Cloverfield director Matt Reeves has spoken to The LA Times about his forthcoming US remake of the cult hit Swedish vampire movie Let The Right One In.

The original, set in a snowy Swedish town in the 1980s, is about a bullied schoolboy who befriends a female vampire who moves in next door. It has been getting the kind of the reviews from the mainstream literati that horror films rarely see; horror fans love it too. That's a rare combination. So Reeves is fully aware that people will be cynical about an American remake:

"There's definitely people who have a real bull's-eye on the film," says Reeves, "and I can understand because of peoples' love of the [original] film there's this cynicism that I'll come in and trash it, when in fact I have nothing but respect for the film. I'm so drawn to it for personal and not mercenary reasons, my feeling about it is if I didn't feel a personal connection and feel it could be its own film, I wouldn't be doing it. I hope people give us a chance."

The US film will be set in Reagan-era Colerado, and Reeves is working with the casting director who discovered Haley Joel Osment for The Sixth Sense to find his two child leads. But he assures us that the age of the two lead characters will not be bumped up a few years to cash in the Twilight teen vampire trend.