Don't believe the latest batch of ugly rumors that have been circulating about the Pet Sematary remake. It won't be rated PG as long as producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura has a say.
A few weeks back Lija's Library interviewed screenwriter David Kajganich, who was working on an early version of the Pet Semetary script for Paramount. Kajganich revealed that the studio was very interested in a softer version of the original to entice a younger audience.
After I turned in my first draft, Paramount went through a top-down regime change and I was given a new executive who had creative ideas I just couldn't stand behind. They wanted to appeal to younger audiences, so there was talk of making a teenaged Ellie the main character, and etc. It was really heartbreaking, but that's how the process works sometimes. The studio was gracious enough to let me out of my contract and the project was dormant at the studio until very recently.
Since then the project has been rejuvenated by screenwriter Matt Greenberg of 1408 and producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, whom we caught up with at the Salt roundtable. We got a few seconds to voice our concerns, to which the producer replied:
Is Pet Semetary is it going to be PG or PG-13 or Hard R?
We have to read it. I can't imagine that in PG-13.
We read there was pressure from the studio to make it for kids.
No.
And that was that. But we caught up with Di Bonaventura later in the day to try and find out a bit more about the "PG" rumors. He revealed that Greenberg was the only screenwriter working on the script and the only one they hired. This means that Kajganich's script has probably fallen to the wayside. Right now there isn't even a first draft finished, but Di Bonaventura is still really excited about the ideas they've been dreaming up:
How do you write what you already know? We're going to try some new things in the first couple drafts and see how it plays.
