Welcome back to “Horror Happenings!” I hope the New Year is treating you well. Today we’re on rumor patrol as Sam Rockwell gives a bit of insight into what to expect from the upcoming Sam Raimi-produced Poltergeist remake and Platinum Dunes producer Brad Fuller tells fans what not to expect from The Purge 3. Let’s get to it!

Sam Rockwell Talks Poltergeist Remake, Confirms It’s 3D and Protagonist Is A Child

Up until now, not a lot has been known about the Sam Raimi produced remake of the Tobe Hooper/ Steven Spielberg classic Poltergeist due out later this summer. We do know that Sam Rockwell is a part of the cast and the actor recently spoke a bit about the upcoming film confirming that it will be in 3D in addition to shedding some light on what the movie will actually be about. Rockwell explained, “The 10-year-old boy is really the protagonist this time. JoBeth Williams was the protagonist for the most part in the first one and now the kid, it’s really through his point-of-view. So it’s more of a kids’ movie so I don’t know if it’s gonna be like rated-R scary.” Rockwell continued saying, “It’s not like Conjuring type of scary. You know, it’s a different kind of movie. It’s more of an adventure. It’s essentially a child abduction film when you come down to it. I mean, the original Poltergeist is too.”

Naturally, after this article was published I saw a thousand headlines declaring “Poltergeist Remake A KIDS MOVIE?!?!” but I’m not so quick to freak out over Rockwell’s statement. First of all, anyone who has seen Poltergeist director Gil Kenan’s animated feature Monster House knows that just because a movie has kids as the protagonist doesn’t mean it can’t be dark, scary, mature or heartfelt and secondly, I would argue that there is no one who could better capture that 80s Spielberg-era atmosphere than him. I’ve definitely been fooled before but I’m choosing to hold out hope that this one could be pretty neat. Your thoughts?

Producer Brad Fuller Addresses The Purge 3 Rumor Mill

The Purge franchise has become one of the most popular low-budget genre franchises of the last 20 years. While I don’t hate the first one like a lot of people do, I also was slightly disappointed that The Purge: Anarchy went in more of an action/ exploitation route and in less of a political horror direction. I had been hoping that the follow up to Anarchy would be a completely different story altogether but the response to the characters played by Michael K. Williams and Frank Grillo seem to be leading most to believe that perhaps the next Purge movie will be a continuation of their story.

One rumor that Platinum Dunes producer Brad Fuller put to rest this week was that the next film in the series would be a prequel. Fuller told Collider, “I read that too about the first night of The Purge [being the premise for the third film]. We don’t know anything about that. I read that and I haven’t heard that so I’m not sure what that was. The material that we’re considering right now is not the first night of The Purge.”

So what would the story be about? It’s not certain but many have speculated that Frank Grillo’s character would return, an idea he confirmed to us months ago saying, “[T]here’s already been talks about what do we want to do with the third one. Where do we go with the third one… There’s an interesting concept with the revolution of it all with Michael K. Williams and [his character] Carmelo and the resistance…”

Fuller wasn’t quick to announce anything during his recent interview though he did express his admiration for Grillo saying, “Listen, we loved working with him and we thought that he was so good in that role and, you know, if it works to have him back we would really be very excited about that.”

The Purge 3 will crash into theaters on July 1, 2016 with series creator/ writer/ director James DeMonaco confirmed to return to write and direct. What do you think, horror fans? Do you want to see more from Williams and Grillo’s characters? Where would you like to see the franchise go next? Tell us in the comments!