Nineties tale of teen witches The Craft magics up a remake

Supernatural teen thriller The Craft, about a group of four teenage girls who form a witches’ coven, is to get the remake treatment.

The 1996 film starred Robin Tunney as a new arrival at Catholic school St Benedict’s Academy who befriends a group of girls (Neve Campbell, Fairuza Balk and Rachel True) who are rumoured to be witches. The quartet band together in an effort to increase their collective powers, but soon find themselves overwhelmed by the consequences of their dabblings in black magic.

The new version is being hailed as a victory for female-fronted film-making after fast-rising horror film-maker Leigh Janiak, best known for debut chiller Honeymoon, was hired to direct and co-write the script with her regular collaborator Phil Graziadei. Hollywood came under fire earlier this week from the American Civil Liberties Union for “systemic failure to hire women directors at all levels of the film and television industry”.

The Craft is in many ways an unusual choice for remake treatment as the original film, co-written and directed by the little-known Andrew Fleming, received only middling reviews. But the movie was a sleeper hit at the box office, making $55m worldwide on a $15m budget, according to Variety.

Janiak plans a version focused on female empowerment. The movie is being set up at Sony; the 1996 film was released by the studio’s predecessor, Columbia Pictures.