‘Monster Squad’ Director Fred Dekker Wants To Direct Again For The First Time In 26 Years
Fred Dekkerhas only directed three films, but he’s well-known to genre fans. Dekker is responsible for the horror cult classicsNight of the CreepsandThe Monster Squad, but his directing days came to a halt when he helmed 1993’sRoboCop 3. Since then, Dekker has done some TV screenwriting, but finally returned to features in 2018 by penningThe Predatorscript withMonster SquadcollaboratorShane Black. Now, some 26 years since his last directing gig, Fred Dekker says he’s ready to make a new movie.
I doubt Fred Dekker is what you’d call a household name, but he does have a devoted fanbase that cherishesNight of the CreepsandMonster Squad(I doubt anyone cherishesRoboCop 3, though). While I wasn’t a huge fan of the newPredator, I did appreciate how funny and quirky the script was – and that’s primarily due to the work of Dekker and Shane Black, who previously co-wroteThe Monster Squadtogether. I think Dekker definitely still has the goods, and I’d love to see him direct something new – a sentiment Dekker shares.
Speaking withRetro Injection, Dekker said that he’s “actively trying to find something that would put me back in the director’s chair – that’s really my priority right now.” Of course, this isn’t a sure-thing, but here’s hoping it all works out, especially if Dekker wants to make a horror throw-back in the same vein asNight of the CreepsandMonster Squad.
In the meantime, Dekker is keeping busy with Shane Black. In the same interview, he comments that he and Black are “developing a cable TV reboot of the 1960s British spy show,The Avengers.” Not to be confused with Marvel’sAvengers,The Avengerswas a British series that ran from 1961 to 1969. It was previously adapted into aterriblemovie starring Uma Thurman, Ralph Fiennes and Sean Connery. Hopefully Black and Dekker’s reboot is a bit better than that.
Dekker also mentions working on an “action movie based on the oldDestroyeradventure novels.” PerWikipedia,The Destroyeris a “series of paperback novels about a U.S. government operative named Remo Williams, originally by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir.” The books were the inspiration for the 1985 spy thrillerRemo Williams: The Adventure Begins, which was supposed to launch a series of films, but performed poorly at the box office. Since then, though, it’s developed something of a cult following.
I’ll admit that neitherThe AvengersnorThe Destroyerprojects sound very exciting to me, but if they keep Dekker working, I can’t complain. Now please, someone hire him to direct a horror movie again.
