Arachnophobia (Christopher Landon to Write and Direct Remake)

Christopher Landon ain’t afraid of no spiders.

Landon, the writer-director behind horror hits Happy Death Day and Freaky, has been tapped to write and direct Amblin Partner’s remake of Arachnophobia.

James Wan and his Atomic Monster cohort Michael Clear are producing the feature project along with Amblin, while Frank Marshall, the Jurassic World franchise producer who made his directorial debut with the 1990 movie, will exec produce.

A horror comedy, Arachnophobia centered on a small town terrorized by a colony of deadly South American spiders accidentally brought into the U.S. Jeff Daniels starred as a doctor who moves his family from the big city for the calm bucolic small-town life with John Goodman playing a know-it-all exterminator. Julian Sands and Harley Jane Kozak were also in the cast.

Amblin’s president of production, Jeb Brody, will oversee the project for the studio, along with exec vp Lauren Abrahams and senior vp Mia Maniscalco. Judson Scott is also an exec producer.

Atomic Monster’s next has an adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, starring Lewis Pullman and directed by Gary Dauberman, hitting theatres Sept. 9, while Wan’s next directorial effort is Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which opens March 17, 2023.

Landon has shown an affinity for balancing scares and laughs to popular effect. His most recent movie was 2020’s Freaky, the well-reviewed body-switching slasher movie that starred Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton. And he was behind Blumhouse horror hits Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U, which earned praise for its inventive Groundhog Day-meets-Scream premise.

Landon earned his horror bonafide, writing three Paranormal Activity movies and writing and directing Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones.