Left Handed A Right Turn

At a time when remakes of movies seem to be replacing any original thought coming out of Hollywood, now comes news that horror master Wes Craven has inked a deal to produce an update of his very first flick, 1972's The Last House on the Left.

Variety's Michael Fleming has all of the details:

...Craven, who wrote and directed the original, will produce the remake with longtime partner Marianne Maddalena and Sean S. Cunningham. Latter produced the original. Rogue co-president Andrew Rona and Craven forged a relationship while Rona was co-[President] of Dimension.

Craven and Rogue are eyeing an early 2007 start date.

Rogue will retain worldwide rights for the redo, which follows the same storyline. A pair of adventurous teen girls are kidnapped, raped and murdered by a gang of thugs. The killers unwittingly hole up in the home of one victim's parents, who, upon realizing what their guests did, devise gruesome revenge.

Craven said that of all his films in talks for a remake -- "Shocker" and "People Under the Stairs" redos are in the offing -- the original "Last House" is still the most unsettling.

"I'm far enough removed from these films that the remakes are a little like having grandchildren," Craven said. "The story, about the painful side effects of revenge, is an evergreen. The headlines are full of people and nations taking revenge and getting caught up in endless cycles of violence."

Craven and Cunningham got $90,000 to shoot the original from drive-in theater owners in Boston who wanted cheap second films for double-feature bills. The R rating was self-imposed, since Craven had never heard of the MPAA.

"I had been teaching college and never intended to make horror films," Craven said.

New project marks the third remake of a Craven film that the director is producing. "The Hills Have Eyes" and a sequel that is in pre-production were remade for Fox Searchlight.

The original is pretty intense even by today's more sophisticated standards. I like the fact that Craven and Cunningham are both involved with the project. Fingers crossed that the right director is chosen for the film...