Is Max Landis Remaking An American Werewolf In London? I Have a Better Theory

By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS)

While Max Landis is beginning to make a name for himself as a screenwriter, his father is a bit of a legend with films like Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and An American Werewolf in London under his belt. Recently, the younger Landis sent out a Tweet (before deleting it) hinting that he might be remaking one of his father’s films. Here’s what he said:

Since I get this question all the time:
There’s only one of my dad’s movies that I’d be willing to try and remake and I’m already doing it.

That was the beginning of some speculation with Bloody Disgusting reporting that they asked around, and the writer may be referring to An American Werewolf in London. However, after the news and rumors were reported, Landis went into deny, deny, deny mode on Twitter, tweeting the following:

I categorically deny any rumors about upcoming projects printed today.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 18, 2016

Deny. https://t.co/5X01ga0hiZ

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 18, 2016

Landis could, of course, be lying about that, because he’s not allowed to talk about it yet, or he could be telling the truth and it might be another one of John Landis’ films. The director’s major film successes outside of An American Werewolf in London are Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Three Amigos, Coming to America, and Beverly Hills Cop III. We can already knock off Beverly Hills Cop, because we know that Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec are writing a fourth film with Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah helming the project.

I have a theory, and it goes back to a simple question: why Max Landis would only want to remake one of the movies his father had made? I think I might know which one he’s talking about, because it might be a film that his father had not directed, and is probably wary of touching any film his father has directed.

John Landis has only one writer credit for a film he did not direct that catches my eye, which is Clue. It was recently announced that a remake was going into production with Josh Feldman producing, but no announcements regarding a writer or director.

That film is being set up over at 20th Century Fox, where Max Landis has a relationship with both Chronicle and Victor Frankenstein distributed by the studio. Another connection is that Feldman is director of development at Simon Kinberg’s production company, Genre Films. Kinberg himself produced and wrote the ill fated Fantastic Four remake, which was directed by Chronicle director Josh Trank, bringing us full circle. Sure that all reads like the ranting and ravings of a conspiracy theorist, but I can easily make too many connections. We’ll find out sooner or later if Clue is that movie.