Craig Gillespie made one of my favorite films of 2007, Lars and the Real Girl, but aside from directing some episodes of The United States of Tara, he's largely kept quiet since then. But according to The LA Times, he's about to be back in a way that will have horror fans paying attention. They report he's the likely finalist to direct Fright Night, a remake of the 1985 horror comedy in the works at DreamWorks.

Marti Noxon, who worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and currently writes for Mad Men, has been working on the screenplay since late last year; presumably she's finished up enough of a draft for Gillespie to know what he'll be working with. He did an amazing job balancing light comedy and sentimentality in Lars and the Real Girl, so I'm dying to see how he handles the comedy-horror balance of Fright Night. So long as he doesn't take a cue from last night's Oscar horror montage and work in a needless Twilight reference, we should be in good shape.