We're getting a remake of 'Arachnophobia' - here's what we know so far

Spiders are good and we should look after them - they kill flies, and flies are crap idiots - so never murder a spider. Like, if you see a Black Widow or something, then you should probably kill that - because it could kill you first - but on the whole, leave those spiders alone, teacher. And besides, living over here in the boring UK, chances are you’re never going to get anywhere near a spider that’s actually going to hurt you.

Still, people the world over are scared of them, regardless, which is why the 1990 film Arachnophobia, which starred Jeff Daniels and John Goodman, was a hit - loads of scary spiders all killing people, it’s a recipe for success. And you know what they say about success! Repeat it forever and ever! Lightning does strike twice!

So they’re obviously hoping for a similar win with the old ‘remake’ treatment, by ‘remaking’ the film. Spielberg, whose production company Amblin Entertainment produced the original, will again be involved, this time teaming up with James Wan’s Atomic Monster to produce the remake.

As it stands, it doesn’t look like Wan or Spielberg will direct, but original director Frank Marshall is on board as executive producer - so a few key bods close to the first film are making sure nobody hurts their baby.

There’s no release date yet, or any other casting announcements, so when we said “here’s what we know so far”, we might as well have said “and we know almost nothing about it”. Saying that, in case you felt you may have been short-changed by the brevity of this news story, here’s a brilliant fact from the Arachnophobia Wikipedia page:

“To create the sound effects of spiders being stepped on or squished, Foley artists stepped on mustard packs or squashed potato chips.”

They had originally squashed hundreds of spiders but someone forgot to turn the microphone on so they had to use mustard once they’d run out. Don’t quote us on that though.

More news on the remake as we get our eight legs on it.

(Images: Buena Vista)