Screen Gems’ 1990s slasher movie Urban Legend is getting a modern era reboot.
The Sony genre division is in early development on a new version of the 1998 feature, hiring Shanrah Wakefield to pen the script. Gary Dauberman, whose video game adaptation Until Dawn opens Friday, will produce via his Coin Operated banner. Neal Moritz, who was one of the producers of the original, is in negotiations to produce as well.
The original Legend, directed by Jamie Blanks and written by Sylvio Horta, was a horror movie set in a New England university that featured a killer whose kills were inspired by popular urban legends of the period, such as death by Pop Rocks and soft drinks or being pursued in a car by a gang for flashing it a reminder to turn on their headlights.
The movie featured a strong cast of rising names of the late ’90s, including Jared Leto, Joshua Jackson, Alicia Witt, Michael Rosenbaum, Rebecca Gayheart, and Tara Reid. It was a moneymaker at the time, even if it didn’t compare favorably to other slashers of the era, particularly Scream and the studio’s own I Know What You Did Last Summer. Two sequels followed.
While plot details are unknown, sources say the story aims to be an examination of what an urban legend looks like in a post-digital world.
Sony had no comment.
Dauberman, the triple threat behind some of the biggest horror franchises of the past decade, including It, Annabelle and The Nun, produced and co-wrote Until Dawn, which features a group of friends facing a series of ghastly deaths while stuck in a Groundhog Day-like time loop. The movie, based on a Sony video game, reunited him with his Annabelle: Creation director David F. Sandberg. Dauberman’s Coin Operated has a first-look deal with Screen Gems/Sony.
Wakefield is repped by CAA, Untitled, and attorney Darren Trattner.
Urban Legend, Natasha Gregson Wagner, 1998
Courtesy Everett Collection
