Sarah Michelle Gellar

Takashi Shimizu-director of the upcoming supernatural film The Grudge, a remake of his own Japanese horror film Ju-On and its sequel-told SCI FI Wire that he worked closely with American screenwriter Stephen Susco to adapt the movie for a U.S. audience. "Working with an American screenwriter for the remake was easy," Shimizu said in an interview through an interpreter. "The writer saw all of the original Japanese versions and loved them, and he even wanted to direct the remake himself for America. He really loved the original movie, so it was really easy for me to work with him."

Shimizu said that Susco added an essential element to the script that he, as a native Japanese filmmaker, could not: the English language. "I can’t write a script in English for American actors, so I really needed another screenwriter to work with," he said. Shimizu added that the changes he made to his original film for the American version, which stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Bill Pullman, were partly based on a need to challenge himself. "The story is basically the same, but being that I’m the same director as the original, I wanted to make the story a little bit different for the American version," he said.

Shimizu added that he endorses the current U.S. trend of remaking Japanese horror movies, such as Gore Verbinski’s The Ring. For now. "I feel that trend is really good, but if it keeps going on, I’m not sure that it will be [a] good thing," he said. "People will depend on more of the movies and not create new ideas. Maybe businesswise, it’s going to be good for a while. But creativitywise, it isn’t necessarily good, because there won’t be any new ideas created. I feel the filmmakers should keep coming up with new ideas and making new movies." The Grudge, which is currently in post-production, is slated for release Oct. 22.