Somewhere in America (probably in a cave in Malibu), a group of teen witches got their incantation right. Ultimate supernatural sleepover movie The Craft is getting a remake, Sony announced yesterday. While the cast and release date are yet to be confirmed, up-and-coming horror director Leigh Janiak is set to head up the crew. (Her first feature, the super creepy Honeymoon, screened at SXSW last year.) And Doug Wick, one of the original movie’s producers will co-produce.
As any self-respecting woman knows, the 1996 film The Craft follows Sarah Bailey (played by Robin Tunney), a new student at St. Benedict’s Academy, as she navigates the perils of high school. As in any high school movie, there are hot boys, mean girls, makeovers and a hushed warning in a cafeteria, in this case: “Whatever you do, stay away from them: they’re witches.” They, a bad girl clique of magical babes (Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell and Rachel True), soon befriend Sarah and the rest is all black-magic makeovers and using mind control on the football captain.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Janiak plans to bring out the girl power themes of the original movie. The studio, it says, was impressed by “her take on a female empowerment tale.” Sony’s announcement also comes at a time when Hollywood studios are being criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union (as well as everyone from Carey Mulligan and Kristen Stewart to Meryl Streep) for their “systemic failure to hire women directors at all levels of the film and television industry.” Actually, K Stew would make a pretty great Catholic school witch…
Credits
Text Alice Newell-Hanson
Still from The Craft (1996)