While a lot of people today may find the idea of a movie about killer plants silly, Day of the Triffids is still a beloved genre story to this day, as well as a well recognized title, which means, of course, it’s going to be remade. But instead of hiring some hack to helm it, an interesting helmer is onboard: Mike Newell of Harry Potter fame.
Newell isn’t just the director of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He also gave us Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Donnie Brasco. He also directed the failed video game adaptation for Prince of Persia, but they can’t all be winners.
As Collider tells us, Triffids is set up to be remade at Ghost House Pictures, Sam Raimi’s production company. Raimi was originally onboard to direct Triffids, and seeing what he did with trees coming to life in Evil Dead, there’s no doubt he could have done a pretty cool job with this. But hiring a class filmmaker like Newell also means they’re not going for schlock, much like Raimi was hired to do Spider-Man instead of turning it over to some A-list Hollywood putz.
Newell is a Brit, and Triffids was a British production, so perhaps they want to keep the English flavor with this one. Making deadly plants scary is not easy, but we’re hoping if this remake comes to pass it will scare the hell out of audiences, especially with a serious director returning to his British roots.
