Part of a series of projects that writer-director Max Landis has been attached to, a remake of his father’s An American Werewolf in London now seems to be off the table, according to ScreenRant. Landis had been involved with the pic for several years, but development had been stalled by multiple accusations of sexual assault against the writer of, among others, Chronicle, American Ultra and Bright. According to reports, Landis’ upcoming screenplays, including Shadow in the Cloud, will likely continue without his direct input due to his significantly damaged reputation in Hollywood.
The original 1981 An American Werewolf in London by John Landis remains a horror-comedy classic for its mixture of an engaging story and groundbreaking special effects. A poorly-received sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris, followed in 1997. We first reported on a remake of the initial movie in 2016, with The Walking Dead‘s David Alpert and Robert Kirkman producing alongside Landis Sr. and Landis Jr. writing and directing.
Development was still underway in 2017, at which point Max Landis was working on the screenplay and was keen to bring back the cast of the original film. A script appeared to be close to completion at the end of 2017, too, but it was then that Jr. was facing multiple allegations of emotional and sexual assaults, and was well into a habit of launching tirades on social media against various properties.
Further allegations against Landis Jr. this summer have led to him being dropped by his management company and it now appears that the controversial and generally pretty unpleasant writer-director is off An American Werewolf in London for good.
Frankly, we’re not surprised by this news and in general, it didn’t seem to be a smart idea to try and reboot such a unique film. After all, Edgar Wright was once offered the chance to take on the remake, but couldn’t see how he could improve upon it, in what we’d now judge to be a wise decision.
As for Max Landis, it’s difficult to see where his career can go from here, but as soon as we hear about what he finds himself attached to next, we’ll be sure to let you know.
