MGM Working On Child’s Play Reboot
Lock your toybox, because pudgy dolls are getting in a stabby mood again. According to THR, MGM is making plans to reboot the Child’s Play franchise with a new movie. This proposed feature would be written by Tyler Burton Smith (Kung Fury 2), produced by David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith (It) and directed by Lars Klevberg (Polaroid).
This news is….confusing when you know all the facts.
Creator Don Mancini still has control over where the franchise goes, and he’s been content with puttering around in direct-to-DVD land, continuing the storyline of the original Chucky. Brad Dourif still voices the madman in a doll’s body after all these years, and now Dourif’s daughter has gotten involved (and received good reviews for her performance).
Mancini is stuck in a pleasant groove and has no desire to change anything. In fact, he just announced the development of a Chucky TV series. Wouldn’t that conflict with whatever this movie is supposed to be?
But iO9 brought up a possibility we hadn’t considered: “there’s no confirmation if it will actually even be Chucky as the killer doll.” That could potentially be the loophole MGM is using. Perhaps they own the Child’s Play name, but not the character? The fact that the last few movies have just said “Chucky” in the title adds some cred to that theory. This is just speculation, but it would help this make some sense.
The Child’s Play reboot is in preproduction and currently has no release date.