Piranha Gets Chiller Remake

files/pictures/picture-35.jpgJoe Dante's PIRANHA will get an update care of new production firm Chiller Films, reports VARIETY. Chuck Russell (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3) is set to rewrite the script, using elements from spec script KILLER FISH by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger plus the original's script by John Sayles, which was based on a story by Richard Robertson. Chiller will co-produce the film with Intellectual Properties Worldwide.

Chiller Film was created by Mark Canton's Atmosphere Ent. and Relativity Media's Ryan Kavanaugh to produce and finance genre pictures costing no more than $20 million. Chiller's first film is the George Romero-directed LAND OF THE DEAD, which Universal will release June 24, 2005.

In the original film, a prehistoric strain of the killer fish are unleashed by a subterranean earthquake in Arizona's Lake Havasu just as a group of college students come for an outing.

Canton will produce with Toberoff. Pic will be a co-production of Chiller Films, IPW and Wild Bunch. Steve Barnett, J. Todd Harris, Kavanaugh and Chako Van Leeuwen will exec produce. Russell may direct the film. His previous credits include THE MASK, ERASER and THE SCORPION KING. The film should start production in the fall.