The story so far: Back in 2008, a movie called Let the Right One In made its premiere. It was a Swedish film, adapted from a book by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay. The film was tragically overlooked by the Oscars due to a series of managing blunders, but the film had nevertheless gained critical accolades with every step of its international theatrical run. Naturally, news of an American remake (with a new title, Let Me In) was out before the rights to American distribution had even been picked up. The announced director was Matt Reeves, most famous for directing Cloverfield. This caused a lot of worrying.

The original film, after all, dealt with some very dark material. Imagine a love story between two prepubescent kids — she’s mysterious and ageless with enough literal and figurative skeletons to fill hundreds of walk-in closets and he’s a frequent bully target obsessed with stories of death, a hair’s breadth from going Columbine on his classmates. It’s hard to imagine any mainstream studio resisting the temptation to make the main characters teenagers in imitation of the Twilight craze. It’s even harder to imagine mainstream cinema preserving the maturity with which the movie addresses its premise and the entrails it entails. Moreover, the original movie was dazzling in its craftsmanship; it had jaw-dropping cinematography and superb editing, with VFX as strategic and scarce as it was subtle. It’s hard to imagine this level of skill being equalled (let alone surpassed) by a guy whose only claim to fame is an over-hyped movie starring a bunch of douchebag 20-somethings running from CGI while moving the audience to nausea.

But then the casting came in and sighs of relief could be heard nationwide. Both the leads were only 13, which helped assure everyone that this wouldn’t be just a Twilight cash-in. Kodi Smit-McPhee was cast as the male lead, fresh off his turn as Viggo Mortensen’s son in the uber-bleak The Road. Opposite him will be Chloe Fucking Moretz. You may remember when I sung her praises in my Kick-Ass review. Indeed, Moretz earned a huge amount of praise for her work in that movie (as well as a bit of controversy, natch), which may explain her part in a recent bit of news.

The distributors of Let Me In have just released our first public and official look at the movie. It’s a still frame, but it’s easily worth a thousand words and I’d like to type a few of them down.

To start with, I love the composition of this shot. The inside appears relatively bright and warm, against the dark and wet outside. I also like how Eli Abby is presented here. The shot is very intimate and close-up, focusing on an inquisitive — almost desperate — stare as well as her knuckles against the window. It illustrates the title beautifully, which helps to serve as a wonderful introduction to the movie.

Then there’s Moretz herself. It’s very hard to tell if she’s innocent or threatening, though the lighting is helping her a lot there. Also, the blood on her chin could obviously be something monstrous in nature, though the untrained eye could possibly mistake it for a cut or a bruise.

There’s a lot going on with this photo, all of it giving me optimism for this movie. If nothing else, I have renewed faith that Moretz will do well in this role, previously made so memorable by her Swedish counterpart. Also, if this shot is indicative of the cinematography in the movie as a whole, then Reeves may turn out to be a hidden talent yet.

Can’t wait to see more. The movie’s release is set for October 1st, 2010.