Chris Mintz-Plasse to star as Evil Ed in new Fright Night

The FRIGHT NIGHT remake set up at DreamWorks seemed to be trucking along nicely with relatively little backlash until recently. First there was the news that Peter Vincent, who in the original was a an aging horror TV show host, would now be a Las Vegas magician, Criss Angel style. Then today came news that Christopher Mintz-Plasse was signing on to star as Evil Ed.

There were a lot of complaints on Twitter already about Mintz-Plasse playing the Evil Ed role and I can see that he doesn’t match up to the original character (as played by Stepjen Geoffries). But as he’s written in the new script, CMP is actually a decent bit of casting. He’s not quite as “weird” as he is in the original. He’s more of a comic book loving, punk music listening, hyper outcast with a very Mintz-Plassian sense of humor. I know you’re feeling skeptical right now, but this is actually a pretty well-done script. Yes it takes some liberties with the property but it’s updating the movie and the idea of a horror TV show host just wouldn’t make much sense in a 2010 movie.

Speaking of the Peter Vincent character, it was also announced that David Tennant (“Doctor Who”) will be playing the horror-infused magician in the film who helps Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) in his fight against his vampiric next door neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell).

The film is set to begin production later this summer under the direction of Craig Gillespie. While some DreamWorks films have found a home at Universal, this film will be released through Disney.