MGM and Orion Pictures' reboot of Child's Play, featuring an updated high-tech Chucky, gets a summer 2019 release date as well as a new poster. An unlikely hit upon its release in 1988, the original Child's Play brought a killer doll spin to the slasher movie genre, introducing audiences to the now-iconic Chucky, a kid's toy with the soul of a serial killer.
Sequels ensued after the success of Child's Play, the last coming with 2017's Cult of Chucky. The original movie was more-or-less a straight-forward thriller, but subsequent installments in the franchise would take things in a more outrageous and at times even satiric direction. Now, Orion Pictures and MGM are seeking to reboot Child's Play with a redesigned Chucky, and Aubrey Plaza and Brian Tyree Henry heading up the cast.
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Production recently kicked off on the new Child's Play, and now Orion has announced a release date for the reboot. Fans of killer-doll mayhem should mark their calendars, as Chucky returns to screens on June 21st, 2019. Interestingly, this release date will put the movie in direct competition with another horror remake in Sony's The Grudge. Two such films coming out the same weekend - assuming release dates don't move before then - is just more proof of how big horror movies are becoming as blockbuster season players. In addition to the release date, the studio also revealed new poster art. See the poster below:
"More than a toy, he's your best friend," is obviously a reference to the original Child's Play "Good Guy" doll, whose packaging included the tagline "He wants you for a best friend." In another nod to the original Child's Play, the new "Good Guy" doll is named "Buddi," an homage to the real-life "My Buddy" doll that served as inspiration for the look of Chucky.
The new movie's brief official synopsis reads, "Child’s Play follows a mother who gives her son a toy doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature." That is basically the exact synopsis of the original Child's Play, so fans can look forward to a reboot that sticks pretty close to the source material at least in terms of story. As for Chucky himself, it's already been revealed that the new doll will be updated for our more technologically sophisticated times, and indeed a close look at the box in the above poster reveals nods to this fact as well. Chucky will also get a new origin story that doesn't involve a serial killer taking possession of the doll, but instead sees a Chinese factory worker re-programming the high-tech toy to have no limitations.
It remains to be seen whether fans will embrace the new take on Chucky, but it's perhaps worth noting that original Child's Play creator Don Mancini has already indicated that he's not a fan. Of course, Mancini continues to develop his own Child's Play TV series with original Chucky voice actor Brad Dourif on board, so he has reason to be competitive.
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Source: Orion Pictures
