Last time we heard anything regarding that proposed new adaptation of Stephen King’s PET SEMATARY was back during October, when 28 WEEKS LATER director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo officially became the man to captain the ship. Nearly a year later, the project may have been forgotten, but it’s surely not gone.
According to Dread Central, MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN screenwriter Jeff Buhler has been tapped to work on the film. Here’s what the scribe told the site:
“I’ve been working with Juan Carlos on his rebooted, re-imagined version… Paramount had a script from Matt Greenburg and then brought Juan Carlos on, and they were looking to do some work on the script, and then I came in. Juan Carlos and I collaborated on a new outline for the film, Paramount loved our pitch, and I’ve been writing the first draft of the script. It’s very exciting.”
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He continues:
We are being very respectful to the book and we are not tying ourselves to anything in the first two films at all. We are [also] bringing in some fresh elements that speak to the spirit of the story that aren’t in either one.”
Juan Carlos and I have been working very closely from the beginning so I think the process will be very quick. It’s not going to be one of those situations where there’s a script that the studio likes but then they bring on a director who has a bunch of new ideas and then it goes back into the scripting process for another six months. Because we are doing everything with the director from the beginning, hopefully we won’t be far from where we need to be [with the first draft] when we are done.”
Buhler adds that they’re not thinking about the rating at the moment – it can end up PG-13 or R – and he plans on having the latest draft finished by the end of the summer. To read the rest of his comments, head over to DC.
Buhler did a nifty job adapting Clive Barker’s (very) short story into the MIDNIGHT feature, so perhaps his involvement in PET SEMATARY isn’t a bad thing. That said, still hard not to be dubious about an update of this touchy, creepy material.
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