A horror reboot of everybody’s favourite killer doll is in the works at MGM. The studio is reportedly developing a reboot of the 1988 horror classic Child’s Play, with IT producers David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith behind the project.
Lars Klevberg, director of the as-yet-unreleased horror movie Polaroid, is set to helm the film from a script penned by Tyler Burton Smith (Kung Fury). Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Collider reports that the film is being planned as a contemporary reboot involving a group of kids – á la Stranger Things – coming into contact with the killer doll, presumably still named Chucky.
However it’s also been reported that Chucky may be more than just a doll inhabited by the soul of a serial killer in the reboot, and he may instead be some sort of “technologically advanced doll that enters the world”, so perhaps there’s some more supernatural stuff heading the way of horror fans this time around.
The film has reportedly been developed under a code name, with the studio hoping they could pull off a reveal similar to how Adam Wingard‘s The Woods was later revealed to be a new Blair Witch movie. However it also may be because the Child’s Play rights are somewhat complicated, as Universal owns the home entertainment rights, though it’s possible MGM has figured out a way around that.
What also complicates matters is that Child’s Play creator Don Mancini recently announced a Chucky TV series, which includes bringing back the legendary voice of the killer doll, Brad Dourif. It’s likely that MGM aims for a complete rebooted film while Mancini and his regular cast and collaborators get to do their show separately, without stepping on each other’s toes or breaking any contractual rights.
Sources say that MGM saw Klevberg’s unreleased Polaroid – unreleased because of another tricky legal situation involving The Weinstein Company and its horror label Dimension Films – and he won the directing job on the strength of that film.
Obviously there’s little to gauge her considering practically no one has seen Polaroid, and no cast details or synopsis has even surfaced, so we will wait for more news regarding the Child’s Play reboot to arrive – and this contractual situation to get figured out – before moving forward.
#Peace.Love.ChildsPlay
