John Hughes' 'Weird Science' to get remake at Universal

In 1985 movie Weird Science, Gary Wallace and Wyatt Donnelly took some inspiration from Frankenstein to reanimate the dead to create their own not-so-monstrous perfect bombshell of a woman. Now Universal is reanimating Weird Science.

Universal is developing a remake of the sci-fi comedy with Joel Silver, who produced the original, EW has confirmed. Deadline first reported the news. The 1985 original, written and directed by the late beloved filmmaker John Hughes, starred Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Kelly LeBrock, Bill Paxton, and Robert Downey Jr.

The remake is expected to be edgier than the original, which chronicled the hijinks that ensue when two high school nerds create a “perfect” woman with their computer. That potentially R-rated edge shouldn’t be too hard to achieve with the script in the hands of Michael Bacall, who is in negotiations to write the screenplay. Bacall scripted party flick Project X and adapted another project with origins in the ’80s, 21 Jump Street, starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, for the big screen.

If all goes as planned with the project, it will be the first English-language feature remake of a Hughes-directed film (1989’s Uncle Buck got an Indian version in 1991), though rumors of remakes of his movies have bounced around the web before, and Weird Science did get the TV treatment with a mid-’90s series on USA Network.

Read more:

John Hughes: We were all in his club — a tribute by Owen Gleiberman

John Hughes remembered: Stars from ‘Bueller,’ ‘Pretty in Pink,’ and more pay tribute

Ultimate ’80s Teen Movie Villains: ‘Weird Science,’ ‘Heathers,’ and more — GALLERY