Night of the Comet is a vastly underrated horror-comedy from the ’80s, but it will soon get some of the recognition it deserves thanks to a new remake. The updated version was just announced in October, and things are moving along quickly as the film’s screenwriter has announced that she’s already completed the script.
The writer of the reboot, Roxanne Benjamin, spoke to Movie Web at SXSW and revealed that she has recently turned in the completed screenplay for the film. “I actually turned it in already. It’s already done,” Benjamin said. “I like making girl buddy movies. I’m really drawn to female relationships and the complexity of female relationships, and how they change, and how their interactions can be both. We’re, like, terrible to each other and then we’re loving to each other at the same time. I don’t know. It’s very complex, female relationships throughout your life. So that’s just fascinating to me, in terms of how that works within a horror or genre setting, and I don’t feel like we get that much out of our genre.”
1984’s Night of the Comet focused on two sisters who survive a comet-induced apocalypse and have to contend with the zombies that now roam the Earth, and it sounds like Benjamin’s version will stay true to the spirit of the original. “That relationship in a scenario of the end of the world is fascinating to me,” Benjamin said. “And I love the movie, the first movie. There [are] so many great one-liners in that movie. The visuals are amazing and for a B horror movie of the time, I’m always shocked when people don’t know about it or haven’t heard of it. It’s very confusing to me because it’s like you said you’d never heard of Weekend at Bernie’s or something. I mean, most people have heard of that, right? It’s not just me. I’m very excited about the prospect of that becoming a real thing.”
Night of the Comet, which is being produced by Orion Pictures, does not yet have a director attached, but Benjamin — who wrote and directed the upcoming thriller Boy at Brighton Rock — is hoping the studio taps her to fill the role. “That’s the hope. I mean, I would love to direct it,” she revealed. “I love that movie. And I wrote it in code so if they want the code, they’ll have to let me direct it.”
Orion has been leaning hard into nostalgia lately, with a Child’s Play reboot and a Bill & Ted sequel among their upcoming projects. Night of the Comet certainly fits right in with that company, and while there’s no release date yet, here’s hoping it hits theaters sometime before the end of the world.
