There is many a franchise waiting to be milked, exploited, or revitalized depending on how cynically you look at things. Hollywood will hardly let an intellectual property die if there’s anything left to be made from it, especially in today’s film and television industry. In fairness, sometimes this produces legitimately enjoyable things, take for example the “Wednesday” television series, or “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.” Actually, let’s specifically take the latter of those, because it’s success for Warner Bros. seems to be spearheading the desire to revitalize another horror-comedy franchise, “Gremlins.“
The original 1984 film was a veritable who’s who of talent. It was the brainchild of screenwriter and director Chris Columbus, pushed to the big screen by executive producer Steven Spielberg, and directed by Joe Dante. It follows the story of a young man named Billy who’s given a mysterious creature named Gizmo as a present by his father. Gizmo, a creature known as a Mogwai, is exceptionally cute and kind until he comes into contact with water and then starts reproducing. If those creatures eat after midnight, well, you get the horror that unfolds with Gremlins running amok.
A sequel film, the grossly underrated “Gremlins 2,” was a bit too late to the party in 1990 to really capitalize on the popularity of the first. It’s more of a cult classic today [this author regards it as one of the best sequels ever made], but the lack of box office returns didn’t help push the franchise any further. That’s why it’s a little shocking to hear there’s finally a “Gremlins 3″ script apparently sitting on Spielberg’s desk, waiting for him to read it and give it the green light.
The news came courtesy of the actor who played Billy, Zach Galligan, telling a crowd at Comic Con Manchester the big news. “After 35 years, they’ve come up with a script,” Galligan said. “Warner Bros. is incredibly interested in doing it, apparently, it’s waiting on Mr. Spielberg to read it and approve it.” Until this, the only other big addition to the “Gremlins” franchise has been the animated series, “Gremlins” with its two seasons, “Secrets of the Mogwai” and “The Wild Batch.” Galligan directly credited the success of “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” for reviving interest in a new film; all the more fitting that both series are horror-comedies.
It hasn’t been reported who actually wrote the script waiting on Spielberg’s desk, and Warner Bros. being interested in it doesn’t mean they’ve given it a greenlight. However, we do know they’re looking to pump fresh blood into the franchises they have access to, and a new “Gremlins” film does have the potential to be a lot of fun. We’ll let you know what we hear about this and other news.
