MGM planning to reboot Child's Play franchise this year

MGM is currently rebooting a ton of its old properties, including RoboCop , Poltergeist and Mr Mom .

Don Mancini, the writer of all the previous Chucky movies, has written the script, which had been held up so far due to a now-resolved rights issue between MGM and Universal (the latter holding sequel rights).

Production is scheduled to begin later this year, with Brad Dourif returning to voice Chucky.

The aim is to make the movie less funny and more scary, with Mancini telling MovieWeb in a previous interview: "That's really our goal with this next movie, bottom-line, was to make it scary again.

"After having, I think, rather successfully mined the horror-comedy aspects of this concept over the course of Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky , the fans are really telling us that they want it to be scary again.

"Doing the remake just provides us with a really good opportunity to bring it home, so to speak."

It all sounds a little pointless, doesn't it? What with all the reboots flying around at the moment, it seems strange to refresh a series with the same talent that has been involved in the five earlier installments.

Could it prove to be a worthwhile venture, or will we just end up with a lazy cash-in?

The original Child's Play saw a serial killer's soul trapped inside a kids' doll. The red-headed scamp would return for four sequels, Part II , Part III , Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky .

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.