1408 writer takes on Pet Sematary

The new Pet Sematary adap has found itself a writer in 1408 scribe Matthew Greenberg.

Greenberg should be responsible for breathing some fresh undead life into the project, which has been sat at Paramount twiddling its thumbs for quite a while now.

The writer joins producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the man behind Greenberg’s other Stephen King project, 1408 .

Published in 1983, King’s book follows a family who move out into the Maine countryside, and find that their new home is near a pet cemetery that co-exists with an ancient burial ground.

When the husband’s young son is tragically killed in a car accident, the boy returns as a demonic menace.

Mary Lambert directed her version of the story in 1989 (also funded by Paramount), and drew a creepy-as-hell performance out of a mini-sized Miko Hughes. She followed it up with a dreadful franchise-killing sequel starring Edward Furlong.

It's a neat story, but Lambert's film (though creaky) still held the test of time last we watched it. Still, hopefully Greenberg should have some ideas on how to freshen up the tired ancient burial ground idea - he certainly did a fair job with 1408 .

Got a dream director in mind who could save this from being a mess?

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.