Magic, a 1978 horror film about an evil puppet starring beloved actor Anthony Hopkins, is going to be remade by legendary director Sam Raimi according to producer Roy Lee. Lee recently appeared on the podcast Post Mortem with Mick Garris and broke the news, saying “I’ve only worked with [Sam Raimi] as a producer on films… actually… the first time I’m gonna work with him as a director is on a remake of Magic. Which is something that we’re working on now. The Anthony Hopkins movie.
Lee then added "[Sam] loved the original movie and the book written by William Goldman." The original film is directed by Richard Attenborough from a script by Goldman, which was based on his own novel. The cult film starred Hopkins and Ann-Margret and told the story of a ventriloquist whose murderous dummy tries to destroy his love life.
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY Raimi seems like perhaps the most fitting person to direct a reimagining of the wacky horror flick that is 1978's Magic. Raimi began his career directing the original The Evil Dead and its sequel Evil Dead II, before helming other memorable genre fare like Darkman and Evil Dead-sequel Army of Darkness. Raimi became even more well-known when he directed 2002's Spider-Man, along with its two sequels.
A writer for the upcoming remake of Magic has not yet been announced, nor have any names of potentially attached actors. In the meantime watch the original trailer below:
It may be me, but that puppet a ringer for Wes Bentley.
Slappy from Goosebumps