Night of the Comet Remake Filmmaker Offers Update on Project's Status

Throughout her career, filmmaker Roxanne Benjamin has expressed her love for the 1984 cult-classic Night of the Comet, leading towards the announcement in 2018 that she was finally developing a new take on the concept, though Benjamin recently confirmed that some behind-the-scenes shakeups have seen the project stagnate. When the remake was announced, Benjamin was reported to be developing the script, though with Orion itself going through a number of major changes in the years since, she confirmed that her take on the project is still in limbo. Orion most recently was part of an acquisition by Amazon, potentially complicating matters further or resulting in the project finally moving forward.

"That's an interesting one. It's still alive, just not really in the same iteration, but it's still kicking," Benjamin revealed to /Film. "It's gone through a lot of different -- everything's consolidating with everything. The snake is eating itself in our industry right now. So it's gone through a lot of different hands, I think, throughout the process, but it's still out there."

Benjamin continued, "There's other stuff that's going on with it. That movie division, I think, is gone now, or I can't even remember. I think Orion Pictures, they stopped doing their own features and they were just doing pickups at some point. So their original features division kind of stopped being active. That was a couple years ago. The original script that I wrote was part of that group. So now it's in that weird limbo where that can never exist because it is in this entity that, I don't know, it's a bunch of business affairs stuff."

The original film followed two sisters who survive an event in which a comet turns most of the planet into cannibalistic zombies, with its tone embracing the camp and comedy of the premise and the special effects of the time. When the remake was announced, it was said to be more authentically embracing the horror and sci-fi themes presented in the story.

Night of the Comet isn't the only iconic horror film Benjamin would like to revive, as she previously recalled two other cult classics that she'd love to reboot for a new generation.

"The two things that I've always wanted to make are things that are either in the process of being made or were made, and that's The Craft and The Lost Boys," Benjamin recently shared with ComicBook.com. "I feel like that's built into a lot of the stuff that I make. Most of my movies until now have been about the relationships of women, basically, at the heart of them. I always try to push those in the things that I make. I always want to do a version of The Lost Boys that focuses on girls. The Craft, obviously, was very seminal for me growing up, and some version of a movie like that is something that I've always, always wanted to do. If they ever want to do another reboot of The Craft, I'm all over that sh-t."

Stay tuned for details on the possible Night of the Comet reboot.

Would you like to see the project move forward? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!