Craig Gillespie is set to helm a DreamWorks remake of 1985 sleeper hit horror-comedy “Fright Night.”
The helmer reportedly met with the studio along with three other directors but apparently won the race with negotiations already under way for him to take the reign.
The project is definitely as unexpected choice for Gillespie though he’s already shown his versatility with offbeat comedies “Mr. Woodcock,” the underrated “Lars And The Real Girl” and several episodes of the Diablo Cody scribed “The United States Of Tara.” His work on the latter as a producer may very well have tipped this project in his favor with fellow ‘Tara’ producer Steven Spielberg being, of course, the founder and head of DreamWorks.
Tom Holland’s original “Fright Night” centered on an avid horror fan who finds himself living his own narrative as vampires move into his neighboring house. The newest iteration of the film comes from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Mad Men” scribe Marti Noxon though it remains unknown if last year’s rumor about the film going meta turned out to be true. It was reported that the protagonist in the remake will reach out to an actual star of the original “Fright Night” film to help with his vampire problem.
Unfortunately, there’s no word on Gillespie’s long-gestating HIV-drug-drama “Dallas Buyers Club” or even his unknown project in development “Pandora.” Perhaps this project is the first step in the ‘one for the studio, one for myself’ philosophy?