‘Freaky’ and ‘Happy Death Day’ Director Christopher Landon to Write and Direct New ‘Arachnophobia’

Do you hate spiders? Does the very idea of the wriggling creepy crawlies fill you with an endless feeling of dread? Are you concerned that one is walking up behind you EVEN AS YOU READ THIS? Then you might not be thrilled to learn that a new version of 1990 horror comedy ‘Arachnophobia’ is in the works.

But stick with us, because the news would seem to be on the positive side of things – and spiders will be staying on the screen. Happy Death Day’ is developing the new movie.

The original was directed by Jurassic World’ franchises. He’ll be an executive producer here).

‘Stuart Pankin were also all in the cast.

It was a hit on its release, but while it certainly has its fans, it isn’t an untouchable masterpiece that resists any attempt to remake it. James Wan, who along with his own directorial career is a prolific producer via his Atomic Monster company, is among the backers here.

And Landon certainly has the horror credentials – he wrote a couple of ‘Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse’.

Yet it was with the two ‘Happy Death Day’ movies that he really made the leap into more public awareness, the time loop comedy thrillers featuring Jessica Rothe’s snark-tastic Tree Gellman caught in a repeating nightmare of stalk-slashing (and the sequel going even further into the genre) proving to be popular.

Landon followed that up with 2020’s ‘Freaky’ which, while it became a box office victim of the pandemic, still managed to entertain with the story of a serial killer (played by Kathryn Newton) and all the violent, funny chaos unleashed along the way.

Given his body of work, we’re confident that Landon will be able to walk the line between terrifying and funny. And with the advances in effects technology, we can only imagine the spidery set-pieces he can dream up.

He’s most recently headed in a more family friendly direction with his next film, ‘Ernest Borgnine. Can’t wait to see that one…