Movieweb have published an interesting interview with Child’s Play writer Don Mancini and producer David Kirschner. They talk about the 20th Anniversary Child’s Play set that will be coming out but also about the rumoured Child’s Play remake.
Now, you have the remake coming up. Was there ever a temptation to keep going on with the series or was it at a point where you should just start over and bring the character back and give this generation their own movie. Was that kind of how it came about?
David Kirschner: Actually, it was Universal. In our discussions of Don and my producing partner, we thought we would go on to the next film, but Universal said to us that they would love to be able to remake the first. I think all of us looked at each other and said, ‘We just don’t want to make a frame-for-frame exactly the same picture.’ That’s when Don went away and began to work and when Don began to lay out where he was going. I don’t want to give away too much. I’ve known Don for 22 years. We’re dear friends. I know his humor, I know his mind. I was so shocked with where he was taking us with expectations of the first film and pulling the rug out from under us. It was exciting and really frightening and exhilarating to hear, as opposed to just shooting a frame-for-frame, but really subverting audiences expectations.
Don Mancini: That’s really our goal with this next movie, bottom-line, was to make it scary again. After having, I think, rather successfully mined the horror-comedy aspects of this concept over the course of Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky, the fans are really telling us that they want it to be scary again. Doing the remake just provides us with a really good opportunity to bring it home, so to speak.
Absolutely. It’s been done with the Friday the 13th and a slew of other ones. It seemed like the horror-comedy was such a big deal for awhile and now people just want to be scared again.
Don Mancini: Right. Absolutely, but in regards to those other franchises that are being remade, we must take pains to mention that we’re the only one where the original creators are actually making the movie. It’s a special feel of quality, like a Good Housekeeping quality.
So you have Brad for the voice again, but is there anything else you can tell us? Is it going to be modernized or is there anything you can tell us about it at all?
Don Mancini: Well, it will definitely be modernized to the extent that it will take place in 2010, or whenever the movie comes out. That’s what we’re shooting for at this point. We’re going to be using animatronic puppet effects again, not CGI.
David Kirschner: That seems to be a big question with everybody and we want to stay with the animatronics because it gives you such a wonderful feel of Chucky’s movement. It feels like something that has been brought to life, as opposed to a smooth piece of animation.
Don Mancini: One thing I would like to do, as the director, I would really like to shoot the movie widescreen, 2.35:1, which we haven’t done in any of the movies yet and I think that would really provide another opportunity for scares and suspense, particularly because since Chucky, our villain, is only two feet tall, it makes sense to define the space horizontally rather than vertically. I think that will take it to another level. It’s just having that rectangular shape and when you think of great horror movies like Halloween and Jaws that just really exploit the space so well and I just think we would have so many more opportunities in creating suspense and shocks.
Will this remake usher in a whole new series, or how is this being planned? WithFriday the 13th, they’re talking about spawning a whole new series.
David Kirschner: I think that Universal’s feeling is that they would love this to spawn a whole new series.
Don Mancini: But I don’t think we would be specifically remaking “Child’s Play 2” and “Child’s Play 3”. I imagine we’d be dreaming up whole new stories.
David Kirschner: They are hoping that this will spawn a whole new group of films. We’ll see. We’re concentrating on this one.
Make sure you read the full interview over on Movieweb. It’s quite a detailed one.
im chucky were friends to the end