Not so long ago, director Christopher Landon from “Happy Death Day” and “Freaky” fame for a new recording of low -horror comedy classics “Arachnophobia.”
In fact, the last time Thewrap talked to Landon – around the time for his Netflix movie “We have a ghost” – he came from a meeting where he picked out the spiders that would start in his tag at the 1990 original.
Of course, this did not end.
So while we talked to Landon about his excellent new thriller “Drop,” We had to ask – what Where His hold of “Arachnophobia?”
“I wrote a script that I loved. I actually think it was one of my best,” he explained. “But the problem with that is that you still have to deal with other people who have different opinions about what kind of movie we should do. It was a classic case of creative differences and it was something I was not willing to change. Everyone continued and that was just as it went. But at least it was a quiet separation.”
Landon said his view of the material was “a new recording in the sense that it was a spider invasion in a small … In this case it was more a western Texas city.” His idea, he noted, was more “body horror” – the spiders would use their teeth to slice in your meat and lay eggs in the body. “It was brutal,” Landon said.
It was also a Mayor in the small town. One of the candidates “had enormous influence over this particular city, because he was an old oil money family type of guy”, shared the filmmaker. He thought of an hour Allen type for the role, a character that is outward charming but on the inside a ruthless, horrible man. He would be up to a female candidate. “There is a spider invasion and all hell loosens,” Landon said.
The director said he would inform people about what they remembered about the original film, produced by Steven Spielberg and released by Disney, who noticed it as a “thrillomedy.” People would tell Landon that they remembered the shower scene and John Goodman as pest control guy. “And I was like,” but what about the action? “And they often couldn’t formulate a plot.” I wrote something I felt was very plot controlled. I had much bigger sets than the original. It was definitely a more expensive movie. It was another thing that I think that made everyone a little nervous. ”
When we asked if he had written a place for Goodman to return, Landon revealed that he had “written a great return” for the character.
Landon also said that the project is still under development, from Spielberg’s Amblin Partners and James Wan’s Atomic Monster.
“Drop” is in theaters on Friday.
