Paramount Developing Remake Of 'Pet Sematary'

By Russ Fischer/Feb. 2, 2011 3:30 pm EST

Stephen King is big movie business again. Chalk that up to the massive film and TV adaptation of his Dark Tower series that has industry players Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman and Brian Grazer pushing it forward. Then there is the new version of The Stand, which Warner Bros. is developing, and possible new versions of Firestarter and Maximum Overdrive.

The latest new King project is a possible remake of the 1989 film Pet Sematary, which starred Fred Gwynne and his awful Maine accent in a film about dead pets and children coming back to life.

The original film, despite the aforementioned accent and some truly wooden acting (in particular from Star Trek: TNG's Denise Crosby) has some very effective chills. At the time the zombie genre hadn't been mined as thoroughly as it has now, and the horrific ramifications of a dead toddler being brought back to life made for some potent sights. That would probably still work ugly magic on audiences. As remake possibilities go, this one is (forgive me) ripe.

If you're not familiar with the novel and/or film, the basics are that a city family moves out to the country, but their house is near a highway. Their young son wanders into the road and is killed, but fortunately there is magical/cursed plot of ground nearby from which buried creatures — and people — will come back to life.

The LA Times says that Matthew Greenberg (writer, 1408) is about to turn in a remake script, and the studio may be looking for a 'high-level director' to helm the film. And what about the soundtrack? Will someone re-record the theme song by the Ramones, too? (I love that song.)

Now place your bets on which Stephen King movie might next get the remake treatment. I'm surprised we haven't heard about a new version of Silver Bullet or (shudder) Sleepwalkers. Also, this news caused me to notice that Lawrence Kasdan's adaptation of Dreamcatcher, which is the most batshit insane trainwreck of all the bad Stephen King films — and that's saying a lot — is now streaming on Netflix.