Is Sam Raimi Really Going To Direct The ‘Poltergeist’ Remake?
MGM, which is remaking movies left and right, wants to do a new version ofPoltergeist. We’ve known thatfor some time, and over the past year the story got interesting with news of theinvolvementof playwright andRabbit HolewriterDavid Lindsay-Abaireand then the addition ofSam Raimi. (The former of whom did work on Raimi’s laterSpider-Manefforts, and also on hisOz: The Great and Powerful.)
Raimi’s role was quickly clarified as that ofproducer rather than director. But a new piece on Lindsay-Abaire suggests that Raimi is directing the film after all.
I’d shrugged off a piece inTHRthat paraphrased the writer talking about the movie. Here’s what THR ran:
His next project is equally unconventional: He’s penning the script for a remake ofPoltergeist, to be directed by Sam Raimi, who he reveals was originally supposed to direct the big-screen adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning playRabbit Holebefore a scheduling conflict got in the way. (John Cameron Mitchell wound up getting the job.)
That looks like it could be a moment where Scott Feinberg, who wrote the THR piece, just dropped in info aboutPoltergeistthat has been floating around. But Feinberg says Lindsay-Abaire actually said Raimi is directing the film. AfterHitFixran a piece on the project today, Feinberg clarified via Twitter:
I don’t know about you, but for me the idea of Raimi directingPoltergeistchanges things quite a bit. We don’t even know what the script entails at this point, so it could be something that many other directors would turn into a compelling project. (We’ve heard that it features “a family whose house was built on a holy site and whose daughter is taken by ghosts,” which is to say: it’sPoltergeist.)
But seeing Raimi go to the ghost house again… that’s tempting. Especially as this comes right on the heels of the first public — and very successful — reveal of footage from the remake of Raimi’s debut featureThe Evil Dead. If Raimi can be part of a small cycle of remakes that don’t suck, I’d be pretty happy.
