Versus remake?

Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura’s splatterfest VERSUS became a cult hit when it first made the festival rounds and hit DVD in the early part of the century… and now he’s planning to do it again. Only bigger, with additional violence and extra gore. Because that’s what American audiences demand.

Kitamura tells Dread Central he’s working on an American remake of his own flick. No word on what studio might take on the challenge, but he’s currently doing a polish on his latest draft. Don’t plan on seeing the reanimated deceased hacking through the woods anytime soon, though — Kitamura (whose US debut MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN hits some time later this year) has another unnamed action flick to make first. He does, however, promise that the new version will be “insane”.

The original bloodbath is a bizarre, hyperkinetic collection of shameless references to videogames, samurai films, Hong Kong bullet ballet, Romero’s zombie movies and the early works of Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi. Dimension initially grabbed the US remake rights way back in 2002, but an actual movie never materialized.