Bloody-Disgusting dropped by the set of THE HOLE this week to speak with iconic director Joe Dante (GREMLINS, THE HOWLING) and check out the production. We’ll have a full report from the set and an extensive interview with Dante in the coming weeks, while right now you can read the latest on a possible Gremlins 3 and the forthcoming Gremlins Blu-rays!
During our chat, we couldn’t resist turning the conversation to GREMLINS, although Dante was pretty resolute that he won’t be involved in a third film. “They did that once, they won’t do it again,” Dante told BD, laughing. “They made that mistake once. Its a moot point, they won’t be coming to me.” (Laughs) “I can tell you that for a fact.”

When asked to elaborate, Dante only grinned, saying, “I don’t have to. See Looney Tunes: Back in Action and I think that will explain it. That was not a pleasant experience.”

Still, Dante believes GREMLINS 3 will happen one of these days, whether he’s involved or not. “I find it hard to believe that they won’t make a GREMLINS 3 because they’re remaking ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING. I mean, they’re gonna remake everything.”

Dante is involved in the current Blu-ray remasters of GREMLINS and GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH and says Amblin is making a diligent effort to see they are done justice. “One thing about Amblin is that they are extremely filmmaker-friendly,” says Dante. “When your movie is put out on any sort of video system, they bring you in and you check it out, they get your opinion. They color correct it, they run things for you. They are very, very good about that. We’ve been involved quite a lot.”

The Blu-ray discs will likely feature the same material from the DVD special editions, although Dante is hoping to include a popular YouTube fan film. “I think its the same edition. I did two commentaries for GREMLINS 1. I don’t have any more commentary. I’ve been trying to get this GREMLINS short done by the guy in Belgium, which he did in his basement. He built his own Gremlins and shot them on green screen going into other Warner Bros. movies. This is on YouTube. It’s really clever, they guy is really talented. I’ve been trying to get Warner’s to put this thing as an extra on the disc, but I think it may be complicated by the fact that one scene is from the movie Indiana Jones, which they don’t own. And that may be what’s killing the deal. I really think this guy’s talented and people [should] discover him, because he should do GREMLINS 3.”

The Blu-Ray version of GREMLINS has been temporarily delayed, but hopefully that will mean a better version at the end of the day. “I’ve seen the transfer,” says Dante. “We did them over. In fact, I think GREMLINS 1 was supposed to come out this summer because it’s the 25th anniversary, but they didn’t make the date because they said, `We can do better than this, we can make it look better,’ and its worth making it look better, so they’re still working on it.”

Watch this spot for our THE HOLE set report and interviews soon!