Gremlins 3 has a "twisted and dark" screenplay, says Chris Columbus

Chris Columbus has spoken about where things currently stand on the very long-in development third film in the ‘Gremlins’ series.

The 58-year old filmmaker, now best known as the director of the ‘Home Alone’ and ‘Harry Potter’ movies, got one of his earliest breaks as the screenwriter of the original 1984 ‘Gremlins,’ from director Joe Dante and producer Steven Spielberg.

Columbus was not involved in the 1990 follow-up ‘Gremlins 2: The New Batch’ (and reportedly wasn’t too happy with the more cartoonish direction Dante took on the sequel) – but he’s back on board for the third ‘Gremlins’ movie, which has been in the works in some capacity for the past 27 years.

Columbus tells Slashfilm, “I’m really proud of the script. It is as twisted and dark as anything, so we’ll see.

“It’s always a budgetary conversation when we’re going to shoot it. I wanted to go back to the really twisted sensibility of the first movie. I found that was a very easy place for me to fall back into and start writing again so hopefully we’ll see that movie soon.”

‘Gremlins’ did indeed have a twisted sensibility; hand-in-hand with Spielberg’s ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,’ it was responsible for the creation of the PG-13 certificate in the US, which ultimately led to the 12 rating being introduced in the UK in 1989 (which was later amended to the 12A in 2002).

While his remarks might imply being the sole writer responsible for the script in question, it seems most likely that the ‘Gremlins 3’ script Columbus is talking about is from Carl Ellsworth (‘Red Eye,’ ‘Disturbia’), who has been attached to the project for some time. ‘Gremlins’ actor Zach Galligan told Bleeding Cool in December 2016 that Ellsworth was writing the project under Columbus’s supervision, and confirmed it would be a sequel rather than a remake.

Columbus does not reveal whether he might also be in line to direct ‘Gremlins 3’ (for what it’s worth, IMDb list him as an executive producer on the film) – however, he is adamant that, like the originals, the monsters of the title will be brought to life primarily via practical FX.

“Oh, without a doubt, minimal CGI [will be used]. CGI will enable us to remove wires and make the puppeteers lives a little easier. It was brutal. It was like a marathon every night for those guys. In the bar scene alone there were 18 [or] 20 people behind the bar. No one had any space to move. It was just hellish for those guys so CGI will simplify that a little bit but it’s all puppets.”

Warner Bros has not officially given ‘Gremlins 3’ a green light yet – but the little monsters recently made a cameo in ‘The Lego Batman Movie,’ so clearly the studio hasn’t forgotten about them.

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