‘Pumpkinhead’ Reboot In The Works From ‘Saw’ Producer
By The Movie God
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Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016 at 10:00 am
Another horror movie franchise reboot is being developed. Peter Block, an executive producer on the original Saw and all of its sequels, has acquired the rights to the Pumpkinhead series and has revealed plans for a reboot.
The original Pumpkinhead told the story of a man (played by Aliens star Lance Henriksen) whose son is taken from him in a hit and run accident. Wanting those responsible to pay for what they’ve done, he seeks out a local witch, who helps him to summon a demon to hunt down the ones involved in his son’s death. The 1988 movie was the directorial debut of the late, great make-up and special effects legend Stan Winston. The only other feature the four-time Oscar winner (Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Jurassic Park) would direct was A Gnome Named Gnorm two years later.
Read more on the reboot and check out the original’s trailer below.
Here’s what Block had to say about the announcement:
“Pumpkinhead is one of my favorite horror films of the late ’80s, early ’90s. Stan Winston sits on that Mount Rushmore of iconic filmmakers because of his creature designs, and that was his first directing effort. The creature’s great but the emotional story is wonderful as well. I got the rights to Pumpkinhead, and hooked up with a great young writer called Nate Atkins, and we developed our script, which is really solid.”
Block also talked about the similarities and differences fans can expect:
“There is a similarity of theme and a similarity of story. There’s a lot of Easter eggs for people who know the original “” iconic shots and iconic lines that we’re going to use. But we’ve enhanced the setting, and we’ve expanded the characters somewhat, to give it a different kind of experience.”
Now, Pumpkinhead isn’t considered one of the all-time great horror movies or anything. But it does have a cult following, and that’s mostly due to its monster. The creature that Winston and his team came up with for the movie is, if you ask me, one of the very best horror movie creatures ever created. One of the movies that scared me most growing up was Pumpkinhead, and I didn’t actually see the freakin’ movie until just a few years ago. That fear came solely from seeing the terrifying VHS cover while looking for movies to rent during visits to the local video store.
This is where things get tricky. It would be easiest to re-create such a creature using CGI, as it’s the norm these days. But that wouldn’t go over well at all with fans of the original. Thankfully it doesn’t sound like Block has any plans to go full CGI:
“I am a big proponent of practical effects. That was the great thing about the original. A lot of the films I still respond to most today, it’s because of the practical effects. We think that it’s going to be a nice slow reveal, lots of scares and lots of action in the beginning, and a great creature in the end, which everybody should be able to look at and say, “˜Oh, that’s Pumpkinhead!’ It’s not like you’re all of a sudden going to find that it’s some amorphous, nebulous, CGI wispy thing. You’re going to know it came from the Pumpkinhead family lineage.”
Block hopes to shoot the reboot, which is will also be titled Pumpkinhead, sometime next year. He’s currently in the process of finding someone to direct the movie.
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Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
Exciting news! Actually enjoyed Pumpkinhead and look forward to a legit sequel/reboot!
Comment by PAUL — August 3, 2016 @ 12:16 pm