Remake Watch: Giving Rebirth to ‘Children of the Corn’

Posted by Dr. Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 8, 2009

After firing an undisclosed amount of people last week, The Weinstein Company is doing a decent job of keeping their slate full of projects that the moviegoing public at large will get totally lukewarm about. We’re talking so lukewarm that they may riot or wet themselves out of apathy.

According to Variety, the latest addition to that electrifyingly tepid list of films is a remake of Children of the Corn which the Weinsteins have begun labeling as an adaptation of the original Stephen King novel. And they’ve hired Ehren Kruger (probably most famous for The Ring) to write the script.

The money quote from Bob Weinstein:

If you read the short story, it’s got such a strong feeling to it and there’s this religious overtone to it as well. Ehren wants to hit it hard. It’s popular in Hollywood to say your re-envisioning a project but a lot of the time they’re just carbon copying the original. We are bringing something new to the story.”

So if we’ve read that right, they’ll be adding a strong feeling to it and (finally) some religiosity. To Children of the Corn. The movie with the boy preacher in it. And the killing of the parents as demanded by God. Yeah, that one.

While I have no idea how this thing is going to add anything to the original, especially considering the recent horror offerings from the Weinsteins, it’s interesting to see a Hollywood producer note that most remakes are terrible and don’t belong in the world. It’s also nice to have it in writing.

Honestly, I don’t care at all about what Bob Weinstein has to pitch about this project. I’d rather hear from Kruger about what direction he’d like to take as a writer. Hopefully he’d have more to offer than the oh-so-specific “strong feeling” that they plan on adding. He’s a talented screenwriter, which is a bright spot for this whole thing. Should be fun to see how this one shapes up.

What do you think?

Read more articles by Dr. Cole Abaius