Aw, no.

Back in the dim and distant past, when we had the pleasure of interviewing the genius that is Mr Joe Dante, we asked him about making Gremlins 2, and whether it was true that he made it with the intention of stopping there ever being a Gremlins 3. Here's what he said:

"Obviously there was no real need for another Gremlins movie, so I approached the sequel as irreverently as possible - which got me in a bit of trouble: ‘You can't make fun of the merchandising!'- spoofing the arbitrary ‘rules' and everything else. I guess I did it right, there's been no Gremlins 3 as yet...but sooner or later there will be, even if it's direct-to-video. The title is too well known not to exploit again."

Tragically, it seems that Joe Dante was right.

MarketSaw is reporting today that plans are afoot for a Gremlins 3, which is set to be made in 3D. The site makes it clear that the project is still in the very early days, and is a brand new film rather than a 3D retrofit of the original. But given that Ghostbusters is coming back for a third instalment (also now likely to be in 3D), it seemed almost inevitable that Gremlins would follow the same path.

We've no word on whether any writer is attached to the project yet - it's fairly safe to suggest that Chris Columbus is unlikely to pen this one, given his own slate of directorial projects - and nor is there any formal word from Warner Bros on the matter.

All said, we'd be stunned if Warner Bros asked Joe Dante back for a third go at the franchise, equally stunned if he said yes, and stunned for a third time if puppets were used over CGI gremlins. We can't help feeling, though, that if this wholly unnecessary new Gremlins film goes ahead, it surely needs to keep the puppets rather than having some upgraded computer graphics from Aliens In The Attic included instead.

Gremlins 2 remains one of our favourite sequels of all time (it made our list of our favourite blockbuster sequels here). And while we won't write off any Gremlins 3D until we've seen it, we've got alarm bells blaring very, very loudly here.

You can read our interview with Joe Dante here, and the MarketSaw piece is here.

• Underappreciated movies: Gremlins 2
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