Two bits of remake news in one night? .. Not surprising. Seems like the late 70’s flick PIRANHA (directed by Joe Dante) is set to get the treatment so many classics are getting.
So far the only news on this one is that it was written by Josh Stolberg (GOOD LUCK CHUCK) and Peter Goldfinger, with Alexandre Aja (HIGH TENSION, THE HILLS HAVE EYES) directing. Now we’re all familiar with Alexandre Aja’s work, and dare I say I enjoy it. I loved HIGH TENSION, and THE HILLS HAVE EYES wasn’t half bad (aside from the rape scene), so given the premise of this film, I think Aja is going to have a blast.
Now Moviehole.net recently spoke to screenwriter Stolberg about the film.
“We wrote a spec script about, well, piranhas, and called it “Killer Fish”. We sent it to J Todd, who obviously put two and two together and snapped it up with an option. I knew the film would eventually get made, so even though we didn’t see money up front, we knew it would come back to us in dividends later. It’s happening. An amazing director just took over. Alexandre Aja. He directed “High Tension”. He also did the first remake of “The Hills Have Eyes”. Alex and his writing partner are reworking the script a little and if all goes as planned, it could be shooting pre-strike. It allowed me to write in the horror genre, something that producers don’t really know me for yet. And I thought our take on the material was fun and different. I know there are a lot of people out there who hate remakes. But I thought, hell, if it’s going to happen anyway, why not throw our hat into the ring and see if we can’t make it better than expected.”
So he made a remake without even knowing it. Don’t you love Hollywood? Anyway, the premise for the original PIRANHA is basically about a summer resort being terrorized by a group of piranha. According to IMDB, the premise for this remake is as follows: In Lake Havasu, Arizona, a tremor causes the lake’s floor to open, setting free scores of prehistoric piranhas.
So there’s a lot of wiggle room here. The 1978 PIRANHA spawned a sequel called PIRANHA PART TWO: THE SPAWNING. PIRANHA is slated for a 2008 release.
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