‘Happy Death Day’ Director Christopher Landon to Write and Direct ‘Arachnophobia’ Remake for Amblin

If you have a fear of spiders, you might want to sit this news out.

The new version of “Arachnophobia” has found its filmmaker in writer-director Christopher Landon, TheWrap has confirmed. Landon, who has directed clever horror comedies like “Happy Death Day” and “Freaky,” is a perfect fit for the material. The original movie effectively mixed comedy and scares.

Along for the remake are James Wan and Michael Clear, with their production banner Atomic Robot. Amblin, who produced the 1990 original, is also on board, with original director Frank Marshall returning, this time as an executive producer. Amblin’s president of production, Jeb Brody, will oversee the project for the studio, along with exec vp Lauren Abrahams and senior vp Mia Maniscalco.

1990’s “Arachnophobia” told the story of a big city doctor (played by Jeff Daniels) who moves with his family to his sleepy hometown of Canaima, California. Deathly afraid of spiders (he has a recurring memory of a spider crawling into his crib as a baby), he is soon perplexed by a series of mysterious deaths that, as it turns out, are very spider related. John Goodman memorably appeared as an over-the-top exterminator and Julian Sands, at his slickest and most British, played a spider expert who attempts to save the day (spoiler alert: he doesn’t make it long).

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When Disney released “Arachnophobia,” they marketed it as the first ever “thrill-omedy,” since it was going for both audiences and was attempt to (crudely) explain the tonal fluctuations. It was also the first film from Disney’s Hollywood Pictures imprint, which was aimed at more genre fare for older audiences.

“Arachnophobia” also holds a special place in Disney history for being the thing that kicked off the deterioration of Steven Spielberg’s relationship with Disney, something that ultimately led to the death of any kind of Roger Rabbit sequel or spin-off and his almost complete removal from the Disney theme parks.

To explain: Spielberg, who co-owns the Roger Rabbit character, wanted the new Roger Rabbit short film, “Roller Coaster Rabbit,” to appear before “Arachnophobia.” The new would generate a lot of attention (“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was the second most popular movie of 1988 after “Rain Man”) and give “Arachnophobia” some extra oomph. (It was also the directorial debut of Marshall, one of Spielberg’s closest collaborators.)

But Disney was worried about their big summer tentpole that year, “Dick Tracy.” The production was plagued with problems and beset by writer/director/star Warren Beatty’s notorious perfectionism. So Disney movie “Roller Coaster Rabbit” from “Arachnophobia” to “Dick Tracy.” Spielberg was so mad that he outright canceled one of the Roger Rabbit shorts that was in production at Disney’s recently opened Florida satellite studio and the animosity soured any attempt at a proper Roger Rabbit sequel.

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Wan and Atomic Robot have the Stephen King adaptation “Salem’s Lot” coming out September 9 and Wan is in post-production on “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” which currently has a March 17, 2023 release date.

Landon wrote the “Paranormal Activity” spin-off “Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin” for Paramount+ that debuted last Halloween and recently wrote and directed “We Have a Ghost” for Netflix, starring David Harbour and Anthony Mackie, which should (we assume) be out in time for this Halloween.

It’s not clear where this new “Arachnophobia” will spin its web although Amblin did sign a production deal with Universal in late 2020. But will they market it as the second-ever “thrill-omedy?” Only time will tell.