MGM is teaming with Fox 2000 Pictures to co-finance and distribute its reboot of “Poltergeist.”
MGM had announced in March that it had attached “Monster House” director Gil Kenan to helm the thriller with Sam Raimi (“Evil Dead”) and Rob Tapert (“The Posession”) producing though their Ghost House Pictures banner along with Roy Lee.
MGM released a trio of “Poltergeist” titles during the ’80s. The first film was produced by Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall and starred Craig T. Nelson and Jobeth Williams as parents terrorized by ghosts who communicate with their youngest daughter through the TV set.
David Lindsay-Abaire ( “Oz: The Great and Powerful”) is writing the screenplay — described as a revisionist take on the classic horror film in which a family struggling to make ends meet relocates to an outdated suburban home and is confronted by an angry spirit who kidnaps their youngest daughter and challenges them to band together to rescue her from the clutches of evil.
Lensing will begin in the fall.
Nathan Kahane (“The Grudge”) will serve as executive producer.
Fox will market and distribute “Poltergeist” worldwide with select international territories as well as international TV distribution being handled by MGM. Fox will also handle home entertainment and domestic television. Fox is MGM’s longtime distribution partner for MGM’s home entertainment product.
Since it emerged two years from a prepackaged bankruptcy, MGM’s film business has been focused on co-financing its James Bond and Hobbit franchises and projects such as ““21 Jump Street” and mining its library for remakes, including “Carrie,” “Robocop,” “Death Wish” and “Ben-Hur.”
