MGM Formally Offers Lead Remake Of Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’ To Chloe Moretz
BREAKING: After meeting and reading a group of young actresses for Carrie, MGM, Screen Gems and director Kim Peirce have made their decision and made the formal offer today to Chloe Moretz. If negotiations work out, she’ll play the title role in the remake of the Brian DePalma original that was based on the 1974 Stephen King bestseller. She’s expected to play the shy high school student Carrie White, who is raised by a nightmarish religious fanatic mother, and comes to grip with devastating telepathic powers just as she reaches puberty. She eventually uses those gifts for lethal means when fellow classmates use the prom as an excuse to humiliate her before the entire school in a parable about bullying. Sissy Spacek played the character in the first movie, with Piper Laurie playing her mother, and Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, John Travolta, Betty Buckley and William Katt rounding out the cast. Both Spacek and Laurie got Oscar nominations for their work in the 1976 film.
The studio and Peirce have been meeting with actresses for the past two weeks. Word all along was that while other names were circulating, Peirce and the studio had an eye on Moretz. The studio denied it at the time, but what actually happened is, Moretz didn’t meet with Peirce until last weekend. She got the job immediately. Moretz, who first came on with performances in Kick-Ass, (500) Days Of Summer and Let Me In, is at the top of the crop of young actresses. Coming off Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, her next major film is the Tim Burton-directed Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp. She’s repped by WME and 3 Arts. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa wrote the script and Kevin Misher’s producing.
Insiders said that once they make Moretz’s deal, they will focus on landing the psycho mom and supporting cast and they will shoot this year.
Great casting! Love her, but STOP WITH THE REMAKES PEOPLE! STOP!
Why not have sissy spacek as mom, its worked in other films but can’t think of any at this moment in time lol
There was actually a made-for-TV remake already, in 2002. Not interested that much in this one either…but Chloe Moretz is always fun to watch. Loved her recent bit on 30 Rock too.
I know what people mean about “another remake.” But what you don’t realize is that a lot of younger people don’t watch old movies. So it makes sense to do newer versions. It’s just a shame that they often don’t live up to the greatness of the originals…but sometimes they can surprise us.
I can’t get many of my friends in their late-twenties to watch movies like Jaws, Dirty Harry, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, etc. “It’s too sloooowww.”
I know someone who watched Jaws on 10X fast forward, who then confidently declared that Deep Blue Sea was better. Then I cried.
I’m in my late twenties, and I make horrific faces at people who say Deep Blue Sea is better; I saw Jaws as a kid and it made me love sharks! I still watch it all the time.
But it’s true; lots of young people don’t watch older movies. I don’t normally watch remakes/reboots because I’ve had experience tell me that remakes/reboots don’t live up to the original material (I’m looking at you Nick Cage in the Wickerman).
However, if people can see this stuff and treat it like a separate entity from the source material, they could be pleasantly surprised! Kubrick’s version of The Shining wasn’t much like the book, so it’s a bad adaptation but it’s a fantastic movie! Plenty of people were cringing when Heath Ledger was announced as the Joker; Jack Nicholson was the only person who could be the Joker to many people!
I’ve seen bits and pieces of the 2002 tv version of Carrie; if this remake means young people seeing something of better quality than that, I have no complaint.
I think people like Deep Blue Sea-or say they like it- because Samuel L. Jackson’s in it.
I love to watch old movies and I’m 17.
really some perfect pretty teen to play the outcast?
Kathy Bates would make a good mother…
I love remakes cause it gives film makers a chance to do something they couldnt do in the original.
Wake me up when Hollywood starts making movies again.
Surely Sissy Spacek would be both an obvious and an inspired choice for the mother; she can play crazy in her sleep, and bears some resemblance to Moretz
Great! Hey, who’s up for another Rollerball remake while we’re at it?
Well since the original Rollerball sucked…