A third ‘Gremlins’ movie is now officially in the works.
Christopher Columbus is co-writing a new script and will direct.
Warner Bros. has dated the movie for 2027.
As long-gestating movies go, a third ‘Gremlins’ outing is up there, with chatter spanning at least a couple of decades.
Now, it would seem someone finally fed the filmmakers after midnight, as the project is going from rumor to reality thanks to Chris Columbus. Who, let’s not forget, wrote the 1984 original.
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As announced by Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav during the company’s third-quarter earnings call for shareholders. Columbus is at work on a new draft of the script with ‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ filmmakers Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein and will direct the new movie, with Steven Spielberg –– who backed the first two films –– returning as executive producer.
The original ‘Gremlins,’ directed by Joe Dante, became a pop-culture phenomenon upon release, grossing $165 million worldwide. It told the story of Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan), gifted a sweet, cuddly creature called a Mogwai (and named Gizmo). He soon discovers that Gizmo comes with a catch –– when one of the rules of his care is accidentally broken, he spawns crazed siblings who cause chaos around Billy’s small home town.
The sequel, ‘Gremlins 2: The New Batch,’ saw Billy and girlfriend Kate (Phoebe Cates) move to New York and encounter a whole new level of Gremlin-inflicted madness. While that movie was far less successful in 1990, taking in $41 million, it has gone on to become a cult favorite.
The spirit of ‘Gremlins’ has since been kept alive by merchandising and other media, and an animated series, ‘Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai’ has released two seasons to date.
No details have been released about the plotline for the new film, though we predict some typically chaotic behavior from the central creatures. Will Galligan and Cates return? That, we’ve still to learn.
‘Gremlins 3’: the studio talks
1984’s ‘Gremlins.’ Photo: Warner Bros.
Jesse Ehrman, President of Development and Production, Warner Bros. Pictures has the following statement about the new forward movement:
“Few titles are as beloved and iconic as ;Gremlins,’ and we’re beyond excited to bring it back for both lifelong fans and a whole new generation. It’s a privilege to be working alongside Steven, Chris, and the entire creative team, and we look forward to audiences experiencing the next installment of the magic, mayhem, and heart of ‘Gremlins’ on the big screen in 2027.”
When will the third ‘Gremlins’ movie be on screens?
Warner Bros. has given the creatures a November 19, 2027 spot on its release calendar. One Gremlin is currently eating the calendar.
Though there has been talk for a long time about a third ‘Gremlins’ movie, it has never quite managed to materialize.
But there is movement – more targeted at the younger members of the family – on a new series that will act as a prequel to the first two movies.
‘Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai’ is an animated series coming to HBO Max and Cartoon Network next year.
This new show turns the clock back to 1920s Shanghai to explain how 10-year-old Sam Wing (who we meet when he’s much older as shop owner Mr. Wing in the 1984 movie) first crosses path with a certain young Mogwai.
Sam and Gizmo will embark on a journey through the Chinese countryside, encountering colorful monsters and spirits from Chinese folklore.
As they attempt to return Gizmo to his family, and discover a legendary treasure, they’ll have to face a power-hungry industrialist and his ever-growing army of evil Gremlins.
(L to R) Zach Galligan, Sandra Oh, Randall Park, George Takei, and Bowen Yang have all been cast in HBO Max’s ‘Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.’
Tze Chun is running the show for this new series, and he brought fresh news of the voice cast to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for the panel, though, was word that Zach Galligan – who famously played Billy Peltzer, the lad whose life is turned upside down by Gizmo and the Gremlins in the 1984 original and its 1990 sequel, ‘Gremlins 2: The New Batch’ – is also lending his voice to the new show, but as a new character.
“I can’t say too much but because it’s 1920s China, I’m not playing Billy because he wasn’t around,” Galligan said following his surprise appearance on the panel. “So I’m playing this cool character. It was really fun and amazing to work with a new group of creative people who are taking a fresh look at the franchise and are expanding the mythology—who knows what they’re going to add. Maybe they’ll add a new transformation or a new rule we don’t know about yet… I think Gremlins fans are going to eat it up.”
Dropping hints that there are plenty of Easter eggs for film fans to find, Galligan seemed enthused about the new show. “I’ve been doing this a long time; it takes a lot really to surprise me. I thought it was very creative and I thought they did some interesting, very smart things, which to me is more important to being surprised,” he later told TooFab. “I think when it comes down to entertainment, the most important thing is execution. It’s how well you’re gonna tell it. The animation, the visual look of it is great, the voices are great and when you put it together with a good story, you’re going to have a really entertaining show to watch.”
