Fresh off directing the Pet Sematary prequel, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, Lindsey Anderson Beer already has her eyes on her next project. The screenwriter will now helm a new adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow based on the 1820 short story of the same name by Washington Irving.
Beer recently sat down for an interview with Collider where she talked about her plans for the remake. She confessed that her work on Pet Sematary has equipped her with the skills for the Sleepy Hollow reboot. From what we gathered, she plans to use the same approach she used when developing the Pet Sematary prequel to develop the Sleepy Hollow movie.
She said, “It’s also the same kind of thing where when I was doing Bloodlines, I kept asking myself when I was doing the rewrites, ‘What would I want to know as a Pet Sematary fan? What are the questions left unanswered from the book? What are the parts of the book that haven’t been explored in the movies?'”
Beer’s Pet Sematary: Bloodlines will explore the parts of the Stephen King novel that the original film didn’t touch. Beer plans to do the same thing with the Sleepy Hollow reboot.
She gave us a sneak peek into her mind when she said, “There are so many things like that that aren’t explored in films, and that a lot of the fans don’t know because they haven’t read the book, or haven’t read the book for so much time.”
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is an iconic short story. It’s based on the European legend of the Headless Horseman and centers around a town known for its strange atmosphere and ghosts. The story follows Ichabod Crane, a superstitious schoolteacher, and Brom Bones, the local hero, as they compete for the affection of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel.
Brom plays a series of pranks on the superstitious schoolmaster to get him to give up Katrina. In a set of mysterious and seemingly supernatural events, Ichabod disappears, leaving Katrina to later marry Brom Bones.
Beer’s adaptation, if it happens, will be the fifth attempt. The story was originally brought to the big screen back in 1922 when it was made into a silent film called The Headless Horseman. Then in 1949, Walt Disney produced its own take but in animated form with The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. In 1999, director Tim Burton brought the story to life in a feature film called Sleepy Hollow that starred Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken. The most recent adaptation arrived in 2013 as the crime/horror series also titled Sleepy Hollow.
Beer is visibly excited to be helming the Sleepy Hollow remake. The screenwriter geeked out about the book during the interview and revealed she has been doing her research. She said, “The legends of Sleepy Hollow are so rich, and I started doing the research about the Hudson Valley and true ghost stories, I just, I got addicted to that too.”
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines will arrive next month. The film has been panned by critics and it currently sits on a 23% critics approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It has a 93% approval score from Google Users, though, which either implies that audiences who saw it during its Fantastic Fest premiere last week loved it or that there is high anticipation for it. Either way, we believe it will be better received by audiences when it finally arrives.
Beer’s directorial debut Pet Sematary: Bloodlines will howl its way to Paramount+ on October 6.
