It is funny when things like these happen. The first time we saw the outer space being without a form on the big screen was with The Blob (1958), directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. and starring Steve McQueen. 30 years later, the Chuck Russell remake appeared with The Blob (1988), starring Shawnee Smith and Kevin Dillon. The 30 years gap has happened again, and if this information is true, in 2018 we will have the new remake of The Blob.
This new version of the original black and white alien invasion film has been on the table of producers for a long time. At some points, Samuel L. Jackson was going to be the biggest attraction of the film. Now we have the official confirmation that the movie will be directed by Simon West and starred by Halle Berry. Samuel L. Jackson before he was out of the film was supposed to be playing a biochemistry professor attempting to thwart the other-worldly predator discovered deep within the earth. It is unknown if he might still come back to play this role as a cameo or a short appearance, or if this character will now swap genders and land on Halle Berry. Because so far more information about the cast or the script writing credits are unavailable.
Director Simon West is one of the most interesting authors of action movies nowadays. He started his carreer being the responsable of Con Air (1997), an awful action stravaganza with a big star cast that, somehow, managed to take a little place in the heart of various generation of movie goers. Recently he has signed some of the most interesting titles of the guns and explosions genre, like The Mechanic (2011), The Expendables 2 (2012), Stolen (2012) or Wild Card (2015), all of them starring my beloved Jason Statham. The horror genre is yet something he haven’t explored much, besides the modest When a Stranger Calls (2006), so it is to expect this new The Blob movie will have more of an action film than a horror science fiction. Still, the mix of all three genres sounds very interesting.
On the other side, Halle Berry was an actress with a discrete carreer getting some small supporting roles in kind of successful movies until she surprisely won the Oscar for her work in Monster’s Ball (2001). But even then, her trajectory kind of stayed the same. She is probably most recognizable for big audience for playing the mutant Storm in the 2000s film series of the X-Men franchise, alongside with staring some small uninteresting films like Dark Tide (2012), The Call (2013) or the recent Kidnap (2017) (opening this summer, probably straight to video). Still, sadly many people will remember her for starring some of the most awful titles of the last decades, Gothika (2003) and Catwoman (2004). Very bad choices killed the carreer of an actress with still a good amount of potential.
Dreaming time. Can you imagine a high octane gory version of The Blow with Halle Berry, Samuel L. Jackson and Jason Statham sharing the screen? For sure, that would be a great thing to witness. And why shouldn’t it be possible? After all, director Simon West has proved to have an excelent chemestry with Jason Statham and, let’s be honest, Samuel L. Jackson is everywhere. So, why not? Meanwhile, let’s watch the trailer for The Blob (1988).
