What do Batman, Spider-man, Norman Bates, Hannibal Lecter and now Leatherface have in common? Origin stories. The Wrap is reporting today that Tobe Hooper’s indie horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, regarded by many to be the greatest modern horror film ever made, is getting a prequel titled Leatherface.
After Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes production company remade the original film in 2003 and followed it up with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning in 2006, the franchise received a major shot in the arm when Texas Chainsaw 3D made a ton of money in January 2013. Eager to capitalize on that momentum, Millennium Films will finance the Leatherface prequel with Texas Chainsaw‘s Christa Campbell and Lati Grobman executive producing.
There is no director attached to the project at this time but the production has hired Seth M. Sherwood to pen the script. Sherwood has another script in development at Blumhouse Productions and is best known for his short film Fruitcake, he wrote, produced, and co-directed. Leatherface is expected to go into production sometime later this year.
The film is also said to be set in the 1970s, keeping in line with period horror films like The Conjuring and its spin-off Annabelle, due out later this year. As a horror fan I’m finding that I mostly enjoy the mini-trend of taking horror films out of modern day. How about you? Are you interested in a Leatherface origin story and finding out more about his twisted Texas family? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section!
Tobe Hooper’s original classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released in a 4K edition this summer.
I just hope they manage to capture that sense of the surreal that the original had, as well as not going overboard with the gore. So many people seem to think that TCM was some kind of ridiculous gorefest, but there is very little of that. Just that relentless creep factor that sticks with you…for years.
I don’t know how I feel about this… the 2013 movie was alright. The timeline on it was all messed up and didn’t go along with the characters and if anyone watched the extra’s on the DVD they’ll know what I’m talking about -the writer/director (one of the two) said something about it themselves. Anyways, I just hope whoever does this one knows what they’re doing and have actually seen the original movie to get the essence of what the REAL Texas Chainsaw was all about.
That’s the thing with GOOD horror movies anymore, there aren’t any. Everything is nudity and to see who can out-gore the other. To me that’s not scary -no mystery at all. So for the sake of the fans lets hope this “Leatherface” will be a good prequel and maybe a save to us horror movie fans. Or if anything to the somewhat tarnished Texas Chainsaw franchise!