Alex Winter is positioning his 3-D remake of "The Gate" to offer kids a fun dose of horror with an edge.

"The Gate" is currently in preproduction and is slated for a 2012 release. Winter may begin shooting as early as this summer.

"It’s a pretty complicated effects job so I’m not gonna be shooting for a while," Winter said in an interview with Icon vs. Icon. "Dealing with 3-D test and creature design and all that kind of stuff right now which takes a while."

Having helmed such films "Freaked" and "Fever," Winter is perhaps best known for playing Bill in "Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure." His latest directing effort was "Ben 10: Alien Swarm," which received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Visual Effects.

Like Tibor Takács' original 1987 creature feature, "The Gate" will follow three kids who are forced -- without the help of adults -- to overcome a a terrifying army of pint-sized demons that could threaten the Earth.

Winter sees 3-D as an ideal medium to make his remake soar.

"'The Gate,' really for me, cinematically is a film whooper," he explained. "You’re doing one set of people in one house from beginning to end. It’s the whole movie in one house. So the things that you can do with space and architecture and foreground and detail over the course of a hellish journey in one house in 3-D is really exciting to me from a film standpoint.

"I really want to make a movie that it’s fun and it’s an adventure and it’s not 'Jaws' or 'Saw,' but it is a PG-13 movie for kids that while it’s fun and has humor definitely has some darkness and some edge. And I’ve got kids, I’ve got three, and I know what scares them and I know what makes them laugh, and I’m looking forward to doing both of those things!"