Producers Richard Saperstein (The Mist) and Brian Witten (American History X) have been developing a remake of the classic monster film The Blob, that effort goes back to 2009. The Blob originally starred a young Steve McQueen in 1958 version and eventually led to an extremely well-made reboot in 1988 that is easily one of the best examples of practical effects in the horror genre. In the original film, the gooey man-eating creature was an alien lifeform and in the 1980s remake it was a bio-weapon created by the U.S. government both taking place in a small town.
A drive-in favorite, this sci-fi classic follows teenagers Steve (Steven McQueen) and his best girl, Jane (Aneta Corseaut), as they try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches. The first to discover the substance and live to tell about it, Steve and Jane witness the blob destroying an elderly man and grow to a terrifying size. But no one else has seen the goo, and policeman Dave (Earl Rowe) refuses to believe the kids without proof.
The pair of producers are fighting in the Los Angeles Superior Court to get more time to made their incarnation of The Blob, as The Hollywood Reporter outlines the lawsuit as they argue they had an oral agreement with original rights holder, Worldwide Entertainment Corporation’s Judith Harris, to be given more time and are also falling back on using COVID-19 as reason why they weren’t able to make the film in a timely manner.
In Los Angeles Superior Court, Saperstein and Witten are now suing to retain rights. They claim that Harris orally agreed to an extension and then failed to put it in writing despite multiple emails and even a $50,000 offer. And if a judge doesn’t recognize this as an oral agreement, they are falling back on the claim that COVID-19 represents a force majeure event that “prevented them from attempting to produce the Picture, and as a result, the Extension term must be tolled through the present date.”
Here is the original synopsis for the remake that had been making the rounds, it remains to be seen if they’ve changed these plot details since 2017-2019.
When a band of miners uncover something hidden deep beneath the earth they unwittingly unleash a hideous creature beyond imagination. Now the townsfolk must fightback, before it destroys everything.
Directors Rob Zombie and Simon West (Con Air, The Expendables 2) had been involved with various incarnations of the remake with Samuel L. Jackson attached to star at some point. Jackson talked-up his involvement back in August 2017 to the Toronto Sun during the promotion of Kong: Skull Island and mentioned that the producers had secured financing from China.
JACKSON: “I’ve been preparing to use it my whole life. I’ve been running from or chasing King Kong, Godzilla the Wolfman, whatever, since I was a kid (in Chatanooga, Tenn.). We’d go home and pretend to do all that stuff. So I’m doing Kong for the same reason I’ll probably be doing The Blob. I just got a call the other day (where the producers) said they finally got their money from China to do Blob. I mean, I do a lot of movies, a lot of independent movies, for different reasons. But I’m a fan, and a lot of times I choose a movie because it’s something I would have chosen to see when I was a kid. How do you say no to that?“
It wasn’t mentioned if Samuel L. Jackson is still going to star in the film as he’s aiming to shoot Marvel’s Secret Wars this fall in the United Kingdom and might also have a role in Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels. Production on The Blob was targeting a shoot in the United Kingdom years ago, but what ultimately happens is unclear.
The worst thing that could happen is if they pursue a generic film that focuses on weak CGI effects rather than doing some stuff in-camera.
I have fond memories of the 1988 version that was co-written by Frank Darabont (The Mist, The Walking Dead, Shawshank Redemption) and director Chuck Russell (A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors), mainly because of it’s gore effects which sort of holds up while some of the miniature-work doesn’t.
SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
THE RONIN 