Warner Bros. and Amblin might soon be dining after midnight. A few months back I spoke to original Gremlins director Joe Dante about the prospect of either a sequel or a reboot to the franchise. Things looked slightly different then and he was somewhat circumspect about the idea.

At the time Dante stated, “I haven’t had any formal talks, or even informal talks, with them about it. It’s a title in their library that sooner or later will be re-exploited. You can’t obviously do a sequel to the second picture because the cast is too old and I don’t know that that’s the way they’re thinking. I think they’d probably reboot the whole thing and start all over or go in a different direction – take the Gremlins someplace else… I do know that there have been attempts at Gremlins pictures. I know that people have gone in with pitches, but nothing has caught their eye. But I’m not positive that it’s entirely Warner Brothers’ decision. Because it’s an Amblin project, it probably has to be signed off on by Spielberg.”

But now (via Vulture) that last piece may have finally fallen into place. Head inside for more…

Per Vulture, “Our sources tell us that, in keeping with Hollywood’s mandated pop culture recycling program, Warner Bros. Pictures is negotiating with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment to reboot their 1984 horror comedy, Gremlins.
We’re also told negotiations of this sort have happened several times over the years, but making Spielberg’s deal always proved too daunting… our sources tell us that it might just actually come off this time.”

If Spielberg give the thumbs up, I have no doubt that this would be made. I’d hope that Joe Dante would be involved, but I’d say that the actual chances of that happening are, sadly, slim. It’s also worth noting that this kind of news circles around every so often. Time will tell if Vulture’s sources are legit or not.