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Spider-Man trilogy and original Evil Dead director Sam Raimi has stepped onboard to produce the new Poltergeist remake for MGM. Raimi, who's currently in post-production on his next movie, Oz the Great and Powerful, will produce the new Poltergeist film with Roy Lee, Nathan Kahane and Robert Tapert.

David Lindsay-Abaire is writing a new script for the remake. The writer worked before with Raimi on their Oz movie.

Shock Till You Drop has uncovered that MGM wants to release its remake of Poltergeist on November 24, 2010. That's the Thanksgiving long weekend and the official kick-off of the holiday box office season. If MGM in intent on making that release date we should expect to hear casting annoucements in the next month or two.

The first site to publish a review of the Poltergeist remake screenplay is Latino Review. In addition to uncovering details about how the new version of Poltergeist differs and remains the same in some aspects from the 1982 original, the site's reviewer also gives his opinion as to whether the script has what it takes to stand alongside the classic film. While reviewer El Diablo felt that there's enough scary material in it to meet a certain level of satisfaction, the ingredients assembled doesn't inspire confidence that the new Poltergeist will stand out from such other recent horror remakes as Prom Night, The Amityville Horror or My Bloody Valentine.

Watch Latino Review's assessment of the Poltergeist script dated late 2008.

In an interview with The Wrap where they talk about their work on the recently released Knowing film, married screenwriters Stiles White and Juliet Snowden also touch on two of their newer assignments, one being the remake of The Birds and the other a update of Poltergeist.

"Poltergeist was a seminal film for us, you know, in our lives, and it’s like your dad’s classic vintage car that’s been in the garage and you’re not allowed to touch it," White comments.  "It’s treasured; it’s valuable.  We see Poltergeist as if, um, as if we’re being handed the keys to the car and we’re gonna be really careful with it."

The site also managed to squeeze out a little bit of detail about their take on the new film's setting and it doesn't sound too dissimilar to the original's. "Poltergeist was a real snapshot of the American family in the year that it came out --1982 -- and I think what we would do with the reimaging of it is, 'What is the American family up to today?'"

Now we've got a name to bandy about as a possible director for the Poltergeist remake and it's Vadim Perelman, the director of 2003's House of Sand and Fog. An unusual choice but one that the horror oriented website Bloody Disgusting swears is in deep talks to helm the movie.

MGM has hired the writing team of Juliet Snowden and Stiles White to work on its screenplay for Poltergeist. The duo have proven their ability to craft horror stories that sell to audiences, such as was the case with the 2005 movie Boogeyman which was written by the pair. Since then the writers have also worked on the remake of Universal's The Birds and put in time rewriting Knowing, the Nicolas Cage thriller, for Summit Entertainment. Details on what direction Snowden and White will take the new Poltergeist weren't given in the Hollywood Reporter piece.

Bloody Disgusting received an anonymous scoop that a remake of the classic 1982 horror movie Poltergeist is being secretly developed. The site's source doesn't provide many details but what they do claim is that the new Poltergeist will not use any of the original actors nor is it connected to a spec script titled Poltergeist: Kayeri that made the rounds a couple of years ago. Furthermore BD reports that the new movie will be a close remake of the original, "pretty much frame-by-frame...just think Hills Have Eyes."