I always find the career trajectory of directors who make praised, quirky indie flicks interesting. While some stay making personal, niche movies, other going in directions you’d never expect from their previous output.
For example David Gordon Green was one of the top young indie filmmaker after George Washington, All The Real Girls and Undertow, but then he did a complete 180 and made Pineapple Express. Or there’s Marc Webb, who’s gone from (500) Days Of Summer to making the next Spider-man movie.
The newest director making an add sideways leap into the mainstream is Craig GIllespie, who made the Ryan Gosling blow-up-doll flick Lars and the Real Girl, but is now on the verging on signing on direct the remake of Fright Night. The LA Times reports that Dreamworks met several directors last week and has now decided on Gillespie as the one they want, although he hasn’t signed on the dotted line yet. The director already has a relationship with Dreamworks, having worked on their TV series, The United States Of Tara.
The original 1985 Fright Night is about horror movie fan Charley Brewster, who becomes convinced that his next door neighbour is a vampire. While he has trouble getting people to believe him, he enlists the help of veteran vampire movie star Peter Vincent to help him, who soon comes to realise that maybe Charley has a point.
Buffy veteran Marti Noxon is working on the script, with Dreamworks seeing the film as a high prioroty to get in the can as soon as possible.