Black Phone director to bring something sinister to a Night Of The Hunter remake

Love it or hate it, a new version of Night Of The Hunter is on its way. Per Deadline, Doctor Strange director Scott Derickson has been hired to direct another Night Of The Hunter from a script he wrote with frequent collaborator C. Robert Cargill. The duo found a niche in horror movies and horror-tinged superhero epics, working together on Sinister, The Black Phone, and Doctor Strange. But more to the purpose of Night Of The Hunter, The Black Phone, which Derrickson also directed and co-wrote with Cargill, has all the child endangerment needed to remake the Charles Laughton classic.

To be clear and to negate the very thing we just wrote, the movie probably won’t be a remake of Laughton’s film. It’s an adaptation of David Grubb’s bestseller, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Nevertheless, the association with the movie certainly doesn’t help. Often in the conversation for the greatest film ever made by a first-time director, Night Of The Hunter starred Robert Mitchum as a serial-killing preacher named Harry Powell. Of course, he isn’t actually a preacher. He only wore the suit to marry a widow for her fortune.

Night Of The Hunter probably won’t sneak into theaters for some time. Derrickson has something called The Gorge coming out soon, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Miles Teller, and the wickedly talented Sigourney Weaver. After that, there’s a sequel to The Black Phone. Given that Derrickson is staying in his child danger zone for Black Phone and Hunter, there’s not much else to say other than, “It’s a hard world for little things.”