With a Pet Sematary reboot currently in development, the film has moved to cast a genre favourite in one of its key roles.

As per EW, John Lithgow has been brought in to play Jud Crandall in the redo. If you remember, that role was played by Fred Gwynne in the 1989 original movie. The reason that this role is so key is because Crandall is the friendly neighbour who introduces Louis Creed to the titular locale. At this point, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Jason Clarke is in talks to play the Creed role.

For not familiar with Pet Sematary, the Stephen King-penned tale began life back in ’83, with the story focussing on an eerie pet cemetery – which is misspelled as sematary – behind the new home purchased by the Creed family. Rumour has it, any animals buried in said cemetery will come back to life. The tale doesn’t stop there though, for things don’t go exactly to plan when the hallowed ground is used to reanimate humans…

King’s work would famously be adapted for the big screen in 1989 by director Mary Lambert – itself in turn followed by a 1993 sequel. Ever since 2010, there’s been regular chatter of a remake happening, and at one point we even had the brilliant Guillermo del Toro throwing his hat in the ring to tackle the redo. Ultimately, del Toro’s uber-busy schedule didn’t allow for anything further to happen on that front, but we are now still getting a new take on this old favourite.

Where this latest take on an old favourite is concerned, the duo of Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch are sharing directing duties, with the pair also having worked on the screenplay with Jeff Buhler.

As ever, expect more on this new Pet Sematary as it continues to develop.