Director Simon West has dropped a gamut of new details of his forthcoming reboot of The Blob. The remake was announced in January of this year and at the time, the Con Air helmer revealed that his take on the 1950s classic would embrace current technological advances to truly revitalize the seminal property. “With modern CGI we can now fully realize the potential of The Blob,” he stated at the time, and has since followed up that tidbit while chatting with the folks over at Den Of Geek.
The 1958 original starred Steve McQueen as a youngster in a small Pennsylvanian town overrun by a gelatinous goop – The Blob – that begins to transmogrify as it consumes the townsfolk. Will West’s version spin that similar fable or follow the 1988 remake?
Yeah, it’s definitely going to be on a much bigger canvas than the originals, which were much more small, niche genre horror movies. My version of The Blob’s going to be more sci-fi.
The blob itself will be more sophisticated, more along the lines of Alien and Predator and things like that – much more science-based, the way Jurassic Park made you believe you could bring back dinosaurs with a bit of DNA from a mosquito. This will be much more explained on where the blob comes from and how it works. It’ll be a much more sophisticated creature – because it is a monster movie rather than a horror in that sense.
Whereas the monster from the fifties classic hailed from outer space and the eighties goop was the result of a Cold War experimentation gone wrong, West promises that this will be “more of an invasion movie.” It’s a well-worn concept to say the least, as cinema has been inundated with invasions for decades now, which West intends to spin on its head:
This thing’s come from another planet, and also, we don’t know how many there are. It’s fun at the moment – while I’m prepping this other film, The Blob is a bit longer term. I’m having a lot of designing this creature, what its talents are, its attributes, how you can think you’ve defeated it, but you haven’t. It’s fun inventing a creature like that – like the new Alien or the new Predator.
Name-dropping Alien, Predator and Jurassic Park with reference to this sci-fi reimagining will no doubt attract the chatter of genre naysayers. Still, if West has sufficient clout to back up his references, then consider us sold.
Currently shooting the action thriller Stratton with Man Of Steel Henry Cavill, West also confirmed to Screen Relish that The Blob will commence shooting in August or October.