June 30th, 2014 
Tyler Hanan 
Because the English-language J-horror remakes won’t end until we run out of J-horror hits to remake – and likely not even then – we can now look forward to an Audition starring white people.
As reported by Deadline, Mario Kassar is putting together an adaptation of the notorious 1997 novel (and not an adaptation of the unduplicable Takashi Miike adaptation). Kasar was, most notably, executive producer of Terminator, Rambo, and Basic Instinct. Richard Gray will direct, with his most notable credit being an as-yet-unreleased Justin Long thriller.
For the uninitiated, Audition is about a lonely widower whose friend convinces him to put on a staged audition process for television to find his next girlfriend. She is “not who she appears to be at all,” and gory hijinks ensue. Takashi Miike hijinks ensue, and who can possibly claim to properly capture the, er, magic of Takashi Miike?
Our lonely widower is now named Sam Davis (ugh), and the ballerina he falls for is Evie Lawrence (slightly less ugh). There is material to be mined here, should Gray be adapting only from the novel, as promised, and the evolution of effects in the past fifteen years alone will make for a drastically different film. We can’t help but worry, though, burned by past horror remakes as we are. At least Michael Bay isn’t producing this one.
For a taste of Miike’s take, check out the trailer for the original adaptation below.
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Audition has stayed with me for sooooo long. I haven’t read the book so I’m slightly more interested in this now knowing that it’s not an adaptation of Miike’s adaptation.