EXCLUSIVE
Another “Harry Potter” movie is in the works.
No, it’s not a Warner Bros. picture. And it's not the Hogwarts guy -- though it is a Harry Potter who uses magic powers to fight evil and save the world.
It's a remake of the 1986 cult hit "Troll," that featured Harry Potter Jr. and Harry Potter Sr. as lead characters.
The remake will include the original characters, the filmmakers' legal consultant, Thomas Girardi, has confirmed to TheWrap. John Carl Buechler, who directed the original, will direct again, as well as produce.
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The original, which made $5.4 million at the box office -- 11 years before J.K. Rowling published her first novel about that other Harry Potter -- starred Noah Hathaway (pictured), fresh off “Never Ending Story,” as a character named Harry Potter Jr. Michael Moriarty played his dad.
“We’ve got the producer," Girardi said of the remake. And though he wouldn't name them, he said, "We’ve got two big-time actor guys – one woman, one guy. Everyone has signed on the dotted line.”
As for the Potter characters: “They certainly do have the right to make their own picture,” Girardi told TheWrap. “And their own picture was ‘Troll’ and Harry Potter Jr.”
Warner Bros., which owns the rights to Rowling's Potter, had no immediate comment.
“Troll” was about, as you’d expect, an evil troll, who uses an emerald ring to take possession of little Wendy Potter. Her brother -- yes, Harry – recognizes that something is amiss.
The troll, often in the form of Wendy, roams from apartment to apartment, transforming people. Harry must save the world.
Oddly, the mostly forgotten movie also featured Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sonny Bono, June Lockhart and Gary Sandy.
So why did they wait so long to capitalize on the Potter name?
The movie’s owner had a family situation which kept him occupied, Girardi said, adding that his legal analysis has showed the film -- and the "Harry Potter Jr." name, are fair game.
The producer of “Troll,” Albert Band, died in 2002. The writer, Ed Naha, went on to write 1989’s “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.”
