Two years ago, Samuel L. Jackson signed on to star in a remake of the 1958 sci-fi horror classic THE BLOB that was going to be directed by Simon West (THE EXPENDABLES 2, WHEN A STRANGER CALLS remake) and was expected to be filming before 2015 was over. The movie didn't get made then, though. After two years of silence, production / finance company Goldcrest Films recently updated their website with an indication that THE BLOB was getting back on track. Simon West is still listed as the director on the Goldcrest site, but the absence of Jackson's name on the BLOB page could be taken as a sign that he had dropped out of the project.
Is Jackson going to be in THE BLOB or not? The answer is "probably", and to get it we only needed to look at an interview the actor gave the Toronto Sun at the beginning of March.
Said Jackson:
I’ve been running from or chasing King Kong, Godzilla, the Wolfman, whatever, since I was a kid. We’d go home and pretend to do all that stuff. So I’m doing Kong for the same reason I’ll probably be doing The Blob. I just got a call the other day (where the producers) said they finally got their money from China to do Blob.
I mean, I do a lot of movies, a lot of independent movies, for different reasons. But I’m a fan, and a lot of times I choose a movie because it’s something I would have chosen to see when I was a kid. How do you say no to that?"
So Jackson will be making childhood dreams come true by facing off with that gelatinous creature that likes to consume people. When he was cast in THE BLOB, it was said that he would be playing "a biochemistry professor attempting to thwart the other-worldly predator discovered deep within the earth."
The synopsis on the Goldcrest site confirms that this version of the Blob is coming from the ground instead of the sky:
When a band of miners uncover something hidden deep beneath the earth they unwittingly unleash a hideous creature beyond imagination. Now the townsfolk must fight back before it destroys everything.
The next two AVENGERS sequel are currently being shot back-to-back over a year-long production schedule, and Jackson expects to be finished filming THE BLOB before he heads over to the AVENGERS set to reprise the role of Marvel comics character Nick Fury.
Filming in 2017 would really be perfect timing for THE BLOB, as it would likely mean a release in 2018 – just in time for the 60th anniversary of the original film and the 30th anniversary of the 1988 remake.
Jackson can be seen on the big screen right now, making another childhood dream come true by fighting King Kong in KONG: SKULL ISLAND.