Urban Legend reboot cancelled, director cites bad timing and politics within studio as reasons

Urban Legend is maybe the most 90s slasher there is. Featuring an attractive cast of young actors, including a very young-looking Jared Leto, 1998’s Urban Legend was an entertaining, if by today’s standards, a little dated, slasher that utilised – you guessed it! – urban legends as ways to kill people. 

It was announced in 2020 by Deadline that Screen Gems was developing a reboot. They had attached Colin Minihan, an accomplished horror director with titles such as Grave Encounters and What Keeps You Alive under his belt, as the director. 

However, Minihan confirmed that the project was not going ahead this weekend. Unsurprising since there had not been any news on it for a while, but disappointing nonetheless. 

A combination of really bad timing w/ Covid. Politics inside the studio (shuffling execs) and what I would call terrible choices in what to green light killed the movie. It was going to be the dopest LGBTQ slasher too! Also some funky stuff with TV rights when MGM wanted it. 🥴

— Colin Minihan (@COLIN_MINIHAN) October 30, 2022

Minihan cited bad timing with Covid, the studio shuffling executives around and “terrible choices in what to green light” as the reasons the Urban Legend reboot was cancelled. 

“It was going to be the dopest LGBTQ slasher too!” Minihan tweeted while also mentioning “some funky stuff” regarding TV rights and MGM. 

The news came only days after it was announced that Tobin Bell would return to the world of Saw in Saw 10. Terrifier 2, a shockingly violent sequel to Terrifier, has been raking in the cash all over the globe, and the film has reportedly made people violently sick and even caused a few to faint. 

Halloween Ends premiered a few weeks ago to bad reviews and a lacklustre box office. At the same time, original horror titles such as Smile and Barbarian have attracted a decent number of bums of seats in the US and over here. 

Credit: Paramount Pictures

It seems that audiences are still game for horror, whether franchises or original and there probably would have been a progressive, horror-loving audience for an LGBTQ slasher. Still, perhaps the reboot boom is now done and dusted by Hollywood.