Not long ago, director Christopher Landon of “Happy Death Day” and “Freaky” fame was attached to a remake of low-key horror comedy classic “Arachnophobia.”
In fact, the last time TheWrap talked to Landon — around the time of his Netflix movie “We Have a Ghost” — he was coming from a meeting where he was picking out the spiders that would star in his take on the 1990 original.
Of course, this didn’t end up happening.
So, while we were chatting with Landon about his excellent new thriller “Drop,” we had to ask – what was his take on “Arachnophobia?”
“I wrote a script that I loved. I actually think it was one of my best,” he explained. “But the problem with that is that you still have to deal with other people who have different opinions about what kind of movie we should be making. This was a classic case of creative differences and it was something that I was not willing to change. Everybody moved on and that was just the way that it went. But at least it was a calm separation.”
Landon said that his take on the material was “a remake in the sense of it being a spider invasion in a small… in this case, it was more of a West Texas town.” His idea, he noted, was more “body horror” – the spiders would use their fangs to slice into your flesh and lay eggs inside your body. “It was brutal,” Landon said.
There was also a mayoral race going on in that small town. One of the candidates “had enormous influence over this particular town, because he was an old oil money family kind of guy,” the filmmaker shared. He thought of a Tim Allen-type for the role, a character who is outwardly charming but on the inside a ruthless, awful human being. He’d be up against a female candidate. “There’s a spider invasion and all hell breaks loose,” Landon said.
The director said he would informally poll people about what they remembered about the original movie, which was produced by Steven Spielberg and released by Disney, who labeled it a “thrillomedy.” People would tell Landon that they remembered the shower scene and John Goodman as the pest control guy. “And I was like, ‘But what about the plot?’ And they often couldn’t articulate a plot. For me, that felt like an opportunity,” he said. “I wrote something I felt was very plot-driven. I had much bigger set pieces than the original. It was definitely a more expensive movie. That was another thing I think that made everybody a little bit nervous.”
When we inquired if he had written a place for Goodman to return, Landon revealed he had “written a great return” for the character.
Landon also said the project is still in development, from Spielberg’s Amblin Partners and James Wan’s Atomic Monster.
“Drop” is in theaters on Friday.
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