Variety reports that The Genre Company and Inferno's Ember Productions are remaking TriStar's 1984 film Silent Night, Deadly Night. The new version, to be titled Silent Night, will star Malcolm McDowell and be directed by Steven C. Miller.

The trade says that principal photography starts next month for a holiday season release by Anchor Bay. Miller (The Aggression Scale) will direct from a script by executive producer Jayson Rothwell.

The film "follows a local police department's search for the killer Santa Claus terrorizing a remote Midwestern town on Christmas Eve. McDowell will play Sheriff Cooper, a small-town hero ready for some big-time action."

The original movie spawned four sequels.