Hanna’s Anders Engström Tapped to Helm The Changeling Remake

June 10, 2020

Peter Medak’s The Changeling is one of the most celebrated horror films of the 1980s and now it’s getting the remake treatment as Finnish director Anders Engström (Hanna, Taboo) has signed on to helm Joel B. Michaels’ update, according to Deadline.

“I am overjoyed at having the unique opportunity to reimagine an updated version of the iconic film The Changeling that I produced so many years ago,” Michaels said in a statement. “It’s flattering to know that it proved to have inspired a rash of filmmakers that paid homage to the original film. I am excited to be working with Anders Engström who will bring his own contemporary vision to the film.”

Released in 1980, the original film was directed by Medak on a script from William Gray and Diana Maddox and starred George C. Scott (Patton) as an esteemed New York City composer who relocates to Seattle, where he moves into a mansion he comes to believe is haunted. The film, which was based on co-writer Russell Hunter’s experience living in the Henry Treat Rogers mansion in the Cheesman Park neighborhood of Denver, CO, was a hit upon release, grossing $12 million on its $6.6 million budget and receiving rave reviews from critics, becoming one of the first Canadian-produced films to have major international success.

The new film will be penned by Tab Murphy, known for his work penning the scripts for the acclaimed Disney adventures Tarzan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. His script is said to feature “several new twists and turns” from the original film.

The rights to the project were acquired by Cornerstone Films in 2018, with the company planning to shop the project at the upcoming virtual edition of Cannes, while Uwe Schott and Stefan Arndt of X-Filme are attached to produced with Cornerstone’s Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder set to executive produce.

Plans are for The Changeling remake to shoot in Ireland.