Guillermo del Toro Wants to Make 'Pet Sematary' and We Should Let Him

To celebrate the release of his gothic romance Crimson Peak, Guillermo del Toro fired off a Tweet this morning that made the internet stand at attention:

There is already an adaptation of King’s novel in existence and, yes, del Toro says he’s seen it, but that “the novel is destined to be made again.” In King’s cinematic canon, the 1989 film is an above average horror; not as winning as The Mist but not as bad as Maximum Overdrive, which the author directed while binge-snorting cocaine.

Over the last several years development on a revival has been slowly edging forward. In 2013 a script by Dave Kajganich — who co-wrote the upcoming IT adaptation recently abandoned by Cary Fukunaga — attracted the attention of director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. He’s since developed the idea with another scribe. As of this past summer, it was still in limbo. But everything has to start somewhere.

If there’s one person equipped to drag this project out of development hell it’s probably del Toro. Over the course of his career he’s built up three-dimensional characters only to throw them time and time again into nightmarish scenarios. King’s work generally holds up to more serious interpretation, so the director and the source material would likely make a great match.