When heard about the remake of Suspiria I didn't really expect much from the film, after all the original wasn't a huge production and while it does have a cult following, I wouldn't describe it as anything more than just that, a film with a cult following.

Yet the latest news about the remake is surprising because of the names being associated with the film. There was already a bit of a surprise in the announcement of the director of the remake, David Gordon Green, and the cast is just cementing the idea that this remake isn't courting the same cult audience.

David Gordon Green directed The Sitter, Your Highness, Pineapple Express, Snow Angels, Undertow, you can see that he's not the person you would expect to be directing and co-writing the film with first time writer Christof Gebert, especially when considering this is a Dario Argento film.

So add in the news that the lead of this new film is going to be Isabelle Fuhrman, playing the role that Jessica Harper played and reiterating the Hollywood ideals of making everything hit that teen audience, and we're starting to see a pull right away from that original.

Wait though, there's more. In that casting story from ShockTillYouDrop through JoBlo we also hear that Isabelle Huppert, Janet McTeer, Michael Nyqvist and Antje Traue have been cast. So what? Well let's look at those names.

Isabelle Fuhrman starred in Orphan and The Hunger Games, but the other names are the ones that grab the attention. Isabelle Huppert is a multi-award winning and nominated actress, Janet McTeer is a multi-award nominee and Michael Nyqvist is an easily recognisable face and name with Antje Traue a relative new face, although recognisable from Pandorum (Filmstalker review).

Now that doesn't sound like they're trying to remake the same scale and scope film as Argento did with the original does it? Mind you, if you can remember back to 2008 we had heard that it might be a certain Natalie Portman who would be leading the film, and that would have been a big coup for the film. You can imagine the type of film that would have been, but it did not come to pass.

The story originally appeared in 2006, but back in May 2007 I carried the outline of the remake, now there's a more recent blurb for the film:

The film follows Suzie (Fuhrman), a bright and ambitious American student who travels to Europe to attend a world renowned school. After a fellow student is brutally murdered and several other cruel and strange homicides disrupt the once quiet life on campus, Suzie realizes that the academy may be a front for a more menacing organization.

It does sound as though this Suspiria film is going to have a lot more advantages than its original did, the question will be is can it make the most of them and deliver a film that exceeds the original?