Rob Zombie’s latest movie, Halloween II, opens in theaters today and now he’s set to reboot another potential horror franchise. Zombie is signed to write, direct and produce a remake of the 1958 iconic horror film The Blob. Kind of.
“My intention is not to have a big red blobby thing, that’s the first thing I want to change,’ Zombie told Variety. “That gigantic Jello-looking thing might have been scary to audiences in the 1950s, but people would laugh now. I have a totally different take, one that’s pretty dark.”
What?
Then why remake The Blob at all? Does the name have any cachet with people today? Wouldn’t it be easier to just let Zombie do whatever he wanted and not pay any kind of royalty?
I don’t like any of Zombie’s films (though I can appreciate The Devil’s Rejects), but it’s not hard to understand why he can keep making horror films. His chosen aesthetic is dirty and cheap. He works fast. He keeps his budgets relatively low and has enough of a fan base to recoup those costs. He’s the perfect fit for the genre.
He will write The Blob during his concert tour this fall, with filming scheduled to being early next year. I don’t think a late 2010 opening it out of the question.
As a side note, I’m fairly confident I remember Paramount planning a remake a few years back with the writers of House of Wax (2005) but Variety fails to mention any studio attached to Zombie’s version so perhaps Paramount’s option lapsed? Anyone know for sure?
Are you a fan of Rob Zombie? Is he right for a remake of The Blob?