'No one is remaking Labyrinth' – screenwriter denies reports of reboot

Screenwriter Nicole Perlman has said she has “no interest” in remaking the 1986 David Bowie-starring film Labyrinth, despite news reports stating the contrary.

In a widely cited story, the Hollywood Reporter wrote on Friday that the fantasy film would be “rebooted for the 21st century”. According to their report, TriStar had “closed a deal with the Jim Henson Co to produce a new iteration” and had hired the Guardians of the Galaxy cowriter Nicole Perlman to write the script.

But Perlman quickly took to Twitter to categorically deny that she was involved in a reboot of the film.

“Guys, please don’t fall for all the clickbait,” she wrote. “No one is remaking Labyrinth. That movie is perfect as it is.”

Perlman told Guardian Australia that she first began talks with the Jim Henson Company about a project well over a year ago but she could not discuss anything further about it.

She was upset by the implication from news reports that she or the company would seek to profit from Bowie’s death. “All I can say is that the timing for the story was awful; it felt like a punch in the gut,” she said.

“Bowie’s music helped me through some of the hardest times of my life. I respect him as a musician, an actor, an icon and, most importantly, as a human being. It would have been a dream come true, to write something for him.”

Perlman said Labyrinth was her favourite childhood movie and she has no interest in remaking it.

Entertainment Weekly claimed the supposed Labyrinth film project would be a sequel to the original, not a reboot. The Jim Henson Company has been contacted for comment.

Labyrinth starred Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King and Jennifer Connelly in one of her earliest roles. The film was directed by Jim Henson, who also cowrote the film. Although it received mixed reviews and flopped in the box office at the time, it gained a cult following over the three decades since its theatrical release.