What’s scarier than the endless tide of horror film remakes? Not much, especially the remakes themselves.
Now 20th Century Fox is going to give Paramount and Platinum Dunes a run for their money in the remake sweepstakes as they bring us The Omen 666, apparently a do-over of the Richard Donner 70s fright classic about the son of Satan and what a little bastard he is.
The script is by Dan McDermott, whose only other credit appears to be a rewrite of some sort on a maybe-movie, Selling Time, due out in 2007. The Omen 666 (I hope I don’t need to have seen the other 665 to understand this) will be out before that – Fox is so excited about the idea of pillaging the film they’re looking at an October 2 start date and have their corporate warlocks already nivestigating resurrecting Gregory Peck. Or the jackal, whichever is easier. John Moore, the visionary behind The Flight of the Phoenix, is directing.
Actually it would be neat if they cast Sam Neill in the dad role, as a wink to me and the other 14 people who saw and kind of enjoyed Omen: The Final Conflict. Maybe they can even get Harvey Stephens for a cameo – the actor who played Damien in the original film was last seen in a movie called – get ready for it – I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meathook, and Now I Have a Three Picture Deal at Disney. Frealz. It’s a short film Ben Affleck – yes, that guy – made in college.
Ignore the fact that the number of the Beast was downgraded to 616 on our message board!