‘Starman’ Remake in Development

Travis Newton
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Movies

John Carpenter’s Starman (1984) is revered as a cult classic now, and has influenced a generation of filmmakers like Shawn Levy, director of Real Steel and the Night at the Museum trilogy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Levy is now signed to direct and produce a remake of the film for Columbia Pictures.

After making The Thing (1982) and Christine (1983) director John Carpenter took an unexpected detour into sci-fi romance with Starman. The film starred Jeff Bridges as an alien who crash lands on earth after encountering the Voyager 2 space probe. After finding the home of the newly widowed Jenny (Karen Allen), the alien takes on the appearance of her dead husband. The two begin an odd romance as they race across the country to get him to Arizona, where he’s to be picked up by his alien buddies. While the film wasn’t a box office smash, it did well with critics and earned Jeff Bridges nominations for best actor at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and Saturn Awards. Bridges took home only the Saturn Award, but to this date Starman remains the only John Carpenter film to be nominated for an Oscar (even for make-up effects, which is a shame).

If you’ve never seen it, Starman is a highly watchable blend of The Terminator and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but it has a very delicate and refined touch that informed movies like Midnight Special and even The World’s End. The remake is currently being scripted by Arash Amel, who wrote Grace of Monaco and the upcoming sci-fi film Titan. No word on a release date yet, but we’ll let you know if that changes!

Travis Newton
Travis Newton is a Fan Contributor at Fandom. He began writing about movies and TV for CHUD.com in 2012, and co-hosts The Drew Reviews Podcast with Fandom Entertainment Editor Drew Dietsch. He’s partial to horror movies, action games, and Irish Breakfast tea.