Update: With a director has come a new writer. Kirsten Elms, who wrote a TV movie called Banshee in 2006, along with the thriller Hair of the Dog, currently in development for F Gary Gray, has been brought in to "retool the script under the supervision of Luessenhop". News that she's bringing back Chop Top has been made up by us.

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It's eighteen months since Twisted Pictures caught the Texas Chainsaw Massacre rights after Platinum Dunes dropped them. Since then the saw has been quietly idling, with rumblings of progress here and there, but Leatherface 3D has just revved fully into action with the announcement of its potential director, John Luessenhop.

There's still a suggestion in that old 3D/threequel-type moniker that this is a follow up to Marcus Nispel's 2003 remake and Jonathan Liebesman's 2006 prequel, but most indications seem to be that this is another scratch-starting reboot. Previous reports had the screenplay beginning immediately after Tobe Hooper's original before flashing forward 35 years, and there was an inkling of a plot involving a cult.

Stephen Susco (The Grudge) has had a hand in the writing, as have Deborah Sullivan and Adam Marcus. We wondered if Marcus might step behind the camera, since he previously wrote and directed a Friday 13th sequel (Jason Goes to Hell). Apparently not.

Luessenhop was the director of Takers, with Paul Walker, Matt Dillon and Idris Elba. Not a significant horror pedigree - Takers is a heist thriller - but Stephen King liked it enough to put it on his Top Ten of 2010. Nobody else was that enthusiastic.

Saw's Marc Burg is producing Leatherface 3D, we'd suspect with a Hallowe'en 2012 release in mind.