The panel also included a screening of the whole first episode, though that naturally wasn’t put online.
HBO Max has yet to announce the date for the new series.
HBO Max’s ‘Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai is scheduled for 2023.
“Gremlins” will officially live on through WarnerMedia’s forthcoming streaming service. The company announced Monday that it has given a 10-episode order to an animated prequel series, “Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.”
There were earlier reports of WarnerMedia’s plans for the prequel, and now there are more plot details. The animated series will head back to 1920s Shanghai to tell the story of how Sam Wing and the Mogwai called Gizmo met. (Sam grew up to be the show owner Mr. Wing in the 1984 movie.) They’ll end up taking a dangerous journey through the Chinese countryside, joined by a street thief named Elle. Along the way, they’ll encounter and battle monsters and spirits, all while a power-hungry industrialist and his army of evil Gremlins are in pursuit.
The prequel comes from Amblin Television in association with Warner Bros. Animation, both of which were also behind the 1984 comedy horror film. Tze Chun is writing the series, and it will be executive produced by Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, and Sam Register. Co-executive producers are Chun and Brendan Hay, and Dan Krall is a supervising producer.
“Gremlins” is multiplying again: The cult classic horror comedy is set to get an animated spinoffseries.
Variety has the scoop that the 1984 flick — which featured a cute creature named Gizmo who inadvertently spawns the titular havoc-wreaking hellions — will serve as the inspiration for a new, as-yet-untitled series that is slated to debut on WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service. The show will be a prequel focusing on the adventures of Gizmo and a young Mr. Wing, the Chinese grandfather character from “Gremlins” and 1990’s “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” (played by Keye Luke in the films), in the years before Gizmo meets Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan).
Amblin and Warner Bros., which produced the original films, will also be producing the series. Tze Chun (known for television series including “Gotham” and “Once Upon a Time,” and features including “Cold Comes the Night” and “Children of Invention”) will write and produce the project.
No additional details are known about the series yet, and neither Amblin nor Warner Bros. responded to Variety’s request for comment. But the trade reports that this move is exactly what WarnerMedia has been planning all along for its streaming service, by developing new content based on its existing properties.
There’s no word yet on when it will be premiering, but it’s expected to be among the original series set to launch on the service beginning in 2020.
“Ready Player One” is one of those movies that rewards close attention and repeated viewings. Steven Spielberg’s ode to all things the ’80s is positively stuffed with references, Easter eggs, and hidden gems — with many of them not entirely noticeable until you’ve looked everywhere else in the scene. (Also, it helps if you’re an aficionado of the same pop culture miscellanea as the characters in the film.)
In keeping with the film’s themes of discovery and self-reliance, here are five things you probably don’t know about “Ready Player One,” now available on digital HD, DVD, and Blu-ray.
1. At One Point, Halliday Really Was Willy Wonka
Warner Bros
There is definitely a “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” vibe to “Ready Player One.” Novelist and co-screenwriter Ernie Cline said that he was inspired by Roald Dahl when crafting the storyline and early marketing materials borrowed music from the original film. But at one point there was an even greater Wonka element to “Ready Player One.”
Supposedly when Spielberg signed onto the film, way back in 2015, he first went to Gene Wilder and asked if he’d like to essay the role of James Halliday, the benevolent creator of the OASIS whose treasure hunt the movie hinges around. Wilder declined Spielberg’s invitation and ended up passing away in 2016 at the age of 83. Hopefully, now he’s in a world of pure imagination.
2. “The Shining” Sequence Required Multiple Disciplines
Warner Bros/Amblin
For all of its pop culture illusions and meticulous recreations, there’s nothing quite like the centerpiece sequence where the High Five enters the world of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.” (Both times we saw the movie theatrically, the audience went absolutely nuts.)
To create this unforgettable moment, a number of disciplines were utilized. There was the obvious motion capture elements, which required the actors to go through the “volume” just like they would any other scene set in the OASIS. But there were also, more practical elements, including fully constructed sections of the hotel that required new, live action photography (including that infamous bathtub and those elevator doors). What’s more, a pair of young actresses were cast as the movie’s eerie twins. At one point, the sequence went even further — there’s an image in “The Art of Ready Player One” book that features Wendy Torrance (as played by Shelley Duvall) wandering the hedge maze, and a moment when Art3mis and Parzival dodge a giant tricycle, with another double-homage with them trapped in a bathroom that starts to spin like the cylindrical space station subterfuge from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett says in the book that even the overall feeling of “Ready Player One” changes when that scene begins. “The look of the movie itself changes. It becomes grainy. It has the look of a film that was shot in 1980.” Incredible.
