'Jacob's Ladder' Remake Release Date Set For This Summer, Unless We're Dreaming
The unnecessary Jacob's Ladder remake was supposed to open earlier this year, but was pulled from its release window at the last minute. Now it looks like we'll finally have a chance to see it this summer. Vertical Entertainment just picked up the rights to the film, and plan to release it this summer. This Jacob's Ladder is being described as a "reimagining" of the 1990 horror movie of the same name. This new take, directed by David M. Rosenthal, will tell a completely different story, and change the original movie's famous twist ending.
Deadline is reporting that Vertical Entertainment snapped up the U.S. rights to LD Entertainment's Jacob's Ladder remake, and already have a release date in mind. Two release dates, in fact. DISH will first premiere the movie in an exclusive July window, followed by a theatrical release in August.
In the original Jacob's Ladder, Tim Robbins played Vietnam veteran Jacob Singer, who is in the midst of a terrifying situation. All over New York, Jacob keeps spotting horrifying, nightmarish images. Is he going crazy? Does this have something to do with an experiment the military did on him during the war? Is something supernatural happening? The ending results in a big twist – spoilers for a nearly 30-year-old movie follow! – Jacob was mortally wounded in Vietnam, and the entire movie has been a kind of fever dream sending him through purgatory while he lays dying in a medical tent.
This Jacob's Ladder features a script co-written by recent Pet Sematary writer Jeff Buhler. Buhler also penned the upcoming Grudge reboot, so he kind of has the market cornered on horror remake screenplays. In a past interview, Buhler stressed that the new Jacob's Ladder won't just be a copy of the original, telling an entirely new story:
"The concept is really about the experience of coming home and readjusting, which is very present and poignant in the original film. Tim Robbins is a soldier who's readjusting to life and feels like a stranger in his own city and to his family, so getting those concepts out there and really living in that space in our film was important. Then we came up with a cool twist that's different from the one in the original, but has that same spirit."
The Deadline story offers a new synopsis for the remake:
Jacob Singer is getting his life back together after his brother is killed in Afghanistan. Jacob has a beautiful wife, a new born child and a successful career as surgeon in a VA hospital. When a stranger approaches Jacob and reveals that his brother is actually alive and living in an underground shelter with other homeless vets, Jacob's life starts to unravel. He begins hallucinating, believes he is being followed by violent attackers and becomes paranoid about the truth of what really happened to his brother. When he discovers that his brother is alive and addicted to an experimental drug, he uncovers a secret he never could have been prepared for.
While I'm by no means anti-remake, this entire endeavor feels pointless to me. Especially since this remake sounds nothing like the original – why have it be a remake at all? Make something original! All that said, I like Buhler's writing, so I'm willing to give this a shot when it arrives this summer.