“The Stepfather” gets a facelift!

Variety reports that NIP/TUCK star Dylan Walsh will headline Screen Gems’ remake of the 1987 chiller THE STEPFATHER. It was loosely based on the real-life case of family annihilator John List, who murdered his wife, mother, and three stepchildren in their suburban New Jersey home in 1971. The original film starred LOST’s Terry O’Quinn as Jerry Blake, a serial killer who marries into established families, tries to mold them to his ideas of perfection, and if they resist, murders them and moves on to the next potentially “ideal” family. Shelly Hack (CHARLIE’S ANGELS) and Jill Schoelen (POPCORN) co-starred, and two sequels were spawned — although O’Quinn bowed out after Part II. Sela Ward (THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW) will play the new object of Walsh’s affection, while Penn Badgely (JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE) plays a distaff version of Schoelen’s stepchild. Filming begins next Spring, with Nelson McCormick directing from a script by J.S. Cardone. This is the pair’s second horror retread for Screen Gems, having just completed a PROM NIGHT remake that opens April 11, 2008.

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