I don’t claim to be a big fan of musicals, but I do love 1986’s Little Shop of Horrors. It’s one of my desert island movies, and when I heard they were trying to remake it a few years ago, I had several tiny little heart attacks. But we were saved from what would have probably been an ok movie, and we have lockdowns to thank for that.
It’s true. I remember it like it was yesterday. There was a time, not long ago, when Warner Bros. was putting together a very different version of Little Shop of Horrors. Looking back at what almost happened, maybe the movie’s long production limbo was a blessing in disguise. Especially with consistent rumors that Channing Tatum was eyeing a role. Nothing against the Chanimal, I just don’t really want him near my beloved Little Shop of Horrors.
The planned remake had Greg Berlanti (best known for co-creating The Arrowverse) attached to direct, with Matthew Robinson (the guy who scribbled out Monster Trucks) writing the screenplay. By early 2020, the project had assembled a very hipster friendly cast. Taron Egerton was in talks to play Seymour, Scarlett Johansson was being eyed for Audrey, Billy Porter had signed on to voice Audrey II, and Chris Evans was in negotiations to play the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello, DDS, the role made famous by Steve Martin in the 1986 movie.
It’s believed Channing Tatum was originally eyeing Orin Scrivello before Captain America decided it would be the right move for his second life as a character actor. It looked like this was really going to happen, even if it didn’t make sense to most fans of the original.
Then the world stopped. I don’t really need to go into any of that. We all lived through it. And the one good thing that may have come out of this period, is that we were spared from this remake.
Johansson later confirmed that the pandemic did derail her plans for Little Shop of Horrors with Berlanti, and the movie eventually slipped into indefinite limbo. By September 2022, Egerton admitted that the remake had been scrapped.
While I keep bringing up Channing Tatum, he was never actually announced as part of the Little Shop of Horrors cast, despite his name becoming tangled up with Johansson and Berlanti after the fact. In 2022, Berlanti was hired to direct Apple’s Project Artemis, with Johansson starring and Tatum replacing Chris Evans as her co-star. That movie eventually became Fly Me to the Moon.
In other words, the same director who had been developing a Little Shop of Horrors musical with Johansson eventually directed Johansson and Tatum together in an entirely different movie. Fly Me to the Moon is the drool that fell off Twoey’s lips. Remember that Apple+ movie? No? Well, I do. And like I said before, it was just ok.
While there was never a legitimate Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson Little Shop of Horrors casting announcement, the Hollywood version of this story is almost too weird to ignore. The abandoned musical already had Johansson and Evans attached to the project, then Evans eventually exited Project Artemis, Tatum stepped in, and Berlanti ended up directing the two stars together anyway. Hollywood apparently found another route to get them into the same movie, for better or worse.
The bigger question is whether we actually missed out on something good by losing the Little Shop remake. I highly doubt it. But I’m no Nostradamus.
Little Shop of Horrors is a particularly difficult movie to remake because the 1986 version isn’t simply remembered as another disposable ’80s flick. Frank Oz’s adaptation took Roger Corman’s 1960 horror comedy and the Howard Ashman and Alan Menken stage musical and turned it into something that has become almost impossible to separate from its original cast. Rick Moranis is Seymour. Ellen Greene is Audrey. Steve Martin is Orin. Even Audrey II’s voice, supplied by Levi Stubbs, is deeply tied to the movie’s identity.
And then there is that insane puppet work for Towey. The man-eating plant was brought to life using complex animatronics and physical puppeteering supervised by director Frank Oz. It’s doubtful that we would have gotten anything other than a CGI blob posing as the new Audrey II in the canceled reboot.
I’m not the anti-remake guy. I’m not saying another version couldn’t work. The new version would have had to give audiences a reason to watch it beyond seeing famous actors sing songs we already know by heart.
I can’t deny that this Warner Bros. project had immense star power. Johansson can sing, Egerton had already demonstrated his musical chops in Rocketman, Porter is a proven musical performer, and Evans playing Orin would have been a particularly fun piece of casting. The problem was never whether these people could make the movie. It’s just that there was no way they could live up to the 1986 version. I doubt they could hold a candle to the Roger Corman version starring Jack Nicholson, either. That’s just the truth when it comes to most redos.
The property hasn’t exactly been abandoned forever. A separate project called Little Shop of Halloween Horrors was announced in 2024 with Joe Dante attached to direct and Roger Corman involved before his death. That reboot later went into stasis as Hollywood became increasingly difficult for new projects to get off the ground. I’m a huge fan of both Joe Dante and Roger Corman. Get Allan Arkush in there to help with the musical numbers, and this version might have been something quite special in its own right.
But I’m not going to lie. I’m happy we never got Johansson’s Audrey or Evans as Orin. Despite the strange later connection between Johansson, Tatum and Berlanti, we can thank our lucky stars that we never got a Tatum-Johansson Little Shop of Horrors either. It sounds like a train wreck just thinking about it out loud.
Maybe this really was all for the best? Right? I personally don’t think it would have been good for any of the names involved, but what do I know? Maybe in some alternate version of this universe, Scarlett Johansson’s glossy schlock rendition of Little Shop of Horrors was a huge box office hit, and its still bringing in crowds at the New Beverly as a revival house phenomenon that plays every Saturday at Midnight.
As much fun as it is to imagine Chris Evans scream-singing through Orin’s dental-office number, the 1986 Little Shop of Horrors remains one of those rare movies where the strange combination of performers, puppetry, songs and sheer ’80s insanity is almost impossible to recreate on any level.
We have two different versions of Little Shop of Horrors as it stands, along with that alternate ending version of the ’86 musical. I think that’s the perfect amount of Twoey in the world. Now that Warner Bros. is cooked, I can’t imagine we’ll ever hear about another attempt at reinflating this banger.