Also incredible: Kubrick’s widow, Christiane, and his longtime assistant and brother-in-law, Jan Harlan, visited the set when they were filming the sequence and even took a photo with the young actors playing the twins.
3. This Movie Really Challenged Spielberg
It’s weird to think of Steven Spielberg running into a challenge – technological or otherwise – that he would find daunting, especially when you consider that he’s been working with the same crew, with slight variations, since 1993. But “Ready Player One” was just that.
At various points in the home video release’s special features, he says that making the movie was like shooting “four movies at once” (given the complicated dynamics of the “virtual camera” and motion capture systems) and there’s footage of the director, on the last day of the shoot (everyone has their little plastic shooter full of champagne), telling everyone it was the hardest movie he’d ever made. But I’m sure it kept him young. Right?
4. Tye Sheridan and Ernie Cline’s Bonding Paid Off
Early in the production process, star Tye Sheridan (who plays Parzival) found himself in Austin, Texas, which is where Ernie Cline, author of “Ready Player One” and co-writer of its screenplay, lives. The two bonded and Cline even let Sheridan drive his prized DeLorean DMC-12. (Of course the author of “Ready Player One” owns a DeLorean.)
Now, while this might just seem like a heartwarming outing between two coworkers, it actually helped the movie. During the early, oh-so-awesome race sequence, Parzival has to drive backwards to earn the key. But initially Sheridan was just looking behind him, like you would in any other vehicle. He then remembered that Parzival’s DeLorean would be decked out like Doc’s from “Back to the Future,” which meant that the rear window would be obscured by the Flux Capacitor. This led Sheridan to change his approach to the scene, making it even cooler; he popped one of the car’s famous gulf-wing doors and hung his head out of it, thus giving him the eyeline he so desperately needed. And it all came from hanging out with the world’s biggest nerd in Austin, Texas.
5. There’s an Extra “Gremlins” Easter Egg You Might Have Missed
Warner Bros/Amblin
Steven Spielberg famously attempted to keep the references to his own work to a minimum, although there were some things that he deemed too essential to jettison entirely (the T. Rex from “Jurassic Park,” the DeLorean from “Back to the Future,” etc.) However, he was adamant that there be no gremlins. Of course, this didn’t exactly worked out the way he’d planned.
While reviewing visual effects shots towards the end of production, he noticed some sneaky Industrial Light & Magic artist had squeezed some of the nasty little freaks from “Gremlins” into the background of a large battle sequence. But that’s not the only reference to Joe Dante’s iconic film in “Ready Player One.” It turns out there’s a much more subtle nod to “Gremlins” earlier in the film, when iRok (er, TJ Miller) retrieves a mystical orb for Sorrento. The small wooden box that he opens to find the orb is the same one that housed the mystical Mogwai at the beginning of “Gremlins.” It’s a deep cut Easter Egg for only the biggest dorks, but, hey, isn’t that all of “Ready Player One?”
“Ready Player One” is now available on digital HD, DVD and Blu-ray. It rewards repeated viewings.
Ah, “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” … How do we love thee, let us count the ways: 1. Rambo Gizmo, 2. John Glover‘s Daniel Clamp, and 3. Something we probably missed amidst all your chaos and nonsensical plot points.
Yes, this week, the CAN’T WAIT! crew and special guest Drew Taylor tackle Joe Dante‘s (classic?) 1990 NYC romp, from its over-the-top-gory gremlin deaths and DNA splicing to its mysteriously contrived storyline and vanishing characters (RIP, Mr. Wing). Other topics discussed include how freaking scary the gremlins actually are, our general distaste for the movie’s lead characters (if you can call them that), and all the behind-the-scenes action that led to “Gremlins 2” becoming one Hollywood’s most exuberant flops.
Remember to tune in next time, when we discuss Phil’s pick,” the 1993 Renny Harlin joint “Cliffhanger.” Hang on!
Have thoughts/feelings/feedback about the podcast? Have a movie you really, really want us to watch and talk about? Hit us up on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with the hashtag #CANTWAIT.
CAN’T WAIT! A Movie Lover’s Podcast by Moviefone celebrates Hollywood’s guiltiest pleasures by taking a fresh look at critically ignored movies and giving them a second chance at life. Join Moviefone editors Tim Hayne, Rachel Horner, Phil Pirrello, and Tony Maccio as they extol the virtues and expose the failings (with love!) of nostalgic movies.
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