In Los Angeles a couple of years back I ran into “Gremlins 2” star Robert Picardo (who, like Dick Miller, is a Joe Dante-pic regular – he played ‘The Cowboy’ in the brilliant “Innerspace”) and we preceded to have a bit of a chat about the money-spinning “Gremlins” series – that had come to a seemingly sure conclusion in 1990.

Picardo wasn’t confident there would ever be a third “Gremlins” – mainly because he believed Dante wouldn’t be interested in working with Warner Bros again (following the miserable time the filmmaker had on “Looney Tunes : Back in Action”) and the studio wouldn’t want a movie with ‘puppets’ in it nowadays. Of course what Picardo neglected to consider was that the studio wouldn’t necessarily need Dante back for a third “Gremlins”, nor would they be forced to dust off the old puppets.
Which is exactly what’s going to happen…. and, I assume, like many of you, I don’t quite know how I feel about this.

Market Saw reports that “Gremlins 3”, which Dante likely won’t be involved in, is in early development.
It, one assumes, will use CGI to rebuild Gizmo, Stripe and company (Shit, if they’re going to CGI something… why can’t it be a computer-generated Dick Miller!? ).

And, well since everything else coming out over the next few years will be, “Gremlins 3” will be in 3D.
Expect an in-name only sequel that likely won’t have time for Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates or, dare I say, Howie Mandel (the voice of Gizmo).

I sound cynical, but I’m sure I’m not alone. This is, like “Ghostbusters 3”, one of those films that I’ll be rushing out to see…. but aren’t so sure I’ll be doing myself a favour by doing so. “Gremlins” has such a special pleasure in my ticket-stubbed heart (I remember going back several times to see it at the cinema, but seeing “Gremlins 3” at the local Village was a more memorable experience – if only because I’d gotten to take two lovely girlies to it), I’d hate to see it fucked with.