The Orphanage Remake Caught in Limbo

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 20, 2009

There has been talk about a remake of the hit Spanish horror film The Orphanage for some time. In August, director Larry Fessenden (Wendigo) was commissioned by producer Guillermo Del Toro to adapt the script and direct. But we’ve heard nothing since.

Today, according to an interview that Arrow in the Head conducted with Fassenden, it appears as if the remake is in a bit of trouble. According to the long-time actor/director, he’s off the project after having some trouble in the casting process:

THE ORPHANAGE was two years of waiting. Working on the script with Guillermo was a very exciting experience, but then I got into a casting miasma and that’s where the thing is; I think they’re gonna do it another way, actually. So I think I’m out of it. Hopefully they’ll still use my script, but I’m not sure I’m directing it anymore. That’s Hollywood for ya.

That is Hollywood, indeed. With his time currently sunk completely into work on The Hobbit with Peter Jackson, it is hard to say how much time Guillermo Del Toro will have to go out and find a new director for the remake, leaving the film in a state of limbo. The original film — which told the story of a woman whose son goes missing after making friends with a mysterious boy at an old orphanage — stands well on its own, and if this makes for the end of the effort to remake it for American audiences, I doubt that many fans would have a problem with that.

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