Movies
Matt Reeves Talks Remaking ‘Let the Right One In’
Why remake a perfect movie? That’s the question that often floats in one ear and out the other. Here’s the answer… if this film is foreign, nobody will show up to see it. [REC] is a perfect example and not a single person I know outside of the horror circle knows that the film was remade at QUARANTINE. So the safe can be said about Let the Right One In, which is critically praised and still could never make the big bucks at the box office. Hence the reason Matt Reeves is directing a remake for Overture Pictures. Inside you can read a bit about his plans for remaking one of this year’s best movies.
MTV breaks down their conversation with Matt Reeves:
“Will he change the time period and locale? “I’m keeping it in the early 80s. I love the setting of it being in a snowy locale. I’ve been thinking of Colorado, maybe Littleton.”
On adapting the story for an American audience: “The movie and the book are incredibly Swedish yet there’s something so universal about the tale of this kid and something that in the context of an American story could be completely different while being very consistent with the original story. There’s something about it that can be an American mythic tale.”
On his love for the source material: “It’s a terrific movie and a fantastic book. I think it could be a really touching haunting and terrifying film. I’m really excited about what it could be.”
On his personal connection to the story: “I had such a personal reaction when I saw the movie and when I read the book. I felt like there was an opportunity to do something incredibly personal while still being in a genre arena.”
How he sees the story: “It’s an amazing mixture of a coming of age story and a really scary horror film. It’s touching and scary. It’s an incredibly touching love story and a really scary vampire movie.”
Through the eyes of a child? “I see the film as essentially being the fantasies of this 12 year old who’s having such a hard time. It would never be that overt where you would watch the movie and say that’s a dream but to me that is kind of an organizing principle.”
The film may be his next directing effort: “Overture wants it as soon as possible. They would love me to do it next so that’s what we’re shooting for at the moment.”
Two things that have proven to be pretty dependable at the box office in recent years are horror movies and Christopher Nolan movies. With Nolan’s The Odyssey absolutely dominating the box office this past weekend, many fans of Nolan’s work have been left hungry for a Nolan-directed horror movie. After all, The Odyssey does whet the appetite for Nolan nightmare fuel.
Christopher Nolan has brushed up against the horror genre in the past with 2002 thriller Insomnia, but does he have any interest in someday making a full-on horror movie?
Nolan tells the Empire Podcast in a new chat, “I’ve always been interested in doing a horror film.”
“But horror is most successful when the conceptual framework of whatever the story is is just so undeniable. I think there are very few really great horror movies,” Nolan continues.
So why hasn’t Christopher Nolan directed a horror movie yet?
He explains to Empire, “I’ve never clicked with a particular idea or concept that worked for me. I love the genre. Of all genres, it’s the most visceral. Where the direct response to the audience is the most important. That is to say, you’re trying to make people literally feel something in their bones about what’s going on on-screen.”
Nolan calls horror “a genre in which experimentation is demanded.” He explains, “I go to see a lot of horror films with my kids these days, and you’ll see things in the first half an hour, 45 minutes of any horror film that you’d never see in another genre. Risks that are taken. Dangerous approaches to things. Admittedly, a lot of movies can’t sustain that to the end. But in the horror genre, that kind of innovation is not just respected – it’s really demanded.”
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.
Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
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