Anton Yelchin to Star in ‘Fright Night’ Remake

Published by Jeff Leins on April 6, 2010

Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Terminator Salvation) is in negotiations to star in DreamWorks’ remake of the 1985 horror flick Fright Night. Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) was hired last month to direct.

The story will closely follow the original’s about a boy who is convinced the new neighbor is a vampire, but no one will believe him, according to Heat Vision.  Marti Noxon (”Mad Men”, “Buffy”) wrote the script.

With The Twilight Saga: Eclipse approaching this summer and TV shows like “True Blood” dominating the zeitgeist, you might be thinking, “Isn’t DreamWorks a little late to the vampire party?”  Producer Mike De Luca acknowledged this in an interview with Collider in January, saying the goal is to go in the other direction with the bloodsucking undead.

“We thought it would be interesting if, in this atmosphere of the way the vampire is being portrayed right now as a romantic object, under the wire of all that in the culture the real thing moves in next door,” De Luca said.  “And the real thing is a killer. Just a predator. It’s the shark from Jaws. On the outside it’s a seductive package and it looks like a human being, but it’s just about ripping your throat out and drinking your blood.”

DreamWorks rarely ventures in the horror genre, and for good reason.   Their recent entries, The Unborn and The Ruins, were met with lackluster reception.  Though they did back the Japanese remake The Ring.

They seem to be moving this one along swiftly, only just receiving the draft in February, followed by hiring a director in early March, and now Yelchin in April.  So while they may be going counter-culture with their scary vampire movie, the studio certainly wants to strike while the iron is hot.