Fango recently caught up with RINGU/RING TWO director Hideo Nakata to find out about his latest U.S. projects, both remakes: an update of the 1983 cult classic THE ENTITY and an Americanization of the Pang Brothers’ ghost story THE EYE. “THE ENTITY is still at the development stage, and we are now trying to find the right writer,” the director reveals; David DiGilio was previously attached as scripter. “There is an idea for it, but I would say that it is still at an early stage. For THE EYE, we are waiting for Paramount to greenlight the movie but I have a sense that that will happen very soon—perhaps after we have one star attached to the project. So hopefully we will get that into production very shortly. Although the script for THE EYE [by GOTHIKA’s Sebastian Gutierrez and INSOMNIA’s Hillary Seitz] is not final, I believe it is getting close. Hopefully we will start shooting in October of this year.”
Following these two Hollywood efforts, Nakata tells Fango that he intends to return to his native Japan. “I miss Japanese filmmaking, and I am planning to go back next year, after I finish these films, to make a traditional ghost story. Ideally, I would like to work in both countries.”
The director, of course, has been remade a couple of times himself, and shares his feedback on this summer’s redux of his 2002 chiller DARK WATER, directed by Walter Salles. “Well, first of all, I’m a huge fan of Jennifer Connelly and I really liked the script [by Rafael Yglesias],” he says. “I also liked the atmosphere [of the film]. I think the main difference in the remake is the appearance of the ghost girl. She is very different from my original DARK WATER—maybe a little less supernatural.”
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