Back in December of 2008 came the announcement that THEY LIVE was to be the latest in a line of sad, sad John Carpenter remakes. In an odd way, I was sort of ambivalent about the notion, as I can actually imagine the material being ripe for an update… but of course, there’s the other part of me that detests remakes on principal. THEY LIVE is a unique movie with a distinct personality that just can’t be duplicated, nor should the producers of the remake even attempt to mimic its quirky attitude… And yet, how could you not be at least a little curious..? (There would have to be at least a tiny reference to the immortal fight sequence, wouldn’t there?)
In any event, it’s been a while since we’ve heard much about said update, but recently io9 caught up with producer Eric Newman (also the producer of THE THING prequel) and found out what the status is:
“We’ve talked about They Live. And we’ve been developing something sort of in the They Live space. I’m hoping that’s something we can get into next year.”
Nothing spectacular… But then the question of the sunglasses comes up, and Newman drops a bomb.
“We’re discussing that. I’d like to say that really, a vagrant wandering around the streets could get you to try on his sunglasses, if he would leave you alone afterwards. He may even pay you $100, ‘Hey put these on.’ So we’re kind of exploring different versions of what is that thing that allows you to see. But I’m not going to tell you what it is…”
“It might be something different than sunglasses.”
can’t be contact lenses, because that’s even explored in the original, so what oh what could he be talking about?
Newman finally mentions that D.B. Weiss, the scribe behind the proposed I AM LEGEND prequel and a one-time contributor to the HALO screenplay, is penning the current THEY LIVE draft.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, from the THING prequel