Editorial Staff
A follow-up to ’80s horror-comedy “Gremlins” has been in development for a couple of years. We’d previously heard that the film wouldn’t be a straight-up remake of the Joe Dante classic, but would instead continue on from those earlier films – no doubt music to the ears of fans.
Speaking with /Film, “Gremlins” writer Chris Columbus offered an update on the new film, suggesting “Gremlins 3” will be a much darker, less campy film than the later movie in the series (1990’s “Gremlins 2 : The New Batch”) but will retain the services of the puppeteer circus that helped bring the title characters to life.
“It is as twisted and dark as anything, so we’ll see. It’s always a budgetary conversation when we’re going to shoot it. I wanted to go back to the really twisted sensibility of the first movie. I found that was a very easy place for me to fall back into and start writing again so hopefully we’ll see that movie soon.”
Some will recall that Columbus’s script for the original film was even darker than what ended up in the film. Reportedly once Steven Spielberg got involved in a producing capacity, he wanted something less-“Ghoulies” and more “E.T”.
Thankfully, Columbus says the Gremlins – and presumably Gizmo – will still be puppets in the new film.
“CGI will enable us to remove wires and make the puppeteers lives a little easier. It was brutal. It was like a marathon every night for those guys. In the bar scene alone there were 18 [or] 20 people behind the bar. No one had any space to move. It was just hellish for those guys so CGI will simplify that a little bit but it’s all puppets.”
The site offered up the suggestion of getting rid of Gizmo, since he’s the source of the horror, to which Columbus replied :
“Very good observation. That comes up in the movie, certainly.”
