Vancouver: One of Glen Morgan’s main objectives with his new horror film, Black Christmas, is to please Bob Clark.

Clark, a prolific filmmaker whose CV includes tax-shelter classics such as Porky’s and A Christmas Story, directed and produced the original Black Christmas in 1974 and serves as exec producer on the new edition. Morgan’s remake is a Canada/U.S. coproduction between Toronto’s Copper Heart Entertainment and 2929 Productions of L.A., and began shooting in Vancouver Jan. 30.

Morgan says he holds the original in high esteem, but is well aware of the pitfalls of remaking of a horror classic. Black Christmas pioneered the slasher sub-genre that went on to dominate the 1980s.

‘I know the difficulty in doing a remake,’ says L.A.-based Morgan, who recently wrapped a writer/producer gig on Final Destination 3, also shot in Vancouver. ‘I feel like a hypocrite when I hear somebody is shooting a remake of some movie and I’m outraged, but I have great respect for what [Clark] did. It is very important to me that Bob Clark be happy with what we do.’

Morgan says his Black Christmas will offer the same premise as the original – sorority sisters are terrorized by phone calls before they are mysteriously picked off – and he hopes to stay true to, and in some cases emulate, Clark’s 1974 version.

‘There are a couple of things I want to do just like they did it. I think those phone calls in the original are some of the most frightening things I’ve ever heard,’ he says.

Clark says other filmmakers had approached him about tackling the Black Christmas redo, but Morgan and filmmaking partner James Wong’s work on Final Destinations 1 & 3 won him over.

‘The Final Destinations are very intelligent movies, and it’s hard to categorize them,’ says Clark. ‘I had respect for the intelligence of their work and wanted to see that applied [to Black Christmas]. They will be a powerful force in the film world, beyond horror and action movies.’

Clark is currently writing the script for Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things, a horror/comedy update of his 1972 shocker, which he will also direct. It could go to camera as early as May on Vancouver Island.

Morgan shares producing credit with Wong, Marty Adelstein (Prison Break) and Dawn Parouse (Still Life) of L.A.-based Adelstein-Parouse Productions, Copper Heart’s Steve Hoban (Nothing), Ogden Gavanski of Vancouver’s Milestone Productions and Victor Solnicki (Videodrome). Also exec producing is Noah Segal (Ginger Snaps) of Toronto’s Memento Pictures, Scott Nemes (My Baby’s Daddy) of Adelstein-Parouse, and 2929’s Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban. The shoot is being financed by 2929.

The cast includes Michelle Trachtenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Oliver Hudson (10.5: Apocalypse) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Sky High). Mark Freeborn (Final Destination 3) is production designer.

‘Everybody assumes you come to Canada for tax breaks and the dollar, but I am adamant that I come back because of the talent of the crew here,’ says Morgan. ‘They’re like family to us.’

Black Christmas shoots until March 24, and is due around the Christmas holidays from Dimension Films.