The Lost Boys (1987), the very first vampire movie I saw as a teenager, is now possibly going to get a Ghostbusters style, gender swap reboot, renamed ‘The Lost Girls’. The original film was directed by Joel Schumacher and featured an all star cast, including but not limited to, Corey Feldman, Corey Haim and Kiefer Sutherland.
The title The Lost Boys referenced the Lost Boys of Peter Pan’s fame fulfilling the slogan of the film: Sleep all Day. Party all Night. Never Grow Old. Never Die. It’s fun to be a vampire.
What made this film unique was that it was a mix of stunning cinematography, amazing soundtrack, plot twists, symbolic references to Jim Morrison and psychedelics, horror, comedy and of course for the first time different and new and fresh style of fangs.
So again we are faced with the rising rumors of another film, in an era renowned for the mass of reboots and the franchise which spawned two horrible ‘direct to video’ sequels: Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008) and Lost Boys: The Thirst (2010). Neither of which could live up to the legacy of the original film.
It seems to be that the trend going around Hollywood lately is the gender swap in reboots, as we see with Ghostbusters 2016. Corey Feldman, who starred in the original film as Edgar Frog the vampire hunter, didn’t favour the idea of this style of reboot as he told Movie Web:
“After what happened with Ghostbusters, I would veer to stay away from that idea. I’m not a hater. I encourage all artistic endeavors. And I support anything as long it’s good. I just hate seeing crap, and I hate seeing schlock. And I hate seeing when they take a very valuable and positive franchise and destroy it with something that sounds like a really good idea, but is not. So, to me...I’m a firm believer in giving the fans what we know they want. And give it to them the way they want it. It’s always nice to throw some surprises in there. But I am also not a believer in the reboot. I do not think it is a good idea. I don’t like it. I think when fans want a sequel to their favorite films, they want to see their favorite characters, and their favorite actors playing those characters, and they want to know where those characters are ten years later, or a few years later. And that is the fun of a sequel. That is in my personal opinion as a filmgoer and a movie maker. That doesn’t mean I’m right. Everyone has the right to their opinion. I have to make sure my intentions are pure. Obviously, owning a company called Corey’s Angels, where we work with beautiful talented women, it would only behoove my best interests to move a project like [an All-Female Lost Boys] forward, because I could put a bunch of girls to work. I just don’t know that it makes sense for this franchise. I guess that’s the bottom line. It seems like a stretch. Not only does it seem like a stretch, but it just doesn’t sound like the most appetizing way to move forward. I guess this is a good way to put it for a vampire movie. That sounds like a gimmick. And that doesn’t sound like a good reason to go there. If there was a good story line, that happened to take place in a sorority...I don’t know...But if it were a brilliant script, I would certainly consider it. But I think even as I say it, that it’s not right to even go there.”
There are no firm confirmations from Warner Brothers about this possible reboot, as I heard this rumor in the 1990s of the fabled Lost Girls going around the vampire community. In fact it was to star Britney Spears in the same role of Kiefer Sutherland. I even had the opportunity to meet a script writer in NYC who claimed to have written the Lost Girls script and showed it to me. Now it is 2016 and nothing has come from it. However, let’s see how the Ghostbusters reboot does, perhaps it will inspire this reboot.
Let’s hope, like the reboot of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, it will be something which gets a better response from true fans than the Ghostbusters 2016 reboot!