June 07, 2005

Piranha Sequel

Piranha.jpgI remember when I first saw Piranha and I was pretty freaked out to be honest, it scared me a lot. Yeah, well I was young. Still, after that I would never take up on an excursion of swimming with Piranha's again.

So with current Hollywood custom, here comes the remake, from Entertainment Insiders:

Atmosphere Entertainment and Relativity Media have announced that the first picture to go into production for their joint venture genre label Chiller Films will be a remake of Joe Dante's 1978 horror hit "Piranha" according to Screen Daily.

Chuck Russell ("The Scorpion King," "Nightmare On Elm Street 3"), is writing the screenplay about a prehistoric strain of fish that terrorises college students at Lake Havasu in Arizona.

"We felt that Piranha is the perfect genre picture for us to do," Atmoshpere chief Mark Canton said in a statement. "It's a classic horror thriller with high-end talent attached and with all of the ingredients to deliver a plethora of scares."

I first had the idea to remake Piranha about three years ago, right before the current horror film resurgence," IPW chairman Marc Toberoff added. "That one word tells a story evoking universal fear. I've always felt that death by piranha was much more horrifying than death by shark."

Death by Piranha! So little nibbles are worse than big chunks...I'd never really thought which was worse, mind you it does evoke the idea for the next movie, Jaws vs Piranha! There's also the interesting comment in there about high-end talent, I do presume that they are trying to, or already have, bigger names attached than the original? It also looks like Chiller Films are set to do a series of horror remakes, possibly all from the same genre if they are capped at $20m.

Please, no more. Where have all the original writers gone?


Posted by at June 7, 2005 02:51 AM


Comments

they should get james cameron back for this one ;)

Posted by: louis at June 7, 2005 04:48 AM

Strangely enough, the original film was remade once before- in the mid 90's, where Roger Corman paired up with cable channel Showtime, and "remade" many of the old time New World Pictures, including this film and "Humanoids From The Deep".

The 90's remake was even mentioned in Joe Dante's commentary on the Pirhana DVD. The remake used stock footage of the mutated fish from the original film (!)

Part of the original film's appeal was that it was a "self aware" ripoff, and injected some humor into it. Besides, I'd love to see them try to find the talent the original had. Will there be a new generation of Phil Tippets' and/or Rob Bottins'? Without the use of CGI I mean? They sure as heck will not find another John Sayles.

Posted by: darren seeley at June 7, 2005 07:02 PM

This is to take place at Lake Havasu? Great - now all the kids over the summer on family river trips will be afraid to go into the water.
Hmmm....actually I could have some fun with that....*evil grin*

Posted by: Meli at June 7, 2005 09:41 PM

I haven't seen the original, but they should remake the sequel, killer flying fish are much scarier. Plus it was directed by James Cameron. Then give Wes Craven a few dollars for publicity, he's always willing to sell out. Then pay Tarantino to direct it. He's plaigarized the crime and action genres enough.

They can call it Wes Craven Presents James Cameron's Pirhanna 2: The Spawning by Tarantino.

Posted by: darkbhudda at June 8, 2005 03:38 AM