More Remakes Coming At You

Posted by dominie in Films, News on September 19th, 2008

Remakes are popping out much like the baby boomers did post-World War II. I’ve already lost count of the number announced in this week alone.  But I suppose at the very least, we should offer our thanks for this tiny (said below) breather in the recent slew of American remakes.

A second Spanish horror announced to be remade this week is Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopena’s Fermat’s Room, which has been making its way through festivals, the last one being the Tribeca ’08 in April.  According to Bloody Disgusting, Fermat’s Room plays similar to our Saw series (minus the excessive violence), dealing four math experts with checkered pasts various number-crunching time-tests in a contracting chamber by an unknown killer.  They must solve the riddle and uncover how they are connected or die.  IFC Entertainment has picked up the original film for release via their VOD service.

And then we move on the the Danish.  THR reports that Mandate Pictures is doing a remake of Danish helmer Ole Bomedal’s The Substitute, which follows the case of a sixth grade class whose substitute teacher turns out to be an alien with an agenda.  Columbia Pictures will develop the project under Sami Raimi’s Ghost House label, the genre arm of Mandate Pictures.  Ghost House Underground and Lionsgate will release the original film on DVD October 14.