Simon West's 'The Blob' Is a More 'Sophisticated' Monster

Not long ago, it was announced that Con Air director Simon West is working on a remake of The Blob, the 1958 horror classic which was remade in 1988. Since that announcement, we haven’t heard much (or anything) about West’s plans for the remake or if it’s actually still happening. The Blob is still very much happening, and West has opened up about his new project, revealing some details about the tone and how he’s approaching the iconic monster.

In an interview with Den of Geek, West talked about how he’s aiming for a film that’s more sci-fi than horror, noting that the original films were much smaller, “niche genre” movies. He also explains how his version of the creature will be different, comparing it to the threats in Alien, Predator and Jurassic Park:

Yeah, it’s definitely going to be on a much bigger canvas than the originals, which were much more small, niche genre horror movies. My version of The Blob’s going to be more sci-fi….The blob itself will be more sophisticated, more along the lines of Alien and Predator and things like that – much more science-based, the way Jurassic Park made you believe you could bring back dinosaurs with a bit of DNA from a mosquito. This will be much more explained on where the blob comes from and how it works. It’ll be a much more sophisticated creature – because it is a monster movie rather than a horror in that sense.

The Jurassic Park comparison is particularly intriguing—if West can come up with something as inventive and even momentarily believable as that film’s dino DNA concept to explain the origins of his creature, he might just have something here.

But the blob itself was scary not just because it consumed everything in sight, or because it was seemingly unstoppable, but because we had no idea what it actually was or where it really came from. Over-explaining the origins or reasons for a movie monster/killer often lessens their impact, so it’s a real fine line between giving us a novel reason for the creature’s existence and delivering an exposition dump that makes the monster seem a little basic.

The first Blob film hit theaters in 1958 and served as the big screen debut for a young Steve McQueen. A remake was released 30 years later, in 1988, starring Kevin Dillon and Shawnee Smith. There was also the lesser-known, bizarre and hilarious sequel, Son of Blob, in 1972—directed by and based on an idea from former I Dream of Jeannie star Larry Hagman (a project he impulsively committed to while in a jacuzzi, during his LSD days).

As of now, we have no other details or casting info on West’s remake of The Blob, though it appears to be tentatively scheduled for a 2016 release.