Big Stephen King News: "IT" and "Pet Sematary" Remakes on the Horizon

So this is amazing, wonderful, beautiful, fantastic, great, fucking baby-making kind of news. Several years ago, word was leaked that a remake of the early 90’s ABC IT miniseries was going to be re-made into a feature length, major motion picture geared for an R rating. After all, anyone who’s read that book knows how gruesome it actually is, turning into a mini-series for ABC was always something I wondered about.
Regardless, word was leaked, the film went silent and we haven’t heard anything about it, until now. A writer has officially been announced, David Kajganich (The Invasion) as well as a director, Cary Fukunaga (Jane Eyre). Also, Warner Bros. has agreed to a 2 FILM DEAL. This means that Fukunaga will really be able to explore the themes of childhood, friendship and the strange history of Derry in depth. Can’t you tell how excited I am?

Well, while I’m very excited about this bit of news, I’m more excited about this: Pet FUCKING Sematary. Now, I should have prefaced this earlier, but I am a HUGE Stephen King fan, and right beneath The Shining there is Pet Sematary. I’m talking the novels here, not the films. I thought the film adaptation of Pet Sematary was piss-poor. That book made me weep, that book hit on some extremely heavy themes of fatherhood, death and the horrid reality of having to let a loved one go, even if you feel they were taken from you way to soon. The film not only skipped each of these themes (pretty much entirely) they turned it into a silly zombie film that held none of the deep rich beauty that the book had. I recognize that the film is a classic, and I will never deny a classic it’s credit. It’s a classic for a reason but I personally do not, and probably never will, like it.

Now, to get back onto point, Paramount Pictures has commissioned Matthew Greenberg (1408) to pen the screenplay for the remake of Pet Sematary. Now, when news of this one leaked Paramount was bombarded by directors who wanted a chance to helm the classic, one of which being Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) but (here’s where I get really, really excited) decided to go for none other than Mr. Alexandre Aja himself, due to his ability to work wonders with visceral, violent films such as Haute Tension and The Hills Have Eyes.

While there is not timeline (atleast not released) for either film yet, it looks like Aja could begin work on this project in the coming months, while IT could still be a long ways off. Either way, this is the kind of news that makes my day.

-Rg Lovecraft