For a while it seemed that our prayers had been answered. Last year MGM put a remake of Poltergeist in the works and hired Juliet Snowden and Stiles White to write the screenplay. As those two’s greatest contribution to cinema is Boogeyman (they also worked on Knowing, but their screenplay got overhauled by Alex Proyas), it seemed like the studio was intent on trashing the legacy of a classic.
Even the annoucement that arty director Vadim Perelmen had been hired to helm the remake didn’t improve things, as making the interesting but overwrought House Of Sand And Fog doesn’t exactly seem like good preparation to step into Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg’s creepy shoes.
Then everything went silent and for a while we hoped it was because the studio had come to its senses and realised that the 1982 movie doesn’t need a unnecessary retread. However that’s not the case, as MGM has now locked a US release date of November 24th, 2010 for the movie, which would suggest it’s been properly greenlit and will be going before the cameras soon.
There’s no news yet on the UK release, although you can expect it around the same time, when we’ll see whether the story of the Freeling family moving into a haunted house built over an old Indian burial ground works the second time around. Maybe it’ll be ok, but I doubt it.