Movies
Producer Marc Abraham Discusses ‘Creature From the Black Lagoon’ Remake!
On B-D’s visit to the set of The Thing prequel in Toronto, we had the opportunity to ask producer Marc Abraham whether the Creature From the Black Lagoon remake will be moving forward – and while he was noncommital on its prospects for ever seeing the light of day, he was at least able to offer a glimmer of hope for Black Lagoon fans.
“We’ve gone through a bunch of different incarnations of scripts, and none that me and my partner were satisfied with,” said Abraham. “Gary Ross is involved with us as a producer [along with] his wife, Allison [Thomas]. None of us have been satisfied. I think we have a really cool take on the movie now – [a] much hipper, [more] interesting version of it, and we’re looking for a new writer who’s after that. And, in fact, I just had breakfast and I was writing down my notes about it, about how I think it should go. I think we have a really cool take on it. Still set in South America, really a more ‘not-a-guy-in-a-rubber-suit’…[it’s a] much more psychological transformation, more literary transformation. I think a really interesting idea.”
Asked whether he sees the possible remake – which he described as “more of an origin story and [about] how [the transformation] happens” – as the basis for a potential franchise, however, it seems the busy producer is taking it one movie at a time: “I don’t know about that,” he told us, before quickly changing the subject.
Does his use of the word “hipper” make anyone else uneasy besides me? I can see it now: Justin Bieber in a Gill-Man suit. With sparkles. And it’s a musical.
Final Destination Bloodlines filmmakers Zach Lipovsky & Adam Stein return to their mutant roots with Freaks Part II, their follow-up to 2018’s Freaks. The first look has arrived ahead of the film’s world premiere.
Freaks Part II is the official closing film of Fantasia, where it will make its world premiere.
In the sequel, “Several years after a traumatic escape, we meet Mary (Amanda Crew, Freaks) and her daughter Chloe (Lorelei Olivia Mote, Riddle of Fire) as they live on the road, hiding their powers and identities. They are hunted by the Abnormal Defense Force, paramilitary police that specialize in ruthlessly exterminating ‘freaks‘ like them. Mary is fueled by revenge, determined to find the ADF officer (Lili Taylor, The Conjuring) who killed her first child.“
It’s not just the story that’s progressing with this sequel, but also the gore. Fantasia teases, “There’s also inventive gore – the most we’ve seen in a Canadian film in years – that punctuates the outstanding performances and serious subject matter.”
Mote takes over for Lexy Kolker, who played Chloe in the 2018 film that saw the young protagonist with growing powers confined to her home by an overprotective and paranoid father (Emile Hirsch).
Rafael Motamayor wrote in his review, “Freaks feels like an even more grounded, small-scale version of the X-Men, a sci-fi film filled with surprises, a message about parenthood and wanting to keep your child safe and isolated from the world, and a future star in Lexy Kolker.”
Lipovsky & Stein’s have a packed slate ahead, co-writing Gremlins 3 with Chris Columbus, directing the sci-fi survival film The Earthling for Columbia, directing the psychological horror film Long Lost for Amblin, and directing the sci-fi drama The Traveler for Paramount.