Over the past several years there have been rumblings about a reboot of the feature film The Lost Boys, the seminal ’80s film about a couple of kids discovering there are vampires in their midsts which was played for both humor and thrills. Not comes word that Warner Bros is absolutely onboard a new version written by Randy McKinnon (the adaptation of DC’s Static Shock in development, was a staff writer o Netflix’s horror series Chambers and is adapting the Kwame Onwuachi memoir Notes from a Young Black Chef) and to be directed by Jonathan Entwistle (the series End of the F***ing World, I’m Not Okay With this and the pilot for the Disney+ series version of Willow). Among the stars will be Noah Jupe (the A Quiet Place films) and Jaeden Martell (the movies adapted from Stephen King’s It).
Before this, you’ve got to give writer/producer Rob Thomas a lot of credit for perseverance (even if it didn’t ultimately work out).
While somehow managing to make zombies (or at least one of them) endearing with the TV version of Vertigo Comics’ iZombie, he was willing to give vampires an even shake. Thomas began adapting The Lost Boys into a television series, and the reported approach being taken was an intriguing one. Assuming the proposed show would go seven seasons, it follow follow the lead characters over the course of seventy years beginning in 1967, each season jumping forward a decade in time. If that actually came to pass, it meant that the show would ultimately move to 2037, offering up a unique look at vampires in the future. According to Thomas, the show would have examined what it truly means to be immortal.
But as things were moving forward, there seemed to have been some changes. Offers the official synopsis of the pilot, “After 25 years away from home, Lucy Emerson (who is at the end of her financial rope) returns home to the small California beach town of Santa Carla, to live with her father Frank and teach at the local high school. But Lucy either doesn’t know or doesn’t share the town’s big secret with her two sons, Michael and Sam: Santa Carla has a nest of vampires secreted inside the city limits, and they are getting hungrier by the day.”
In terms of casting, Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey was Michael, played by Jason Patric in the film. Kiele Sanchez was Lucy (Dianne Weist played the matriarch in the film), and Dakota Shapiro was David, leader of the vampires (Kiefer Sutherland in the film). The script is by Heather Mitchell and Catherine Hardwicke, who would have directed. Catherine, of course directed Twilight. In an exclusive interview, she offered her opinion on the enduring popularity of vampires in our culture.
“If you go back 2000 years, you would read about the vampire legend in China. You’d read about it in Europe and all over the world, because there’s just something about drinking blood. You know, is that going to give me special powers? Well, a little via a fountain of youth. It’s always intrigued people, the idea of what blood means to somebody if you take somebody else’s blood. Also, vampires are very sexy. I mean, you know, zombies are not too sexy. I know they’re very popular right now on a certain TV show, but you don’t really want to make out with a zombie. Whereas a vampire continuously kisses your neck and if they go too far and get too excited, they could bite you and kill you. I mean, there’s just so many layers to vampires, I think.”
Tags: The Lost Boys