THE EYES OF LAURA MARS – One Less Remake to Avoid?

Whilst Irvin Kershner’s 1978 thriller The Eyes of Laura Mars was hardly a masterpiece, it was yet another movie to be shredded through the Hollywood remake machine. Released shortly before the slasher classic Halloween, John Carpenter’s gripping screenplay was mercilessly rewritten by overzealous producers and the end result was less than impressive. But recent news seemed to indicate that Laura Mars would be yet another flick that uninspired studios would be recycling, to be directed by Chris Fisher, whose recent straight-to-video sequel S. Darko had been greeted with a less-than-enthusiastic response.

But Fisher informed Bloody Disgusting that due to creative differences with the studio he will no longer be involved; “Well, to tell you the truth, the project is sort of coming apart for creative reasons right now… There is a John Carpenter script that was heavily rewritten and I wanted to go back to that original Carpenter script… They want to stay more true to the original film; I wanted to stay more true to John Carpenter’s version. The studio and I don’t see eye-to-eye on that. So I think at this time, that won’t be my next project.”

Had Fisher been allowed to pursue Carpenter’s original vision (and perhaps drafted the legendary filmmaker in as a consultant) then maybe this project could have had potential, but studio interference is always a bad sign so fingers crossed that this movie never sees the light of day.