A reboot of Urban Legend is in the works. The original 1998 movie, which was a slasher following a killer committing murders inspired by urban legends on a college campus, holds a 30% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes with a nearly matching 37% audience score but grossed $72.5 million against its $14 million budget in spite of its bad reviews. The project, which inspired an Urban Legend trilogy that concluded in 2005, boasts a star-studded cast that includes Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Joshua Jackson, Loretta Devine, Tara Reid, Michael Rosenbaum, and Robert Englund.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Sony is now in early development on a reboot of 1998’s Urban Legend. Shanrah Wakefield (Killer in Red) will pen the screenplay for the movie, which is being produced by Gary Dauberman (It, Annabelle) via Coin Operated. Additionally, original producer Neal Moritz is in talks to board the horror movie. The new movie is set to update the premise to explore how the “post-digital world” affects urban legends. A reboot was previously announced by Screen Gems in February 2020, but that project ran out of steam amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
What This Means For Urban Legend
The Movie’s Approach Remains To Be Seen
Although plot details are thin on the ground, the focus on urban legends in the digital age could mean a return to form for the franchise. While this could potentially mean the exploration of more supernaturally tinged stories like those found in “creepypasta” posts, it seems more likely that the new slasher will focus on the same type of non-paranormal urban legends found in the original Jared Leto horror movie, including “the killer in the backseat” and “Pop Rocks and Coke.” This would be a reversal from the predominantly supernatural story of the so-far final installment, Urban Legends: Bloody Mary.
2005’s Urban Legends: Bloody Mary was directed by Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) and stars Kate Mara (House of Cards).
The presence of Gary Dauberman muddies the water somewhat, however, as he is best known for supernatural horror, having written the screenplays for Annabelle, It, The Nun, and the upcoming Until Dawn in addition to both writing and directing Annabelle Comes Home and 2024’s Salem’s Lot. His producing credits also include supernatural horror offerings like The Curse of La Llorona, so if his output remains consistent, the Urban Legend reboot may in fact continue the trend set by Bloody Mary.
Our Take On The Urban Legend Reboot
It Could Be A Major Improvement
As those Rotten Tomatoes scores prove, the original Urban Legend may have been a success, but it is not necessarily a beloved property. This means that there is ample room for improvement. If the new movie does find a way to improve upon the source material and make a more universally beloved movie, the upcoming project could stand tall among other modern reboots and legacy sequels that reimagine тιтles from the late 1990s, including the new Scream movies and the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Source: THR
