Over the years, the CHILD'S PLAY franchise has managed to escape unscathed from the constant onslaught of remakes and reboots, until now. Production is currently underway in Vancouver on a reboot of the long-running horror franchise which will star Aubrey Plaza (Legion) as Karen, a mother who gives her son a toy doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature. Brian Tyree Henry (IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK) also stars as Mike with Gabriel Bateman (LIGHTS OUT) set to play Karen's son, Andy. MGM and Orion Pictures have released the first look at the film, which comes in the form of everyone's favourite murderous doll, Chucky.
From what we can see, Chucky looks enough like the original to be identifiable, but like any good reboot, probably comes with a few new bells and whistles. What do you folks think? Lars Klevberg (POLAROID) is directing the film from a screenplay by Tyler Burton Smith (KUNG FURY), and Klevberg told Entertainment Weekly that the original film is "one of my all-time horror movies and it was one of my introductions to horror. I got the script [for the remake] and it was really really good, and I knew it was from the producers from It, and I jumped in immediately." As for Don Mancini, who has written every installment of the series in addition to directing the last three, it doesn't seem that he's ready to give the reboot his approval, as both he and longtime franchise producer David Kirschher turned down offers to become executive producers on the reboot. Despite that, Klevberg said that everyone involved in the new film is a "huge fan of Don Mancini. [If] he was making this movie with us it would be really amazing, but we understand he has his reasons. We are extremely grateful to him and will always be. He’s someone I look up to."
Don Mancini is currently in the process of developing a CHILD'S PLAY TV series which will be a continuation of the story which has been developing over the course of seven movies. Don Mancini said that the tone will be more "dark and disturbing" than previous entries, adding, "We want to definitely signal that we are going dark, darker than ever before. It’s going to be very creepy." Although Brad Dourif will be lending his distinctive cackle to the voice of Chucky for the TV series, they haven't cast the role for the reboot yet, which Lars Klevberg teased will be "scary," "surprisingly emotional," and "fun."