Cult Horror Classic Returns: Second Remake Aims to Bury the 1995 Misfire
Radial Entertainment is resurrecting Roger Corman’s cult sci-fi horror The Wasp Woman, with Strangers with Candy collaborators Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris developing the project—a long-awaited reunion and a second stab after the panned 1995 remake.
Amy Sedaris is about to go full creature feature. Radial Entertainment just announced a new take on Roger Corman's The Wasp Woman, with Sedaris starring and her longtime friend and Strangers with Candy partner-in-chaos Paul Dinello writing and directing. Yes, Sedaris as a cosmetics mogul who experiments with queen wasp enzymes. What could possibly go wrong.
The team-up
Dinello and Sedaris go way back — they met as castmates in The Second City touring company in the early '90s alongside Stephen Colbert, then built Strangers with Candy together. This is a proper reunion. Sedaris, an Emmy nominee you might know from The Mandalorian, is playing the title role. Dinello is scripting and directing. The film is in pre-production now.
"I love working with these guys. Can't wait!" — Amy Sedaris
"When I read the story about a former supermodel turned dynamic businesswoman who slowly metamorphosed into a violent insect, I immediately thought, Amy Sedaris." — Paul Dinello
What they are remaking
Corman's original The Wasp Woman landed in 1959 — a scrappy black-and-white sci-fi horror about Janice Starlin, a cosmetics-company founder desperate to reverse aging. She tries experimental enzymes harvested from queen wasps. It works... until it very much doesn't. The new movie sticks to that setup: Janice pushes too far, and the consequences get bloody.
If that rings a bell, there was already a TV remake in 1995 from director Jim Wynorski, starring Jennifer Rubin and Doug Wert. It did not exactly set the world on fire, so consider this a second shot at the premise with sharper claws.
Who is doing what
- Star: Amy Sedaris (The Mandalorian), playing Janice Starlin/The Wasp Woman
- Writer/Director: Paul Dinello
- Producers: Mark Roberts; Jordan Fields for Radial Entertainment; Meyer Shwarzstein for Another Brainy Idea; Michael Richter for A Major Production
- Status: Pre-production
- Rights note: Radial Entertainment (via its Shout! Studios brand) controls the Roger Corman library, so they are mining their own vault here
Short version: Sedaris and Dinello are remaking a cult Corman monster movie about weaponized vanity, and they are leaning into its pulpy bite. Given their history, expect something smart, weird, and just self-aware enough to sting.