Greg Berlanti will direct new version of the black comedy but whether songs from the 1982 classic will be retained has not yet been confirmed

Cult man-eating plant comedy film Little Shop of Horrors is to get another remake, three decades after it was filmed as a movie musical featuring Steve Martin in 1986.

According to Deadline, a new version is in the works at Warner Bros, with Greg Berlanti on board as director. Berlanti directed the 2010 romcom Life as We Know It, starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel, but is better known as the writer and producer of a string of TV projects, including Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl. Matthew Robinson, who co-wrote and co-directed The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais, is writing the script.

Little Shop of Horrors originated as a low-budget 1960 comedy-horror film directed by Roger Corman, featuring a dorky flower-shop assistant who lavishes his affection on a flesh-craving plant called Audrey. It is chiefly remembered for an early role for Jack Nicholson as a dentist’s patient – and for the fact that the entire film was supposedly shot in 36 hours.

Alan Menken and Howard Ashman turned Little Shop into a successful off-Broadway musical in 1982, which was adapted into the Frank Oz-directed 1986 film, featuring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin, with Bill Murray in the role earlier played by Nicholson. It is thought that the new version will also be a musical, but there is no word on whether any of the Menken/Ashman songs will be retained.