At SXSW 2005 I was invited to have dinner with a few new friends and filmmakers -- one of whom was the achingly adorable Laura Breckenridge, who was there to support her movie Southern Belles (which is now on DVD and quite charming). Since then the doe-eyed doll has played small parts in flicks like Havoc and Loving Annabelle, but it was her work on WB's TV series Related that (I thought) offered her the best chance at a wider audience. And then the show was cancelled.

But now Ms. Breckenridge has signed on to star in a horror movie, and that makes me very happy indeed. One of my favorite "up & coming" actresses working in my favorite genre: The spoooooky one! Yep, according to THR, Laura and a bunch of other attractive young people (Katheryn Winnick, Jessica Lucas, Keir O'Donnell and Tad Hilgenbrick) have signed up for Amusement, a horror movie penned by Jake Wade Wall (aka the guy who has the When a Stranger Calls remake to atone for -- and who also wrote the impending Hitcher remake) that focuses on three young women (and two boyfriends) who must contend with a serial killer from their childhood. The director of Amusement will be John Simpson, he of the under-the-radar (and underrated) thriller Freeze Frame.

According to the IMDb, it looks like the intimidating character actor Kevin Gage is also on board, and I can only assume he'll be playing the part of "serial killer." Production on Picturehouse's Amusement is about to get underway in Budapest.

The Mayhem Project, a small, genre-oriented production company that was founded last year, has hired a director for its first film. Back in October, Mayhem announced that its first two projects would be horror films: Sanctuary (an original story) and Clock Tower, which is based on a video game. Already in line to write the latter was Jake Wade Wall, the scribe who, among other things, penned the paint-by-numbers (and court-bound) remake of When a Stranger Calls, but the studio just recently hired a director. According to reports in the trades this week, Chilean horror prodigy Jorge Olguín has been signed to helm the film which, since he was discovered and is currently having a feature produced by the great Guillermo del Toro, is exciting news indeed for fans of the Clock Tower franchise.

The movie, which "involves a young woman who receives a disturbing phone call from her estranged mother warning her not to come home," is apparently based on the best-selling third installment in the Clock Tower series, and is expected to go into production sometime this fall. Gamers can help me out here, but my understanding is that this game is much less about killing bad guys and much more about hiding and escaping from them than most scary games these days, so maybe it'll be something different, for once.

Whenever a new horror remake begins production, I get this huge dose of inner turmoil that's actually quite sad and geeky. On one hand ... why freakin' remake The Hitcher??? On the other ... it could be good! Plus, truth be told, if a producer came to me and said "Go on, here's a check. Remake a horror flick," you can bet your gills that "Scott Weinberg's Humanoids from the Deep" would be hitting your multiplex next summer. So there's that ...

Anyway, through the magic of a Rogue Pictures press release, we now have the pretty-full skinny on what to expect from Platinum Dunes' re-imaginivisadaptaion of Robert Harmon & Eric Red's The Hitcher. Relative newcomer Zachary Knighton* will be stepping into the C. Thomas Howell role, joining Sophia Bush (in the Jennifer Jason Leigh role, only this time she's a college kid and not a waitress) and Sean Boromir Bean in the villainous role made infamous by the feral Rutger Hauer.

Screenplay by Eric Bernt (Highlander: Endgame) & Jake Wade Wall (When a Stranger Calls); director Dave Meyers is a first-timer, unless you count the 1999 flick Foolish, which Mr. Meyers would probably prefer you didn't.

Plus there have been some rumors that Hauer himself would make an appearance somewhere in the flick, which might be fun. Or it might not. Ah yeah, the *asterisk* ... Zachary Knighton is someone you might recognize from TV's Life on a Stick, Related, or Love, Inc. Or you might not.

You wouldn't have expected the rather terrible remake When a Stranger Calls to kick-start too many careers, but don't mention that to screenwriter Jake Wade Wall, a youthful scribe whose current to-do list includes no less than three more remakes and/or sequels.

According to a conversation Mr. Wall had with Moviehole, he's already hard at work on A) a ninth sequel to Halloween, B) a remake of the classic Rutger Hauer flick The Hitcher, and C) a sequel to his Stranger remake. As far as something unique is concerned, Jake's pretty pumped about his Amusement project, which he deems "an original" ... right before it's described as "similar in set-up to Creepshow."

Frankly I'm always torn on the issue of Horror Remakes, because for every one that works (The Fly, Willard, The Thing, The Hills Have Eyes, Dawn of the Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), there are (House on Haunted Hill) plenty (Psycho) more (House of Wax) that (Village of the Damned) pretty (13 Ghosts) much (The Amityville Horror) stink (The Fog) on (The Haunting) ice. And yes, Simon West's When a Stranger Calls falls into the latter group, even if Jake Wade Wall nailed the original flick right on the head when he said "C’mon, It was really only the first ten minutes of the original, that was scary. The rest was terrible."

Here's hoping JWW finds enough success to escape from the remake/sequel basement. Heck, James Gunn followed up his Dawn of the Dead remake with Slither, so there's certainly hope for Jake, too. Meanwhile, the remake parade continues unabated: Keep your eyes peeled for new versions of The Omen, The Wicker Man, Black Christmas, and Piranha.