The proposed remake of Dario Argento‘s giallo classic “Suspiria” has been knocking around Hollywood for years, yet it hasn’t had problems attracting talent. David Gordon Green was attached for a good while, had financing put together and had assembled a promising cast including Isabelle Huppert, Isabelle Fuhrman, Janet McTeer, Michael Nyqvist and Antje Traue before legal woes tripped it up. Now “I Am Love” and “A Bigger Splash” helmer Luca Guadagnino is set to direct the picture with Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson, which last we heard is supposed to start shooting in September, but there hasn’t been much word on that recently. One person who has been kept completely in the dark about all of this is Argento himself.
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“I’ve been waiting for this project to come about for so many years. The copyrights were bought about seven years ago. First, they belonged to 20th Century Fox, then they were handed over to some other companies, and so on. But what’s really absurd —really unbelievable— is that I have never, ever been asked about it,” he recently told Indiewire. “I never got a call or anything, asking me about casting, locations, whatever. I know nothing about this project except what I read in the papers. I repeat: I have never, ever been asked about it.”
Argento says that as the director of the original film, he’s got tons of insight he could share with the next filmmaker, but nobody has rung him up. And while I sympathize with Argento, I could easily understand if filmmakers looking to put their own imprint on the material would want to keep clear of his influence. But if that is the case, Argento asks an entirely reasonable question: why call it a remake at all?
“…honestly, I do think it would be better if it wasn’t remade,” he said. “…the film has a specific mood. Either you do it exactly the same way —in which case, it’s not a remake, it’s a copy, which is pointless— or, you change things and make another movie. In that case, why call it ‘Suspiria’?”
It’s a valid question, and if you have any answers, let us know in the comments section. [via Dread Central]