Earlier this year, we learned that 1998’s Urban Legend was being set up for a reboot, with Colin Minihan of Grave Encounters in the director’s chair. The Screen Gems production is now reportedly close to securing its lead actors, with Collider reporting that Sydney Chandler and Katherine McNamara are in talks to lead the cast of the new, apparently social-media focused version of the ’90s hit.
Chandler is the daughter of Friday Night Lights‘ Kyle Chandler, and is a relative unknown compared to McNamara, who plays Mia Queen in Arrow and has also appeared in the television series Shadowhunters. The same Collider piece also notes that the Urban Legend producers want a well-known and diverse young cast, with Keith Powers of Straight Outta Compton also being considered.
In terms of plot, Urban Legend will delve into the myths and stories that spread on the internet, and seem to provide an inspiration for a number of deaths in the orbit of a group of college students. Intriguingly, Minihan’s script will also explore the implications of deepfake technology, which will presumably be put to the service of the strange death scenes that are the franchise’s bread and butter. We’ve previously considered some of the potential social media horrors that a new Urban Legend could tackle, and there are certainly a lot of candidates for adaptation.
The original Urban Legend picked up on the meta angle of Scream, using famous tales such as the “killer in the backseat” and “Bloody Mary” as its hook. The movie’s cast included the likes of Jared Leto and Joshua Jackson, with sequels in 2000 and 2005 moving the franchise into the direct-to-video realm. Based on what we’ve heard so far about the remake, though, Urban Legend‘s premise does seem to be pretty timely, and could join a host of recent internet-based horror successes such as Unfriended and Friend Request in mining contemporary life.
