KEY POINTS:
Finally, someone is making the movie version of one of the best and most scary New Zealand television shows ever. It's about time creepy early-80s sci-fi series Under the Mountain got a modern reworking.
I'd like to think I was far more hardcore when I was 9
or 10 years old, but the truth is Under The Mountain, or more specifically the evil Wilberforce family, scared the hell out of me back then. It was a similar sort of fear I got listening to Badjelly the Witch on the radio, when I was 4 or 5.
Although Under the Mountain was an adaptation of the award-winning novel by Maurice Gee - published in 1979 and his first written especially for teenagers - I got to know the Wilberforces from the TV series.
For those who are too young to remember it, or now so old that your memory is hazy, here's a refresher. Teenage twins Rachel and Theo Matheson are on their summer holidays in Auckland when they are contacted by a man known as Mr Jones (who will be played by Sam Neill in the new movie). It turns out Mr Jones is a kind-hearted alien who is here to protect earth against a family of evil slimy, slug monsters from another world who are able to take on a human form. The scariest of them all is, of course, Mr Wilberforce. I always remember him being a greasy, kind of wet-looking old man who wore a tatty cardy and scowled a lot. He'll be played by Oliver Driver, who should do a fine job if his portrayal of a zombie sheep in last year's Black Sheep is anything to go by.
Anyway, the Wilberforces are dead set on destroying Earth and it's up to the twins, who have developed psychic abilities, to stop them.
The best bit - and this is where you have to be really brave - is when Rachel and Theo descend into Auckland's volcanoes to do battle with the Wilberforces.
A cracking good yarn, don't you think?
Here's a suggestion for any Under The Mountain fans. On a wet and wild day, take a walk around the caves and crevasses of the small volcanic mountain of Devonport's North Head to see if any memories come flooding back. You never know, you might just get the creeps.
Who knows if Mr Wilberforce is as scary these days? It could be like the Daleks on Doctor Who who don't quite have the same fear factor. I haven't seen Under the Mountain for 26-or-so years, although the series is now out on DVD.
But I'm going to wait for director Jonathan King's movie, which starts shooting next week around Auckland, including on Rangitoto, the most beautiful volcano of them all.
Don McGlashan was on to it in 2005 when he was asked by the Herald what they should make a movie of. "Peter Jackson should do Maurice Gee's Under The Mountain," he said.
"I'd love to see what he'd make of the giant slugs sleeping under Rangitoto. Come to think of it, Lake Pupuke's where I go sailing, and my constant concern that giant slugs might suddenly surface there probably explains why I seldom win races."
Peter may not be doing Under the Mountain but at least it's getting made.
When you've got a great yarn like Gee's, and a top TV series to match, bring on the big screen version, I say.