LET THE RIGHT ONE IN remake begins production
Overture Films and Hammer Films have announced that the lenses are open and letting light in on LET ME IN, the American remake of the 2008 Swedish drama about a young boy who befriends a young female vampire. The film stars Kodi Smit-McPhee (THE ROAD) as the boy and Chloe Moretz ((500) DAYS OF SUMMER) as the girl in this retelling. Richard Jenkins (BURN AFTER READING), Elias Koteas (ZODIAC), Cara Buono (THE SOPRANOS), and Sasha Barrese (THE HANGOVER) will also star in the film.
Having just rewatched LET THE RIGHT ONE IN recently, I began to ponder what they would do with a remake. Remakes can often be worse than the original or sometimes pointless – creating carbon copies of the original – (FUNNY GAMES), yet every once in awhile they can transcend the source material (VANILLA SKY).
In the case of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, the film feels near perfect in its somber, beautiful tone and poetic story and imagery. This poses the question, what exactly is there left to say or expand upon that the original did not? Simply put, why remake a film that does not really warrant being remade? On this topic, Simon Oakes, President of Hammer Films, said, “the brilliance of that story deserves to be seen by audiences on a wide scale and we are excited that the pieces are in place to make that a reality.”
Luckily, the film has a great cast, as well as director Matt Reeves at its helm, who Oakes says the project is “very personal” to. Reeves’ main credit is the unconventional monster movie CLOVERFIELD, which gained him much praise as a fairly unknown name. Then again, Reeves still does not have enough credits to his name to fully know if he is in fact the man for the job.
Let us hope, for the film’s sake and ours, that the people in charge saw something in Reeves and his vision for the remake that earned him the heavy responsibility of remaking what is a now widely-loved story. Because if he messes this one up, I doubt he will ask permission for people to give him their unbridled opinion.
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