Pellington to direct del Toro's English Redo of THE ORPHANAGE
Back in August it was announced that actor/writer/director Larry Fessenden (The Last Winter) would helm The Orphanage, New Line's long in the works remake of the Spanish-language ghost tale El Orfanato. Fessenden has co-written the script with producer Guillermo del Toro -- who was creative supervisor on the 2007 original. But it looks like things have somewhat fallen through, or Fessenden was never attached to direct in the first place, because now it's being reported that Mark Pellington is in talks to direct the English-language redo.
The Juan Antonio Bayona-directed original centered on a woman who takes over the orphanage where she was raised, to open a home for disabled children,who discovers that her son's imaginary friend is the same person who terrorized her when she was a child.
Pellington's feature credits include Henry Poole Is Here, The Mothman Prophecies, and Arlington Road. Pellington also directed many music videos, but more notably helmed the concert event, U2 3D.
Del Toro will produce with ContraFilm toppers Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson (Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, upcoming Red Dawn remake).
Del Toro's co-writing of the script and his hand picking of Fessenden satisfied most geeks out there that the remake was worth getting somewhat excited about. So what's with the apparent last minute change up? My guess, and this is just a guess... is that they're going to go 3D with the remake. With the 3D credits of Pellington and producers Flynn and Vinson, and Avatar hitting the billion dollar mark, could you blame me for jumping to that conclusion?
What do you think of Mark Pellington directing THE ORPHANAGE? Do you think they will make it in 3D?