Last fall, Blumhouse head Jason Blum caught a sizable amount of flack for an interview in which he asserted that the reason he didn’t hire female directors for his horror films was because there were “not a lot of female directors period.” He was wrong, as people were quick to point out the high number of female filmmakers who would love one of his patented $5 million budgets to make something scary. Blum was quick to apologize and promised to make amends.
And so he has. One of Blumhouse’s next big projects is a remake of The Craft, the beloved 1996 teen drama-horror about four high school girls who take up witchcraft. To helm it, as per Entertainment Weekly, Blum has hired Zoe Lister-Jones.
Lister-Jones, like many of the names people floated Blum’s way after his initial inciting comments, is already well-established in the industry — having made a name as a writer, a writer-director, and an actress. She can currently be seen as a regular on CBS’ Life in Pieces with Colin Hanks. Her produced scripts include 2012’s Lola Versus, starring Greta Gerwig, and Band Aid, which she also directed and co-starred in with Fred Armisen and Adam Pally.
The original The Craft, made by Andrew Fleming (of Dick fame), starred Neve Campbell, Fairuza Balk, Rachel True, and Robin Tunney as four teen outcasts who join together in Wiccan mania. Their pact eventually leads to in-fighting. Presumably, one of the movie’s many fans was Lister-Jones, who took to Instagram after the news broke, writing “Dreams. Coming. True.”
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
