Backed by Steven Spielberg in the 1980s, filmmaker Joe Dante would go on to make some incredible touchstones of cinema from that decade, including “The Howling,” “Gremlins,” it’s sequel, the cult-classic “The ‘Burbs,” “Explorers” and more. The ‘90s and aughts couldn’t quite live up to his incredible ‘80s run, but he did direct memorable pictures like "Matinee" and "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," and shot a lot of TV. But Dante is back, and he has a new zom-com about a young man whose regrets over moving in with his girlfriend are compounded when she dies and comes back as a zombie.
Titled “Burying The Ex,” the movie makes its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week, and the first clip has arrived. The movie stars Anton Yelchin, Ashley Greene, Alexandra Daddario (“True Detective”) and Oliver Cooper. We’ve also got our hands on a few new photos too.
We actually spoke to Dante this week out of Venice about “Burying The Ex.” We’ll be running that full interview soon, but we also spoke to him about his “Gremlins” legacy and his involvement in the mooted reboot. As it turns out, he doesn’t have anything to do with that movie, but he did confirm that development is in the works.
“I am not involved with it,” Dante said about the project. “It’s something that we hear about every six months for the past five to ten years. I know there have been many attempts to do it. It’s tricky because the rights are jointly owned by Warner Bros and [Steven Spielberg’s] Amblin, so you’ve got to jump through two hurdles to get your idea approved. “
Dante said “Gremlins” reboots or sequels have been attempted over the years, but obviously none of them have stuck. “I know a lot of very well known people have come up with ideas for another ‘Gremlins’ movie and not of them have gone. I do know, however, that there’s a script being written now and the tricky thing is that I’m not sure that the people making the movie now understand what the original appeal was of the first movie, which was not beloved by the studio until it started making money.”
“When they started making a sequel, they didn’t understand what we had done on the original to make it successful,” he remarked. “So they hired me to come back and make the sequel. Because nobody understood it. So it will be very interesting to see what they come up with.”
“Burying The Ex” debuts this week in Venice, and you’ll see a review from us tomorrow. More from this interview soon. Watch the “Burying The Ex” clip below. – Additional reporting by Drew Taylor.