Remakes! Remakes! Read all about 'em!

[gaastra]

"What site was this?"

Oops. Sorry about that.



http://www.nextmovie.com/blog/upcoming-movie-remakes/

[EricJ]

Next Movie

Take with a grain of salt... it's a little outdated too, last I heard the Robocop remake was as good as dead.

Also wouldn't wait up nights for the Arthur or Drop Dead Fred remakes (they couldn't get Brand to the Greek), and Yellow Submarine is still an idea without a studio.
I'd wager a few of them are if not dead, at least whereabouts-unknown (like the Birds and Westworld) for the last three years--Studios are not obligated to put out press-releases when they've STOPPED thinking about a project.

(It does "create more exposure" for the original films, however: The minute and second a remake is announced, most movie fans respond "Yeah, yeah, whatthehell ever--When's the tie-in Blu-ray of the original coming out??"
If humoring a studio is what it takes to get some good catalogue releases out and sold, we'll gladly give them a thimble, sit them in the corner and pat them on the head...It worked for Clash of the Titans.)

[Randall]

Actually, Arthur is in production right now.

[Ben]

And actually complete shooting a couple of weeks ago!

Never-mind, Eric, maybe one day you'll say something constructive that has some ounce of truth in it...

[ShyViolet]

This is kind of close to the subject of remakes: a quote about how bad so many movies are:

The movies have been so rank the last couple of years that when I see people
lining up to buy tickets I sometimes think that the movies aren’t drawing an
audience—they’re inheriting an audience. People just want to go to a movie. They’re
stung repeatedly, yet their desire for a good movie—for any movie—is so strong that all
over the country they keep lining up. “There’s one God for all creation, but there must
be a separate God for the movies,” a producer said. “How else can you explain their
survival?” An atmosphere of hope develops before a big picture’s release, and even after
your friends tell you how bad it is, you can’t quite believe it until you see for yourself.
The lines (and the grosses) tell us only that people are going to the movies—not that
they’re having a good time.

It was actually written in 1980--by Pauline Kael in the New Yorker. So sad since movies are so much worse nowadays and don't seem to be getting any better.

I pray they will though...looking at "mainstream" movies twenty, ten or even five years ago is a such a shock compared to all the junk of nowadays. X-Men 1 & 2, Minority Report, Gladiator, Jurassic Park, Titanic, War of the Worlds, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Spider-Man 2, Donnie Darko, Terminator 2, Lord of the Rings...and it goes on and on. Despite the Oscar attention some of these got, they were, believe it or not, intended primarily as mainstream audience-pleasers. It's such a shock compared to the vast wasteland that Hollywood offers up nowadays. How many more 80s TV remakes, horror movie remakes, TV animation remakes, horror knock-offs, and brainless romantic comedies are the audience expected to endure? (I mean movies with names like "He's just not that into you" and "It's complicated" and "It's kind of a funny story"? These aren't names for films--these are things you tell people on the phone! )

It really irritates me that we're actually expected to pay money for stuff like this. The Oscar season this year looks even leaner than last year.
I just hope it doesn't continue like this.

[Whitney]

In response to those quotes, it is only about money. Bigwigs don't really care if people are having a good time. They just want people to open their wallets and let the cash flow out.

I think people continue to go to the movies, because they keep hoping the next movie to have something new or be the next movie that sets an industry standard (and I don't mean for the worst feature film). They're searching for good entertainment, but keep finding the same lackluster plots.

Another reason why people go to the movies is they feel some sort of social obligation. Remember high school? Go with the crowd and do it because everyone else is. People go to see The Same Movie, With Different People Because it has that Guy and that Girl and They're In Love because it big thing. Look at Avatar, anyone who has ever watched a Disney movie knew what was going to happen. Yet still people went to it, because it was the big thing.

[EricJ]

It was actually written in 1980--by Pauline Kael in the New Yorker. So sad since movies are so much worse nowadays and don't seem to be getting any better.

...Worse than 1979?? That one was a banner year for bad pre-80's movies, and the first half of 1980 (before Empire, Blues Brothers and Xanadu) didn't look too promising either.
(AND this was the same Kael who liked "The Warriors".)

Gotta put that quote in historical context, as the movie industry was still in a flux five years after the Godfather and two years after Star Wars--Movies didn't really seem to be a mainstream item back then, and people back in the 70's really DID believe the movie industry was dying out...The Cineplex Renaissance didn't really kick in until 1981-82, and that's the decade everyone remembers for movies.

Which is why so many 80's movies get remade: Those of us who do remember going to 80's theaters as a kid wish they still had a reason to go to theaters nowadays, and those who weren't there wish they had been.
(Ever listen to some high-school Star Wars fan say "Oh, man, what it must've been like to stand in line for Empire--That would've been so epic!" ? No, it wasn't...We were just trying to get into the darn theater because they were only showing it on one screen.)

[Ben]

Reason 80s movies are being remade/sequelized:

The people running the studios now were the kids of the 80s. They loved the movies they saw and now want to make them again - but better, right, since as a kid they always knew what was wrong with them - or make sequels to them so that they can relive their childhoods and see their favorite characters in action.

So that's why 80s movies are being remade. Plus the fact that everything comes in cycles rougly every 20-30 years, just like it always did before. A lot of 50s and 60s movies were alternate versions of films from the 30s and 40s.

[Whitney]

If you want to get technical Xanadu was a remake of 1947's Down to Earth with Rita Hayworth and James Gleason.


But you're exactly right about the children of the 80s growing up and getting all nostalgic about their childhoods. Where there is nostalgia there is money to be made. Think of all the other product lines, not just movies, from the 1980s that have been brought back : My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake, spandex leggings, etc.

[EricJ]

If you want to get technical Xanadu was a remake of 1947's Down to Earth with Rita Hayworth and James Gleason.

(Y'know, I've been waiting years for someone to say that--
No, technically, it wasn't: It was a strange musical in which the Muses try to stop an insulting Broadway show rather than inspire it, and into which Columbia, for some odd reason, inserted James Gleason and rewrote into a pseudo-sequel to "Here Comes Mr. Jordan"...And thus have no connection besides the fact that somebody has a Greek name--But I digress. )

The people running the studios now were the kids of the 80s. They loved the movies they saw and now want to make them again - but better, right, since as a kid they always knew what was wrong with them - or make sequels to them so that they can relive their childhoods and see their favorite characters in action.

And although the Clash of the Titans remake had several reasons for being made (one being the aborted God of War movie), it's a good example of how studio execs remember a title, a time, and a feeling when they saw it as kids, and condescendingly want to "improve" it, but remember the actual plot and theme of the movie....so BADLY, it can't be anything but dimly-associated nostalgia.

[estefan]

Yeah, I can buy the 1980s generation now being studio executives argument. If anything, two 80s franchises that I think are deserving of three-quels are Gremlins and Ghostbusters and rumour has it, those are happening. Dan Aykroyd is supposedly writing the screenplay, while Joe Dante wants to get Gremlins 3 off the ground. And I would gladly support both of those ventures, if I was a studio exec and not an un-employed student.

[Whitney]

I've heard rumors that Disney want to remake The Muppet Movie.

[estefan]

They are working on a sequel in which the Muppets are brought back together to same an old theatre, if that's what you're referring to.

[eddievalient]

I've heard that a sequel to The Last Starfighter is being worked on. They manged to get the original writer and director back as well as original star Lance Guest. Sounds good to me!

[Ben]

What is that going to be called?

"The Last Starfighter After The Last Last Starfighter (Who Wasn't Really The Last Starfighter Because We Found Another One, The New Last Starfighter)"?