‘An American Werewolf in London’ director John Landis told his son Max Landis not to remake the movie.
The iconic creature feature film hit cinemas in 1981 and made a huge splash in the horror genre, and when the ‘Chronicle’ writer asked for his dad’s blessing to reboot it he initially advised him to steer clear and admitted he has little involvement in the creative process for the forthcoming film.
But he is confident in Max’s ability to potentially turn the remake into something great.
Asked about his involvement in forthcoming Universal Studios movie, he said: "I get money. Truthfully, I’ve not seen his script. I advised him not to do it. I think he’s putting himself in a bad position. My son is brilliant, he really is, and he wants to do it. So what am I going to say? No?"
The original movie follows American backpackers David Kessler and Jack Goodman – played by David Naughton and Griffin Dunne respectively – who are attacked by a werewolf whilst hiking on the English moors. Jack is killed but David is saved by the locals who know of the beast’s existence but his fate is even worse as he is cursed to become a lycanthrope and goes on a killing spree in the UK capital.
It is considered a classic of the horror genre with its mix of scares and very dark humor and special effects artist Rick Baker used a number of revolutionary techniques such as robotic parts to create David’s transformation sequences earning him the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling in 1982.
A sequel was made in 1997 by Anthony Waller entitled ‘An American Werewolf in Paris’ which followed an American tourist being attacked by a werewolf in a nightclub and starred ‘Modern Family’ actress Julie Bowen and Tom Everett Scott, and despite his reservations about his son tackling the franchise,
John – who famously directed Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller video’ – has nothing good to say about the follow-up film.
Speaking to Collider.com, he said: "I know it (the remake) won’t be as bad as ‘An American Werewolf In Paris’, which was s**t. So, I don’t know. He’s a great writer. He’s been writing since he was seven. He wrote a whole series of scripts about these characters called Yelp and Dopey, two dumb dogs, when he was under ten. They were so funny."