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Friday
16Oct2009

'Poltergeist' Remake Delayed Until 2011

DateFriday, October 16, 2009 at 3:49AM
OK...so just a couple days ago we said that MGM was still planning to shoot Poltergeist next year, and no, the title is not a coincidence: This is absolutely a remake of the classic PG horror flick. We wondered, though, what the release date would be. Last we'd heard, it was November 2010.

Now Bloody Disgusting has an update straight from the studio, and not surprisingly, MGM is putting off Poltergeist until sometime in 2011. The reason given: Because of the early 2010 start, "the film just couldn't have been done in time for the November release." Only that's garbage.

See, movies don't take as long in post-production these days, which is why Steven Spielberg - who produced the original Poltergeist - could start shooting War of the Worlds in November and have in theaters less than eight months later. Closer to home, Rob Zombie wasn't even hired for Halloween II until January of this year and the film came out before Labor Day.

Granted, you'd probably like to aim higher than Halloween II, but I don't accept that a movie like Poltergeist, which has been in development for well over a year and has had the same director (Vadim Perelman) attached the entire time, would need some five months of post-production. Tarantino had a two-and-a-half-hour Inglourious Basterds shot and edited between October and May. So something else must be up with Poltergeist, right?

The fact that there's no new release date but a big TBD stamp on this remake does not give me much hope. Of course, MGM is beyond broke, and all the studio can really do right now is produce The Hobbit. Maybe the planned distribution of Poltergeist was too expensive given the Lion's economic shortfall. But if it were just that, you'd think they'd delay the production, too.

Still not a positive sign, though.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment1 Comment |

Reader Comments (1)

I never buy into something needing "more development time" by the studios, mainly for exactly the reasons you mention. Don't forget to strenghthen your argument with the fact that Spielberg then shot and edited Munich in a similarly short amount of time and that process began before WOTW was even released that same year. That film is fantastic, and War of the Worlds is better than average at worst.

I was skeptical all year long about QT being able to get his crap together and the result was brilliance.

I am not thrilled about a Poltergeist remake. For me, the film remains pretty timeless, with the obvious exception of the analog TV signal references.

Friday, October 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMRPigg

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