Sam Raimi’s production company Ghost House Pictures have found a writer for the remake of the 1962 film The Day of the Triffids in which he will produce. They announced today that Neil Cross will be writing the classic sci-fi film. Neil Cross is no slouch, he has written the acclaimed television series Luther which is headed into its third season on BBC. Not only that but Cross has been named one of 10 Screenwriters to Watch for in 2012 by Variety. And also, Cross currently has many feature scripts that are being produced by none other than Guillermo Del Toro. What I’m trying to say here is that this man knows what he is doing and seems to be the perfect match for such a film.

There has been no word on a director yet, could it perhaps be Sam Raimi himself? Very doubtful, but the inner fanboy in me is really hoping Raimi takes this project on because his recent return to horror in Drag Me to Hell proved that even after all of these years he can still bring something new to a genre that made him an icon over 30 years ago.

The original film The Day of the Triffids is about a meteor shower that produces a glow that blinds anyone looking at it. The site of this shower was such a beautiful one that many people couldn’t help but watch so unfortunately 99% of the population goes blind as a result. Now, the original film is actually based off of a novel written by John Wyndam. In the novel this chaos results in the escape of some Triffids which are basically some sort of experimental plants that can move themselves and of course they do what any plant with the ability to move freely would do, and that is to start attacking people. In the 1962 film adaptation, however,  the Triffids aren’t some science experiment gone bad. Instead they are alien spores that have arrived due to the the resulting meteor shower. So now they are man-eating plants from outer space…

So that sounds completely clown-shit ridiculous but you have to remember it was the early 60’s, and trust me, that doesn’t even scratch the surface.

Now back to my point about hoping Raimi directs this, and let’s face it, there isn’t a chance in hell of that happening. But let’s say, hypothetically, he decides to direct this movie and goes the route of plants attacking people. Now rewind to 1981 where he did a little film called The Evil Dead. And in that movie there is an iconic scene where one of the female characters, Cheryl, is chased into the woods by a demon. Soon after running frantically into the woods she meets the famous date rape tree where she gets attacked by an evil tree.

Now put two and two together. You have a film, The Day of the Triffids which is about people getting viciously attacked by evil plants and then you add Sam Raimi who has a history of such things and you have a match made in heaven!

Ok so I might have gotten a little bit carried away with this one but any chance to write about Sam Raimi is one that I can’t pass up. The man is an icon in the horror genre and anything with him behind it is worth checking out even if it sounds as insane as plants from outer space that attack people. And like I said, the chances of him even coming close to directing this are slim to none but when I heard about this film and its premise I couldn’t help but draw the comparison to Raimi and the famous tree rape scene.

All jokes aside, the more realistic thing this movie has going for it is that it will probably end up being a straight to DVD B-movie that you can only find in some dank video rental store sitting next to the porn section. And folks, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I totally dig ridiculous sci-fi films like this, they can be a ton of fun if done right. And if you have a man like Raimi backing it up by producing it, you can count me in.

As always, thanks for reading!