re a relatively new company, with only Last Vegas and Oldboy behind them, and Neighbors on the horizon. And I believe moviegoers were plenty shocked that Spike Lee and Oldboy didn’t get nominated for any Oscars this year. (I think I just broke sarcasm.)
They’ve hired a screenwriter, according to Deadline, which already gives this a leg up on the previous remake plans. Jeff Buhler, whose lone feature script was 2008’s Clive Barker adaptation The Midnight Meat Train, is the guy who will possibly be taking this story into a different direction, or maybe just telling the same one with a different young actress in the lead. Revenge that goes beyond the grave is the kind of tale that can certainly adapt to any situation, so there’s no reason to be 100% certain that it will be terrible. As a horror fan, I definitely want it to be good. Buhler is also the writer of the upcoming Jacob’s Ladder remake, so do with that what you will.
It isn’t clear why they feel the need to keep exploiting a brand that had already gone straight to video by the third installment. Here in the U.S., that is; Japan is still adding entries to their original franchise, and I’m assuming it’s no small coincidence that this news is coming during the same week that a teaser dropped for Ju-on: Beginning of the End, the seventh in the Ju-on series. Filming now for a June release date, it’s being directed by Masayuki Ochiai, the guy who helmed 2004’s tense Infection before dropping a deuce with the dreadful remake Shutter in 2008. This is exactly the director that I would expect to get attached to another American remake, so I’m already clenching my teeth in anticipation for whoever the producers hand this to.
Here’s that teaser, by the way.
Meanwhile, the original Ju-on director Takashi Shimizu’s paranormal plan thriller 7500 has been completed for ages and still can’t get a proper release. Something is cursed, I tell you!
