Stephen King adaptations have been on in full force lately, and Paramount Pictures hopes to recreate the success of ‘It’ by bringing us a new take on ‘Pet Sematary‘. To do so, the studio has tapped the directing duo of Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer (‘Starry Eyes’) to bring this reboot to life! They were up against an interesting mix of competition with Sean Carter and Johannes Roberts (’47 Meters Down’) also vying for the job. Talks of the reboot have been happening since at least 2013 with Guillermo Del Toro wanting to helm the film and at one point Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (’28 Week Later’) tapped to direct.
The directors were the last names that needed to be attached to the film before production could begin as they already had Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian on board to produce the movie based on a script by Jeff Buhler (‘The Midnight Meat Train’) and David Kajganich (‘A Bigger Splash’). For Paramount, Alexandra Loewy is attached as an Executive Producer as well.
The first film was released in 1989 and directed by Mary Lambert King himself having penned the screenplay. While it hasn’t aged as gracefully as some cult classic 80s horror films, it still has a solid concept that is ripe for exploring. In the original and novel, we followed a family who had recently moved into a new home next to a cemetery. While that would be creepy enough for some, there is a hidden portion which has the power to bring back to life any animal that is buried in it. Only, they aren’t quite the family pets that they once were. If that wasn’t bad enough, humans are technically animals which adds an entirely new level of complexity to things.
The first movie had an $11 million budget and raked in $57 million. While it did well enough at the box office to warrant a sequel, the follow up in 1992 wasn’t able to turn quite the same profit even with Edward Furlong and Anthony Edwards in the cast.
Are you excited to hear that production on ‘Pet Sematary’ might finally be moving forward or will this be another attempted reboot that fails before it begins? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Variety
