David Gordon Green, writer/director of Pineapple Express, Snow Angels and the upcoming stoner-comedy-fantasy Your Highness tells The Playlist that his next feature film project will most likely be a remake of Italian horror maestro Dario Argento‘s 1977 horror classic Suspiria.
Ever since gaining acclaim and notoriety a decade ago for his debut feature George Washington, David Gordon Green has been busying himself with a series of eclectic projects. Besides his stark indie dramas Snow Angels and All The Real Girls, Green helmed the madcap stoner flick Pineapple Express, directed several episodes of Danny McBride‘s wild-eyed HBO comedy Eastbound & Down and is readying two more TV projects. He’s eyeing Suspiria for his next feature, however:
“I’m hopefully going to get into a horror film, [‘Suspiria’] next. That’s the goal,” Green said about lining up the remake of the Dario Argento psych-horror classic as his next feature once he’s done directing the pilot to “Black Jack” next month.
“It’s an idea that came to me three years ago,” Green said, speaking of the script’s lengthy incubation process which he co-wrote with his sound-designer, which of course offered a completely new perspective as well. “That was an enlightening process. [Our ‘Suspiria’] doesn’t follow the trend of the traditional horror movies of late, so it’s a leap of faith, financially.” He also says that there won’t be many key differences, stating, “It’s actually very faithful. I’m gonna put my spin on it, but in terms of a pitch, it’s going to remain quite faithful to [the original].”
According to Green, Your Highness co-star and recent Oscar winner Natalie Portman was originally attached to star in his Suspiria, before leaving to do that other head-tripping ballet flick:
“We’ve been talking about it, then she decided to do ‘Black Swan,’ ” Green said, noting that Portman eventually shot “Your Highness” before moving onto “Black Swan.” As a result, don’t expect to recognize most of the cast. “I want an unknown cast, and I think she’s a little too old for it. My version isn’t necessarily about ballet, it’s more of an all-girls boarding school, so I think she’s probably too old to pass for a high school-er. I don’t think it will have names, but hopefully it will be at a studio. Because I definitely enjoy having a movie that gets marketed that people go to see.”
If it seems slightly schizo to go from a buddy-stoner-medieval flick to Argento, it evidently was:
“‘Suspiria’ is a great reason to move to Germany, hang out there for awhile, discover some new European cast members, find something scary,” Green explained, noting the line separating his comedies and something a bit more horrific is fairly thin. “There’s a lot of times where I’m sitting in the sound booth, thinking, ‘God, this is amazing.’ We could turn this into some ‘Eraserhead’ shit, and then I’ll realize, ‘oh, wait, this is a comedy. I can’t do that.’ “
As Green readies Your Highness for release April 8, he talked about his other release for 2011, The Sitter:
“After ‘Your Highness’ I wanted to do a character piece,” Green claims, something that probably excites fans of his earlier work. “I love working with kids, and I love working in New York City, so I literally had those guidelines. Character piece with kids in New York City—and I don’t want it to be a comedy. But then the script to ‘The Sitter’ showed up, and I was like, ‘okay, this is funny as shit.’ It’s got some great dramatic scenes. And it reminds me a lot of ‘Risky Business’ and a lot of those types of movies I liked when I was a kid.”
It’s nice to hear how faithful Green intends to be toward the great Argento’s candy-colored nightmare, but it only begs the question: why remake it? Because he feels like it, and that’s apparently enough… although Black Swan was about as artsy as I like my horror (actually, let’s keep the art to a bare minimum, yeah?). Green is an interesting filmmaker, one who lets his stylistic compass swing wildly. He may be able to bring a ballsy, risky atmosphere back to mainstream horror with Suspiria, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
In the meantime, Your Highness opens on April 8th, and The Sitter (starring Jonah Hill) opens on December 9th. Check out a funny video for the former via FunnyorDie below.