It may be less than 20 years old but that hasn’t stopped Hollywood from setting its sights on supernatural teen horror The Craft for the remake treatment.
Heat Vision reports the news that Sony has lined up a remake of the 1996 cult film and has already tasked Leigh Janiak to write and direct the update, after apparently impressing Sony execs with, “her take on a female empowerment tale.”
Janiak made some waves recently with her award-nominated horror Honeymoon (starring Game of Thrones’ Rose Leslie and Penny Dreadful’s Harry Treadaway). She’s also been an assistant on productions like Mirror Mirror and Europa Report, as well as directing an episode of the upcoming Scream TV series.
She will co-write the script with Honeymoon writing partner Phil Graziadei. The original film’s producer, Doug Wick, is returning alongside Lucy Fisher who was Vice Chairman of Columbia when the original was made.
The original ’96 film followed a girl (Robin Tunney) who arrives at a Catholic school and befriends a trio of wannabe witches (Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell and Rachel True). The trio turn out to be amateur practioners and welcome Tunney’s character, a natural, into their fold. When they use their magic to fix personal issues, they discover that dark forces aren’t something to trifle with.
This news of a female-directed horror movie comes hot on the heels of Marvel targeting Selma director Ava DuVernay for a “diverse” comic book movie, setting a good precedent for further female-driven movies to come. The big studios have recently come under scrutiny from the American Civil Liberties Union for its lack of female directors at the top levels, although it’s noted Janiak was in talks before that came about.
Do we really need a Craft remake? No, probably not, but Janiak is an interesting filmmaker so let’s hold off on completely counting it out before it’s even cast the first spell.
Source: Heat Vision