Toronto: Copperheart Entertainment and its partners are closing in on a remake of Black Christmas and plan to shoot an updated version of the seminal slasher pic in Vancouver by fall – just as soon as director Glen Morgan and partner James Wong wrap Final Destination 3. Wong will write and produce with Morgan.

Also attached to produce are Steve Hoban of Copperheart, Victor Solnicki, Marc Butan and Marty Adelstein and Dawn Parouse of L.A.-based Adelstein-Parouse Productions. Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban of 2929 Productions exec produce with Noah Segal, Scott Nemes and Bob Clark of Memento Pictures of Toronto. The pic is being financed entirely by 2929 and will shoot in B.C.

Hoban (Ginger Snaps, Ryan) credits Adelstein (Tru Calling) – a Hollywood insider and former partner at Endeavor and Original Films – for bringing in Wong and Morgan. ‘It’s a big thing for us,’ he says. ‘They were on our list, but he had that special relationship with them.’ Wong and Morgan also worked together on the horror remake Willard and Jet Li’s The One.

The 1974 original – directed by Clark and featuring a young Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin and Nick Mancuso – is about a mysterious killer who stalks a houseful of sorority sisters during the Christmas break, and is often noted by film buffs for establishing the slasher genre. Hoban says, however, that the new version will be more of a psychological horror. ‘Morgan is more interested in what’s scary than what’s gory,’ he says.

Copperheart is also shopping the script for its Cold War horror pic Skin, to be directed by Grant Harvey. The Toronto outfit is also set to coproduce the time-travel story The Last Hunt with Memento and Spice Factory in the U.K., and is continuing development on Vincenzo Natali’s animated superhero pic Uberman.