I am not one of those film goers that fell head over heels for last year’s Swedish vampire drama Let the Right One In, but I did enjoy it and gave it a relatively favorable review despite some issues I had with it. However, I’m not sure how interested I am in an American remake as Cloverfield helmer, Matt Reeves, has recently finished his second draft of the script and is currently scouting locations looking to maintain the original story’s chilly, snow-swept environments as he took some time out to chat with Los Angeles Times about the film.
Now officially titled Let Me In, the English translation of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s original novel, the film will be set in Reagan-era Colorado and is scheduled for a fall 2010 theatrical release. Casting director Avy Kaufman (The Sixth Sense, The Ice Storm) is working on finding the two twelve-year-old leads, an aspect that was highly lauded in the original, primarily the performance of Lina Leandersson who plays Eli, a vampire who befriends a lonely neighbor boy named Oskar.
Reeves talked to Mark Olsen at the “L.A. Times” telling him after his first viewing of the Tomas Alfredson-directed original he “was just hooked.” He continues saying, “I was so taken with the story and I had a very personal reaction. It reminded me a lot of my childhood, with the metaphor that the hard times of your pre-adolescent, early adolescent moment, that painful experience is a horror.”
Of course, the idea of remaking an Internet favorite is already stoking the fires and Reeves isn’t oblivious to this fact adding, “There’s definitely people who have a real bull’s-eye on the film and I can understand because of people’s’ love of the [original] film that there’s this cynicism that I’ll come in and trash it, when in fact I have nothing but respect for the film. I’m so drawn to it for personal and not mercenary reasons, my feeling about it is if I didn’t feel a personal connection and feel it could be its own film, I wouldn’t be doing it. I hope people give us a chance.”
You can check out the international trailer for the original film directly below or click here to buy yourself a copy if you feel so inclined.
