Studios are breathing new life into old franchise a lot lately. One sequel we have been looking forward to, but not hearing a lot about, is ‘Gremlins 3’. Bloody Disgusting points out that recently Zach Galligan, who stared in the first two films and has been working hard to keep the ‘Gremlins’ legacy alive, told Bleeding Cool where the sequel stands. Unfortunately, it is not at point we had hoped for.
I think you can tell what’s happening with Gremlins 3 the same way you could tell with Gremlins 2. It’s the same people and they tend to work the same way. There is a huge time gap but it’s Warner Bros, Spielberg and Chris Columbus. Now, Chris Columbus didn’t have anything to do with Gremlins 2 – because by his own admission he didn’t see a franchise. He kind of regrets it I believe, but he was ‘one and done.’ I don’t think he cared for Gremlins 2 and the direction some of the characters went in, so he’s kind of wrested control back. Everything I’m quoting is stuff he’s publicly said: ‘There will NEVER be a remake. There will NEVER be a reboot. There will only be a SEQUEL.’
I’m glad to hear that a remake will never be made. We have had too many and there are too many still on the way. Honestly, remakes rarely ever lives up to the original any way.
What could we expect from ‘Gremlins 3’? Galligan filled the website in.
[Columbus] has been aggressively working on a Gremlins 3 that takes place in present day. He tantalizingly says there will be some NEW characters and some OLD characters – I guess in the style of a Force Awakens type sequel. One thing we know for sure is they have a writer on board. The only insight I can give is the following: There was a 6 year gap between Gremlins and Gremlins 2; most of that time was spent with them writing and rejecting ideas and re-writing. One of the ideas that was rejected was ‘gremlins in Vegas.’ They went with that for 18 months and felt it was too expensive. Eventually they came up with the tower idea, where essentially I’m working for Donald Trump, our new President! That took six years to happen. Carl Ellsworth has been apparently working on the script for a year and a half now. If no new names start appearing on the IMDB listing then that means they like the script. If new names start appearing, y’know Kevin Smith appears, it means it’s back in rewrites with a new vision.”
Those are some big names Galligan is dropping.
Warner Bros definitely wants it, Chris Columbus wants to do it because he’d like to undo the Gremlins 2 thing as he wasn’t thrilled with it, and Spielberg wants to do it I imagine – because he’s Spielberg – and why wouldn’t he want to do it. Once he’s found the right script he can attach his name and make a ton of money. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The good news is, it does sound like the sequel is still alive. Honestly, Gizmo and his friends are too cute and the movies are too good not to do a follow up. Hopefully the third film will start production soon. We will keep our eye out for new information.