Word just in from Overture Films that Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Road”), Richard Jenkins (Oscar-nominated this year for “The Visitor”) and Chloe Moretz (I profess ignorance) are to headline “Let Me In,” the forthcoming and unwelcome (in these parts, anyway) U.S. remake of last year’s arthouse sensation “Let the Right One In.”
The presence of Jenkins adds a sheen of respectability, I suppose. (After the sterling work Overture did in securing him that unlikely Oscar nod, perhaps he owes them one.) As for McPhee, the jury’s still out: I was thoroughly unmoved by his work in “The Road,” but perhaps he has something.
The press release, in part, after the cut.
Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz and Oscar®-nominee Richard Jenkins will headline the cast of Let Me In, Matt Reeves’ adaptation of Let the Right One In, when principal photography begins this fall in New Mexico. The announcement was made today by Hammer Films Co-CEO’s Simon Oakes and Nigel Sinclair, as well as Overture Films CEO Chris McGurk and COO Danny Rosett.
Director Reeves (Cloverfield) has cast Smit-McPhee (The Road) and Moretz ((500) Days of Summer) in the two lead adolescent roles of Owen and Abby for the eagerly awaited horror feature. Jenkins will play the lead adult character known as Hakan in the original film.
“Kodi, Chloe, and Richard are my absolute dream cast,” says Reeves. “I couldn’t be more excited to be working with them.”
Comments
17 responses to “Smit-McPhee and Jenkins in ‘Let the Right One In’ remake”
Chloe Moretz plays Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s little sister in (500) Days of Summer. She was funny, she has some potential, but I don’t know if I see her as Eli (or Abby in this case). I’m curious to see where they take this remake and what they’ll do with it but I just re-watched Let the Right One In and it’s going to be hard to compare to the subtle brilliance and the creepy, but very moving relationship in this film. I remain skeptical.
Unfortunately, a U.S. remake of this film was inevitable. I really don’t know how you replace the performance of Lina Leandersson, who played the character Eli in the Alfredson version.
Zero interest here for me.
Moretz was terrific; a real scene-stealer in (500), so it’s great that this will raise her profile–great for a child actress. But despite not having seen the original yet, I have massive skepticism in regards to this. I anticipate less The Departed or The Ring (mediocre to me, but some have a fondness for it…w/e), but rather more The Grudge or any other epic suckage remake.
If this means Jenkins is getting bigger work, yay for that. Hopefully this is just a quick paycheck before he finds further challenging work.
Oh, Guy, can’t comment on The Road, but I hear that Smit-McPhee is exceptional in Romulus, My Father. So perhaps that’s worth looking into.
I personally remember being annoyed every time Chloe Moretz showed up in (500) Days of Summer. She didn’t seem natural.
Plus, I’m really worried that the current teen obsession with vampires will have the studio pushing for a PG-13 rating. If they cut back on the gruesome elements, the poetry will be lost. For me, anyway.
True, I’d forgotten about “Romulus.” Need to catch up with that sometime.
Let the Right One In is lightning in a bottle. Good fuckin’ luck recapturing chemistry that special between two child actors. Reeves and company are fighting a losing battle.
I’m interested in this, although only for Matt Reeves’s involvement. I really enjoyed “Cloverfield”. Though I must say that there is no possible way that the remake will be nearly as brilliant as the original. Really, it’s just sort of all pointless. Maybe if they’d done it twenty years from now but… it just came out last year.
Uggh, not the little sister from 500 Days of Summer. This does not bode well.
I was also unimpressed with Smit-McPhee in The Road, especially considering all the pre-release hype.
Why the hell is every movie, that’s not done in the USA, getting a remake, instead of giving the original movie a chance?
I rather not think about this at all. Good luck to all in creating something even a fraction as lovely and authentically moving as the original.
Oh no.
ahem, “Romulus My Father” isn’t that great (and McPhee is sorta annoying in it).
The first time I read this, when they referred to Richard Jenkins as the lead adult character, it made me wonder if they would make the story in this version center more around the father. But re-reading that press release, it seems less likely.
If nothing else, Richard Jenkins will ground this film in something that isn’t shitty, so hooray for that. Here’s one of my big questions: how are they going to even attempt that scene in the swimming pool (if it’s kept, that is)? That underwater shot is revered for a reason. At this moment, I can only see two possibilities:
1) Matt Reeves simply does a full recreation of the shot, but something will get lost. The colors will be too saturated and dark, or the sound will be too loud, or there will be non-diegetic music playing over it, or the other kids will thrash around too much–something will go horribly wrong.
2) Matt Reeves changes it completely, showing it from a completely different angle. Perhaps he’ll show everything, or perhaps we’ll get a top-down view of him being held underwater, where the visual stays on the top of his head, while we get the carnage from the sonic landscape, then we pull out and see the aftermath.
Anyway, I’m talking too much. Point is, I’m extremely skeptical, but I’m not grabbing my torch and pitchfork just yet. There are worse people that could have been associated with this movie than Richard Jenkins and Matt Reeves (then again, I kind of dug Cloverfield–if nothing else, Reeves and his team are master craftsmen).
Oh good God. No no no no no no no no. This will be ruinous.
Poor Richard Jenkins he deserves better than this.
Will Richard Jenkins ground this with the same amount of not shitty as he did with Step Brothers, Fun With Dick and Jane, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Core, Stealing Harvard, Say it Isn’t So and What Planet Are You From?