Dave McNary at Variety is reporting Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way production house is getting in the fairy tale business with plans for a gothic re-imagining of “Little Red Riding Hood” with David Leslie Johnson, the screenwriter on the recently released horror/thriller Orphan, attached to pen the adaptation.
Of course we all know the traditional 19th century by Brothers Grimm story of Red and her run-in with the wolf at her sick grandma’s house, but McNary brings up earlier versions that were apparently much darker:
Earlier oral versions of the tale, which date back to the Middle Ages, are far darker and sometimes involve a werewolf rather than a wolf; the first published version, by Charles Perrault, concludes with Red Riding Hood eaten by the wolf, with no happy ending.
Should they be able to tap into that aspect and turn it into a bona fide thriller and not just a gothic mess shot in dark blue moonlight with scraggly trees then perhaps we may have something here. I know, get Taylor Lautner to play the wolf and when he’s not showing his fangs have him running around with his shirt off. Oh man, someone give me a director… we need to storyboard this!
