With the upcoming release of Happy Death Day, Bumhouse Productions is taking a traditionally comedic premise (Harold Ramis' Groundhog Day) and filtering it through the slasher lens. It is an intriguing concept, and it raises some questions about other comic ideas that could lend themselves to the horror treatment with some proper tweaking. As it turns out, Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum already has a plan for where to take this idea: a horror remake of Pretty Woman. Blum elaborated:
Another comedy that there could be a horror version of it? Pretty Woman would actually make a great one. I'm going to go with that one. I love that idea.
At its core, Pretty Woman tells a relatively simple and straightforward story. Taking inspiration from My Fair Lady (not to mention Pygmalion), the film follows a wealthy businessman named Edward (played by Richard Gere in the movie) as he falls for a prostitute named Vivian (Julias Roberts) that he hires for two days in Los Angeles. It has become known as one of the most successful romantic comedies of all time, but with a few adjustments, it is not hard to see how it could shift to an American Psycho-esque horror fest.
Based on how Blumhouse has handled Happy Death Day, it looks like a potential remake of Pretty Woman wouldn't even need use too much of the original material aside from the core premise. In the case of Happy Death Day, the upcoming horror film follows a sorority girl stalked by a killer in a baby mask across a college campus. Every time he kills her, she wakes up and uses what she learned from the last encounter to try and figure out his identity. As far as adaptations go, it's incredibly loose, and it opens the door for significant changes to other properties like Pretty Woman. And per what Blum told Screen Rant, we already know at least one person is into it.
Although Jason Blum's comments may seem like a somewhat bizarre concept at first glance, it is worth remembering that Blum and Blumhouse have a strong track record in the horror genre recently. Seeing solid success with films like Get Out, Split, and The Purge franchise, the horror-centric production company is also currently hard at work on sequels for Halloween, the Insidious franchise, and the long-awaited Split/Unbreakable crossover, Glass.
Even almost 28 years after its initial release, Pretty Woman has generated a number of headlines recently for how people plan to reimagine it. Jason Blum's horror idea is one cool way to take it, but for those of you who are less into the spooky side of entertainment, the 1990 romantic comedy is also going to get a Broadway production next year. See? There's something for everybody.
Whether or not Pretty Woman will ever get a horror reimagining remains to be seen, but we will get a chance to see Blumhouse's take on the Groundhog Day formula when Happy Death Day premieres in theaters on October 13. If you are looking for more information on upcoming horror outings, check out our handy guide to horror movies we are dying to see, as well as our 2017 movie premiere guide and our 2018 movie premiere guide.
