You can’t keep a good killer doll down. The Child’s Play franchise has been going strong for 30 years, and MGM plans to keep it alive for 30 more. Lars Klevberg (Polaroid) is to direct a new reboot from a script by Kung Fury‘s Tyler Burton Smith. Hoping to score another horror hit will be It producers Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg.
So how will Chucky be brought back to kill this time? Well, that’s where things get a little complicated. The reboot is expected to feature a “technologically advanced’ version of the murderous doll, and when I hear that I get thoughts of Chucky flying weaponized drones or something. He’ll be terrorizing a group of kids said to be in the Stranger Things mold. That said, it’s not clear this new film will even have Chucky in it, or if Brad Dourif will be providing his voice as he has since the beginning. Also, series creator Don Mancini may not have anything to do with it as he just confirmed a Chucky TV series is in the works.
There’s also some boring legal stuff going on with the franchise’s rights. Universal has control over the home release market, while MGM seems to have found a way to work around that and do this new thing. That means there’s a greater likelihood of a totally different creative team to give this Child’s Play reboot a fresh spin. Collider, who broke this news, speculate MGM wanted to pull a fast one on audiences in the same way The Woods was suddenly revealed to be a new Blair Witch. Didn’t they get the memo those cheap gimmicks don’t work anymore? Speaking of gimmicks, the entire Chucky franchise turned into one, getting dumber and more over-the-top as they went along.
The most recent Child’s Play film was last year’s Cult of Chucky. There have been seven movies total centering on a young boy who receives a Good Guy doll possessed by the malevolent spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray.
Production on the reboot is expected to begin in September, so we should start hearing more details soon.
