John Landis’ rejected pitch for An American Werewolf in London 2 is perfect

While we all eagerly (?) await further news on writer-director Max Landis' upcoming remake of his father's classic horror-comedy AMERICAN WEREWOLF, let's look back at the original for a moment.

More specifically let's talk about writer-director John Landis' direct sequel to his original classic AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON that never came to be.

Below you will find bits from an interview Landis recently had with Digital Spy. Here the older Landis lays out his full pitch for AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON 2.

Or as it was probably going to be called ANOTHER AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.

John Landis on AMERICAN WEREWOLF 2:

I was asked to do a sequel by PolyGram in 1991. I entertained the idea for a little bit and then came up with something that I liked and wrote a first draft of the script.

The movie was about the girl that the boys talk about at the beginning of the movie, Debbie Klein. She gets a job in London as a literary agent and while she's there, starts privately investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Jack and David.

He continues:

The conceit was that during the time in the first film where Jenny goes to work and David is pacing around the apartment, he actually wrote Debbie Klein a letter. It was all to do with this big secret that David had never told Jack that he had a thing with her.

She tracks down Dr Hirsch, who tells her that Alex now lives in Paris because she was so traumatized by what happened. She went back to the Slaughtered Lamb and everyone is still there! I think the only changes were a portrait of Charles and Diana where the five-pointed star used to be and darts arcade game instead of a board.

Landis continues:

It's then when she speaks to Sgt McManus, the cop from the first movie who didn't die, that she finds out that Jenny is still in London. She calls her and leaves an answer phone message, which we then reveal is being listened to by the skeletal corpses of Jack and David, watching TV in Alex's apartment!

The big surprise at the end was that Alex was the werewolf. It was pretty wild. The script had everybody in it from the first movie – including all the dead people!

However, Landis says: 

I gave the script to Michael Kuhn and he loathed it! He absolutely hated it and was actually pretty insulting about it. Clearly he would have hated the script for the first movie, because like that, it was funny and scary – and if anything, a little wackier.

I don't know about you but Landis' pitch sounds f*cking awesome. I already started chuckling when I heard the part about David and Jack's remains listening in on the phone call. Classic.

What do you think of John Landis' pitch for AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON: PART II? Make sure to hit us up and let us know in the comments below or on social media!

Buy Landis' original masterpiece on Blu-ray HERE.