Simon West’s The Blob Remake Gives The Amorphous Mass A Backstory
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As a kid, The Blob scared the hell out of me like few other films. Side note: it also may have been the first Steve McQueen movie I ever saw. Hell, I even adore the 1988 remake, it’s awesome. Back in January, it was announced that Simon West, the man behind Con-Air (another movie I love dearly), is going to give the franchise another facelift. He recently spoke about the project, and part of his plan includes giving the amorphous, gelatinous glob a true Hollywood makeover, which apparently includes a new backstory.
Talking to Den of Geek, the director, whose most recent offering was the Jason Statham action vehicle Wild Card, promised things like a much “bigger canvas,” that it will be more rooted “sci-fi,” and that it will be an “invasion movie,” among other things. He even compares it to some rather notable movies in the genre, saying:
My version of The Blob’s going to be more sci-fi….The blob itself will be more sophisticated, more along the lines of Alien and Predator and things like that – much more science-based, the way Jurassic Park made you believe you could bring back dinosaurs with a bit of DNA from a mosquito. This will be much more explained on where the blob comes from and how it works. It’ll be a much more sophisticated creature – because it is a monster movie rather than a horror in that sense.
It sounds like West certainly has some grandiose schemes and ideas in store for The Blob, but do you really look at this oozing mass and think to yourself, “I really want to know more about this thing, where it came from, what its motivation is.” Part of what makes the earlier movies so awesome is that it’s kind of some gunk that accidentally wound up on Earth, like an angry space booger that crash landed here and went on a mindless rampage dissolving everyone it touched.
You can also presume that the title creature will be largely CGI affair, which is too bad. A big piece of the fun is how tactile and slimy it appears. Just watching the Blob squelch around you know exactly what it would feel like if you reached out and grabbed a handful. It’s enough to make your skin crawl, and you can’t help but imagine it’ll lose some of that in the translation.
Maybe I’m just being overly worried and expect too much from a movie about oozing goo. What to you all think of this new direction for The Blob? Are you on board?
