James Wong directing FINAL DESTINATION
© 1999 New Line Productions, Inc

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James Wong Talks Movie Projects

In an exclusive interview with CINESCAPE's Scott Collura, writer-director James Wong touched upon his fast moving remake projects with partner Glen Morgan: WILLARD and DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK.

Wong revealed that the WILLARD project has actually been written by his partner, Morgan, all alone. Wong explains, "When I was doing THE ONE, he was actually writing WILLARDI wasn't available."

Wong went on to explain how the story of a boy and his killer rats will be updated for contemporary audiences, saying, "With WILLARD, I think the story's a lot darker in sort of a PYSCHO mode, [with] the character of Willard being Norman Bates-ish. With the rats themselves, obviously with the technology today we can do a lot more with [lead rats] Ben and Socrateseach of their personalities. And hopefully the ability for us to make swarms today will be much more creepy and scary."

As for the DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK remake, Wong reveals, "I guess when you're a kid, you get frightened by things that you don't get frightened by anymore as you grow up. [DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK] doesn't really hold up right now. But I think the ideas are really scary. There's something in your house... those hidden secrets and mysteries, and all you've got to do is sort of peel the first layer and you can get in touch with it. Those are the kind of things that we're interested in and it seems like a good candidate for updating."

The WILLARD remake is set up at New Line, while DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK will come out of Dimension Films.