Rabid Dogs: Mario Bava thriller gets a remake intended to kick off a trilogy

Legendary genre filmmaker Mario Bava‘s 1974 crime thriller Rabid Dogs was such a troubled production that it wasn’t even screened for the first time until the mid-’90s, but now it’s set to remade for the second time. Deadline reports that screenwriting duo Samuel Franco and Evan Kilgore have acquired the remake rights and are working on the script. Franco will be producing the remake, with the original film’s producer Alfredo Leone serving as executive producer, and they’re aiming to get the new Rabid Dogs into production in 2022 for a 2023 release.

Based on Michael J. Carroll’s short story Man and Boy, Bava’s Rabid Dogs follows

the bungled robbery of three violent criminals and the hostages they take – including a young woman, a middle-aged man, and his child – as they attempt to make a clean getaway from the police.

Franco and Kilgore’s take on the material is described as a “present day thriller”, and they’re hoping their Rabid Dogs will kick off a trilogy.

Leone had this to say about the project:

Samuel and Evan are bright and have creatively mapped out an exciting new way to breathe new life into this film. To modernize it as an action-packed thriller. Something Mario would have loved. I can’t wait to see it come together.”

Franco added:

Bava was a master at creating these unforgettable moments in the film, and Rabid Dogs, which unfolds in the aftermath of a crime is not only suspenseful but filled with fascinating characters.”

Kilgore said:

We love thrillers, and this story has got a final plot twist that really shakes you. It’s genuinely shocking, and we’re excited and honored to be given the keys to remaking this classic, and to partner with Mr. Leone.”

Bava’s Rabid Dogs wasn’t quite complete when filming had to be shut down because producer Roberto Loyola went bankrupt. Thankfully, the only things left to be shot when filming stopped were cutaways of police vehicles and a pre-credit sequence… but the lack of them, combined with rights issues, forced Rabid Dogs to remain on the shelf for decades. Since the ’90s there have been multiple home video releases (sometimes under the title Kidnapped) that have tried to solve the problem of the missing footage in different ways.

Rabid Dogs previously received a Franco-Canadian remake that was released in 2015.

Franco and Kilgore have The Fall of the House of FIFA set up at FX Networks, Camelot at Peacock, Keeper of the Diary at Searchlight Pictures, and Star of Persia at M.E.G.A. Films.