When I interviewed Leigh Whannell for Dead Silence I asked him whether or not he would be interested in remakes and it basically boiled down to no, he wouldn’t be. He basically said he wanted to bring originality to the screen. Apparently Alexandre Aja doesn’t have much originality in him as he is ready to tackle yet another horror remake.
Aja splashed onto the scene with his “good until the shitty ending” horror High Tension and then he did a good job with his remake of The Hills Have Eyes. He didn’t partake in the sequel to his 2006 remake, which is due out March 23, but he is now ready to take on another remake with Piranha.
The first time the project was mentioned was back in June 2005, it was then mentioned again in October 2005 and again in January 2006. The last time it was mentioned it was set up at Dimension Films with Chuck Russell set to direct and while the film has stayed at Dimension it has fallen in Aja’s hands.
The film will be updated from the 1978 horror feature and will take place at Lake Havasu, Ariz., a favorite destination for partying spring breakers. When a tremor causes the ground to open up beneath the lake, chaos and terror break out as ravenous piranhas are released.
Dimension’s Bob Weinstein told Variety, “We will maintain the fun and thrilling aspects of the original film but look forward to upping the ante with a modern-day twist.” A modern day twist? Fish are still fish right? They were fish in 1978 and are still fish in 2007. Perhaps they know something about fish with teeth that I don’t, we’ll have to wait and see. With all the delaying going on with this film it will be a wonder if it ever gets made.
