In one of the most bizarre pieces of news I’ve heard in a bit, THR reports that Robert Pattinson will team up with Smile writer/director Parker Finn on a remake of Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 nightmarish divorce thriller/body horror Possession.
A cult classic and one of the damndest things I’ve ever seen, Possession stars Sam Neill as a spy who returns home to find out that his wife, played by Isabelle Adjani, wants a divorce. But it gets weird from there, with infidelity, murder, tentacled alien creatures, subway miscarriages, dismemberment, and the apocalypse all factoring into one fucked-up equation.
Finn will write the remake and direct, but at this point, Pattinson is only aboard as a producer. Whether he takes an acting role will depend on the screenplay. A hot bidding war is ongoing right now with A24, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros. all trying to get their hands on it. And who can blame them? The potential here is through the roof.
But there’s another angle to take here, because horror buffs are NOT happy about this. The original film is uniquely insane and was really hard to get your hands on for a long time. While it’s no longer out-of-print, Possession has become (in)famous for the memes it has inspired, and it is likely the social media popularity that has inspired this sudden move for a remake. And that, frankly, kinda sucks.
