Back in 1983, horror legend John Carpenter brought the story of Stephen King’s Christine to life. That beloved horror adaptation turns 40 this year, believe it or not, so it’s getting an anniversary theatrical rerelease to celebrate the occasion. It’s also getting the remake treatment. There haven’t been any updates recently, but Hannibal‘s Bryan Fuller is slated to bring a new version of Christine to the screen. Carpenter seems to think Fuller will be able to put together something even better than what he did 40 years ago.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Carpenter recently spoke to Total Film about the anniversary of Christine and, naturally, the remake came up. When Fuller’s reboot was brought to Carpenter’s attention, he responded by saying, “Oh boy. Well, good luck to him. It will probably be better.”
Carpenter didn’t have a lot to say about the idea of a new Christine, but the star of his movie did. Keith Gordon, who played Arnie in the 1983 Christine, shared his thoughts on Fuller taking on the story.
“I think he’s really talented and a good person to do it,” Gordon said. “I mean, I don’t have a negative feeling about people remaking something, especially 40 years later. Christine could be told in a different way and not be an insult to the original. There’s a very short list of untouchable classics that should never be remade — films where their groundbreaking-ness or idiosyncrasy is what makes them special. I wouldn’t want to see anybody’s remake of Citizen Kane, or 2001, or Raging Bull.”
Carpenter initially took the Christine job after losing another Stephen King adaptation. He was fired from the Firestarter movie and ended up working on Christine because he simply needed a new job.
“I needed a job, frankly,” Carpenter said of his work on the original Christine. “The Thing was my very first studio film. I was just diving in the pool here, and all of a sudden, WHAM. And getting fired off a movie is now the most pleasant thing.”
The most surprising part of all that is why Carpenter lost the job in the first place. His previous film, The Thing, opened to lackluster reviews and made very little money at the box office. Of course, all these years later, The Thing stands up as not only one of Carpenter’s finest works, but one of the most acclaimed horror films in history.
