Warners Brothers is currently in negotiations with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment for the remake rights to director Joe Dante’s classic horror-comedy Gremlins.

This isn’t the first time that the studio has approached Amblin about the film rights, but Vulture is reporting that this time “that it might just actually come off this time.” Previous attempts were scuttled over price and the possibility of Spielberg’s involvement, presumably in a producer capacity. Vulture also stated that “A Spielberg spokesman said that the appropriate executives were not available for comment.”

Although a big hit when released in 1984, Dante’s film was criticized in some corners for its level of violence by those who sort of missed the point that it was trying to be a live-action cartoon. The 1990 sequel toned the violence down a bit. In both films, Dante included a number of nods to the classic horror films that he was a fan of.

Why do I have the feeling that much like gremlins themselves, rumors of a new Gremlins film will probably grow out of control if exposed to sunlight, get wet or are fed after midnight?

If there is one craze in Hollywood right now that has surpassed reviving old franchises, it is burning desire to film every new feature in 3D. Now, according to a report from MarketSaw, it looks like we’ll get a collision if those two schools of thought with a possible return of Joe Dante’s `80s classic Gremlins to the big screen.

The report is remarkably vague, just that a new Gremlins movie is coming soon and it will be in 3D. That’s it. Nothing about a screenwriter or director being attached to the project or if it will be a retread of the first film or a new installment. Honestly, at this point it could have been two low-level development execs sitting around at lunch spitballing movies that might look good in 3D.

One thing for sure is that the director of the first two films, Joe Dante, won’t be back. He is too busy with his ongoing series of motion capture, computer animated features to want to return to live action. Also, in the past, Dante has said that the charm of the two Gremlins films has been the use of puppetry and animatronics to bring the title creatures to life. I can’t imagine a studio exec going for such an approach today.