Amongst the list of projects missing presumed dead was a revival of the Gremlins film series. Chris Columbus, who penned the original film, had been working on a screenplay for a new movie, but nothing had been heard of it for some time. It had been assumed that its moment had passed.
An incorrect assumption that, though. Columbus, in a new interview with Slashfilm, has confirmed that he’s now actually completed a screenplay for Gremlins 3, and that it’s now over to Warner Bros.
“I’m really proud of the script”, Columbus said. “It is as twisted and dark as anything, so we’ll see”.
“It’s always a budgetary conversation when we’re going to shoot it. I wanted to go back to the really twisted sensibility of the first movie. I found that was a very easy place for me to fall back into and start writing again so hopefully we’ll see that movie soon”.
This would tie into something Gremlins star Zach Galligan had said, that the new Gremlins film would basically ignore the (brilliant) second one. Columbus was also asked if the idea of simply taking Gizmo out and stopping the Gremlins altogether was a theme of the movie he wanted to make. “Very good observation”, he said. “That comes up in the movie, certainly”.
It’s unclear who will direct Gremlins 3 if it does indeed press ahead. Joe Dante made the first two, and with the second, he openly admits trying to make a film that would burn down a chance of Gremlins 3 being made. Columbus himself, meanwhile, hasn’t directed a feature since 2015’s Pixels.
More on Gremlins 3 as we hear it. We still suspect that this one’s going to be a bit of a long shot…