The new remake for the late 1980s classic Pet Sematary (1989), currently in pre-production, is starting to fill up the main cast. While Jason Clarke was chosen to be playing the patriarch of the Creed family, now it’s been announced that John Lithgow will be playing Jud Crandall. Perhaps one of the few people who could have a slim chance to make forget the iconic performance that Fred Gwynne did in the original movie.
John Lithgow is a pretty familiar face specially thanks to the science fiction comedy TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996–2001), where he played the eccentric head of the family of a group of aliens outcasted on Earth and that were forced to take the appearance and roles of a regular American family –with mildly funny results–. The show also served as a platform for back-then child star Joseph Gordon-Levitt to become popular enough prior to his big step forward to the big screen.
But although John Lithgow is normally related to funny characters, sometimes confused as some kind of second-class American-version of John Cleese, the actor has a big extensive career in movies, including two Oscar nominations for his supporting roles in The World According to Garp (1982) and Terms of Endearment (1983). In the last years he has taken part in far from comedy roles in movies like Interstellar (2014), The Homesman (2014), Miss Sloane (2016), or Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), so surely his presence in Pet Sematary (2019) can bring the right dose of drama the plot needs, but also some nice sympathetic moments Lithgow masters so much.
This new adaptation of the popular Stephen King novel will be shot from a screenplay written by Jeff Buhler, David Kajganich, responsible for the screenplay of the long awaiting Suspiria (2018) new version, and veteran Matt Greenberg, with writing credits on his back in other Stephen King-based adaptations like Mercy (2014), 1408 (2007) or Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995).
Pet Sematary (2019) will be directed by the tandem formed by filmmakers Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, responsible of the movies Absence (2009), Starry Eyes (2014) and the segment “Valentine’s Day” in Holidays (2016). The movie produced by Alphaville Films and Paramount Pictures, and is set to open in theaters in the UK and the USA the 19th of April, 2019.
