Let Me In, the American remake of the Swedish vampire flick Let the Right One In, starts production today, transporting the coming-of-age tale from the cold and blustery Stockholm, Sweden to the dry and hot Albuquerque, New Mexico. Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) is returning to the source material for Let the Right One In, the Swedish novel of the same name by author John Ajvide Lindqvist, to help inspire the story about a young boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee from The Road) who befriends a mysterious new girl in town (Chloe Moretz from the upcoming Kick-Ass), who happens to be a vampire.
With Richard Jenkins already cast as Moretz's caretaker, the new cast additions announced are Elias Koteas as the policeman, Cara Buono (The Sopranos) as Smit McPhee's mother, and Sasha Barrese (The Hangover) as Virginia, the character who survives a vampire attack in the Swedish original.
Reeves intends to pay homage to the Swedish version in Let Me In, but wants to take the story in his own direction. "This project is very personal to Matt as it is to the many passionate fans of the original story," said producer Simon Oakes. "The brilliance of that story deserves to be seen by audiences on a wide scale and we are excited that the pieces are in place to make that a reality."
When foreign horror movies do well critically, they're often remade in America, but time will tell if Let Me In will work as well as The Ring, or become a debacle like Quarantine, which couldn't do justice to the Spanish zombie movie [Rec] it was based on.
Shooting on Let Me In will start in Albuquerque and travel to various parts of New Mexico. With a projected end for the shoot sometime in January, we expect to see its original release date of January 15, 2010 pushed back.