As much as I think an American counterpart to Tomas Alfredson’s sublime vampire drama/thriller Let The Right One In is unnecessary, I can’t help but get a little giddy looking at this casting announcement.

As was rumored before, The Road’s Kodi Smit-McPhee has indeed landed the lead role of 12-year old Owen (formerly Oskar). And as has been speculated, (500) Days of Summer and Kick-Ass’s Chloe Moretz will be playing vampire Abby (formerly Eli). Now joining the two young actors is none other than Burn After Reading and The Visitor’s Richard Jenkins, taking on the character that was previously named Hakan. The film is being “fast tracked” and is scheduled to begin shooting in New Mexico in November.

I was uncertain about how Matt Reeves could come out of this looking good, considering he has some daunting footsteps to follow in the wake of Alfredson’s version. I enjoyed Cloverfield, but I didn’t love it so much that I was ready to be sold on this remake with Reeves’ involvement alone. However, he’s making a strong case for himself now with his casting choices here. Smit-McPhee has earned a lot of credit for his turns in the Eric Bana-starring Australian drama Romulus, My Father and John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s bleak dystopian drama The Road, so I’m curious to see what he can do here. The role of Abby was always going to be difficult to cast, but I think Moretz is a fantastic choice. She has already shown a maturity and deftness in her craft that few actresses grasp until they’re middle-aged, and her performance will be the one I’m most excited about seeing.

And Richard Jenkins is just awesome, because he’s Richard Jenkins, and let me tell ya – that guy’s amazing.

So Reeves has certainly kicked this thing off to a great start. This is about as optimistic as I could hope to be regarding Let Me In (or is it called Fish Head now? Just a working title, perhaps?). I don’t know if it could ever be as good as the Swedish original, considering the mountain of expectations we’re holding now, but this is the first time I’ve thought that hey, this might not suck.

Tags: Chloe Moretz, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Let Me In, Let the Right One In, Matt Reeves, Richard Jenkins, Tomas Alfredson