Gremlins 2!

Welcome to a SPECIAL EDITION of the Piece of Advice Newsletter!

Good morning! Today, is the 36th anniversary of the beloved sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch! I was even lucky enough to ask a couple of questions to the screenwriter of the film, Charlie Haas!

When “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” arrived in theaters in 1990, it was clear from the start that this wasn’t going to be a typical sequel. Where the original “Gremlins” in 1984 balanced suburban horror with sly comedy, the follow-up tossed out the rulebook entirely. Director Joe Dante, returning only after Warner Bros. gave him near-total creative freedom, turned the film into a gleeful send-up of sequels themselves. The action moved from small-town America to a gleaming New York skyscraper, where Gizmo, Billy, and Kate once again faced an outbreak of Gremlins; this time in the heart of corporate culture.

The wild shift in tone was no accident. Dante didn’t want to rehash old scares, and with screenwriter Charlie Haas on board, the team leaned into satire, parody, and unrestrained creativity. Haas, known for his sharp and irreverent style, helped build a script where almost nothing was off limits. Gremlins mutated into a bat, a spider, even a talking intellectual called the Brain Gremlin. The film gleefully broke the fourth wall, mocked its own premise, and featured surreal moments like Hulk Hogan scolding the Gremlins mid-movie. What could have been a conventional follow-up instead became one of the strangest, most self-aware studio films of its era.

At the box office, “Gremlins 2” didn’t match the runaway success of its predecessor, but its reputation only grew with time. Fans and critics who revisited it later began to appreciate its fearless originality. What once felt chaotic became admired as a bold experiment in how far a sequel could stretch. The character of Daniel Clamp, a mix of media mogul and real-estate tycoon, was even seen as a playful jab at Donald Trump; years before satire of that kind became mainstream. For Charlie Haas, it was a chance to infuse big-budget filmmaking with his offbeat sense of humor, leaving audiences with something truly unforgettable.

Today, “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” stands tall as a cult classic, celebrated for daring to be weird, unpredictable, and unashamedly funny. Film students study it as an example of satire wrapped inside a blockbuster, and fans cherish it as proof that sequels don’t always have to play it safe. Fun fact: Joe Dante has said that by making the movie a parody of itself, he ensured there could never really be another “Gremlins” sequel; because how do you top the Brain Gremlin in a smoking jacket? Thanks to Dante’s vision and Haas’s biting script, “Gremlins 2” has carved out a legacy as one of the boldest, most eccentric sequels ever made.

Bonus Questions:

Giancarlo: What was it like writing “Gremlins 2”?

Charlie: A lot of work, but also a lot of fun. We threw out a lot more pages than we ended up using, but that's not unusual.

The best part of the experience was jamming on ideas with Joe Dante (director) and Mike Finnell (producer). These guys were extremely inventive and generous with ideas... I'd say, "It's an over-automated 'smart' building in New York," and they'd jump in and say, "Oh, good! And there's a cable TV network in the basement!" and so on. A lot of fun collaborating with those two.

Piece Of Advice:

Giancarlo: What is this best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Charlie: "Never run for a bus -- there's always another one." - Mel Brooks (as the Two-Thousand-Year-Old Man).

Thank you for reading! Have an amazing day and we will catch you again soon!

-Giancarlo