While Paramount’s Rings failed to recharge the franchise in the way they would have hoped, Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures will be shooting for more success with their planned reboot of The Grudge.
Like Gore Verbinski’s 2002 remake of Hideo Nakata’s Ring, Takashi Shimizu’s 2004 remake of his own 2002 J-Horror Ju-on: The Grudge raked it in at the box office, and saw studios scrambling over each other to Americanize any Eastern fright flicks they could get their mitts on. Two sequels followed, in 2006 and 2009.
Nicolas Pesce, who directed last year’s The Eyes of My Mother, is attached to direct the reboot for Ghost House. He is also rewriting a script by Midnight Meat Train scribe Jeff Buhler. Ghost House co-founders Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert will produce alongside Taka Ichise, with Roy Lee, Doug Davison and regular Ghost House co-producers Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane executive producing.
The 2004 film starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as a nurse who, soon after moving to Tokyo, hears of a vengeful spirit who locks its victims in a rage before killing them and passing the curse on to another.
Words: Kevan Farrow (@KevanX)