Sooner or later every franchise with a little name recognition - particularly in the horror world – is targeted for a remake or reboot. Today, it's the turn of the Puppet Master movies, with Bone Tomahawk's S. Craig Zahler hired to script a new film called Puppet Master: The Little Reich.
The original 1989 film told the Night At The Museum-style story of a group of anthropomorphic puppets brought to life by an Egyptian spell. Each of the little beasties came equipped with their own chaos-causing device and the idea was popular enough to spawn nine sequels, comic books and toys. A real cottage industry.
It's an industry that Transformers producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura wants to be in, partnering up with Caliber Media's Jack Heller and Dallas Sonnier and Charles Band, who wrote the first film and went on to produce and direct several of the sequels.
Zahler, who recently scored Vince Vaughn to star in his next directorial outing, Brawl In Cell Block 99, is writing a script that finds a recently divorced guy discovering a mint condition Blade doll (one of the main re-animated nasties from the original, nothing to do with Wesley Snipes) in his dead brother's closet and plans to sell the toy at a convention set up to commemorate the original reign of doll terror. And wouldn't you know it? A strange force animates all of the puppets on display at the event, setting up a killing spree. No one could have seen that coming! “We couldn’t be more excited to take the series in a new direction while embracing all the practical effects and terrifying insanity that fans of the Puppet Master films love,” Heller says of the film, which was announced this weekend at the Texas Frightmare event. Can it work again? Well, people still love evil puppets and if Chucky can come cackling back to our screens, maybe this lot deserve a second stab? Or an 11th stab or... You get the idea.