EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures continues to tap into its classic monsters vault. The studio has acquired a pitch for a revamp of 1956 horror film The Mole People pitched by Chris Winterbauer, who’ll write the script.
In the new take, a woman travels to a town veiled in a conspiracy to rescue her grandchildren from their father. To do this, she must fight through hell in the underground tunnels where the Mole People reside. In the 1956 original, archaeologists stumble into the underground lair of a race of darkness-dwellers who can see in low light and have no pigmentation after being out of the light for so long. The high priest who rules the small pocket of mole people is threatened by the newcomers and wants them dead.
While not on the popularity level of, say, the upcoming April 14 Uni release Renfield – that Chris McKay-directed drama stars Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as his weary title henchman – The Mole People certainly has a cool underground world worth excavating.
The pic will be produced by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and Dave Alpert at Skybound. Universal execs Holly Goline, Jay Polidoro and Matt Reilly are overseeing for the studio.
WME reps Winterbauer.
‘The Mole People’ poster from 1956
LMPC via Getty Images