We often like to refer to the never-ending hunger for remakes, reboots, prequels and sequels as the giant development maw. But rarely do films getting the re-imagining treatment feature actual, huge mouths. Warner Bros. planned new take on** Little Shop Of Horrors** is an exception to that rule, and now Joseph Gordon-Levitt is considering trying to feed it.
Broadway and film producing veteran Marc Platt, who has shepherded the likes of Wicked to the stage, Wanted to our screens and Legally Blonde to both, is overseeing the new version of the story about Seymour, a nervy florist who wins fame and success with a giant, human-gobbling plant. Gordon-Levitt is involved in developing the film and may end up taking the lead.
This isn’t even the first time the story will have been remade: the original was birthed by Roger Corman back in 1960, but became even more notorious thanks to the 1986 Frank Oz musical version that starred Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Steve Martin, James Belushi and John Candy. That was taken from an off-Broadway show by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, and the film’s success led to several bigger stage productions in the years since.
Now Glee writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has been hired to write a new script, and given his experience with the warbling-filled TV series and his work on Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, it appears that the new film will maintain the musical elements. Will it keep the show's more downbeat ending, which the 1986 film ditched? Only time will tell.
There’s no director attached yet, so this one will sit in the development greenhouse for a while. Gordon-Levitt is already busy setting up his own directorial debut, with Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore and Tony Danza all attached. He’ll next be seen in The Dark Knight Rises, launching July 20, and Looper, which is out on September 28.