Jodie Transitions from a Demonic Pig to a Little Girl Ghost: I remember reading the book years ago and watching the original “The Amityville Horror” film. The image of Jodie the demonic pig and those beady red eyes staring in at the Lutz family has stuck with me since then. But in this version of the Amityville events, the pig’s gone and in its place is the ghost of 'Jodie' DeFeo (the real name of the DeFeo's youngest daughter was Allison, not Jodie). Allison was one of the six members of the DeFeo family who were murdered in their beds by Ronald DeFeo Jr on the night of November 13, 1974.
Why did the filmmakers decide to make the change from pig to young girl? According to the producers, meetings were held and when all was said and done, they just couldn’t figure out a way to make a pig scary enough so they opted to get rid of the pig and use the ghost of Jodie DeFeo in its place. But both Brad Fuller and Andrew Form admit people miss the pig.
Remakes are Dangerous so Why Do Them: “You know what? We are not looking necessarily to do remakes but after 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' we were besieged with remake opportunities. Strangely enough, this was not one of them,” said Fuller. Producer Andrew Form added, “This movie we actually went after. This one was not brought to us, but every other one was.”
The Attraction of Remaking “The Amityville Horror:” Andrew Form explained, “We had a big meeting after ‘Chainsaw’ and Michael Bay loves true crime, so we were thinking of what great true crime stories were out there and that led us right to Amityville. I grew up on Long Island so I had seen the house as a kid. I went in and talked to Brad and Michael and I said, ‘You know, there’s this great horror movie from the ‘70s that I bet you a lot of people haven’t seen that might need a nice updating.’” According to Form, a call was placed to MGM and the remake was given the go-ahead.
Combating Moviegoers Who Are Anti-Remakes: “We don’t really look to combat it. I think that’s a real thing and I understand the response. What we hope to do is kind of do is to pay tribute to the film that we’re remaking, and hopefully make it better or more exciting. And that’s the best way that we can combat it, I suppose,” said Fuller.
The Pig’s Gone and Other Changes – Is This Really Classified as a Remake?: Fuller believes that even with the changes from the original movie, this 2005 film is still considered a remake. “It is in that we used the same source material and we’re telling the same story. We chose different things in the book to talk about. And we tried to amp it up. It’s been 30 years since the original. Horror audiences have seen a lot of horror movies in the interim and we just wanted to make it what it would be if they were making it in 2005. “
On Casting Ryan Reynolds: Reynolds may not be the first actor who springs to mind when you think about casting a horror movie. However according to Fuller, Reynolds was the only actor they ever considered for the role of George Lutz. “You know what? Ryan Reynolds is a guy who we had heard how great his performance was in 'Blade' and we were lucky enough to go into the editing room and see that before it came out. We just felt like if you’re going to have a guy who starts out as a great guy and then who turns and goes insane, you can’t have a guy who you expect to go insane. It’s better to have a guy who’s a great guy. Once we saw that Ryan could actually be that person who goes insane, it’s a perfect casting idea. I think that it’s really important to cast someone who people don’t expect to see in the role,” explained Fuller.
The Status of the Prequel to “Texas Chainsaw Massacre:” “It’s being written right now. We should be getting a script in about a month and hopefully we’ll be shooting it this summer,” said Fuller. Form added, “It’s our next movie.”
The star of their “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” film, Jessica Biel, won’t be back for the sequel. Fuller said, “I would love to work with Biel, she’s one of our favorite actresses. But the story’s a different story.” But fans of Jessica Biel should take heart. When asked if they’ll cast Biel in another movie, Form enthusiastically said, “We would love to. Any movie that we do we want to put Biel in if we’re lucky enough to have her. We had a great experience with her.”
