Remakes, reboots all around: Part 1
The film industry is a business. If movie executives find an easy way to turn a profit, even if this method is incredibly lazy and/or creatively bankrupt, they will embrace it with open arms. Remakes, or reboots, of hit films and franchises give them this opportunity. And so far so good for Hollywood - the remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th and Halloween have all hit paydirt, while The Incredible Hulk, Star Trek and Christopher Nolan's Batman films, to name a few non-horror examples, have also been massive success stories.
Whether its feelings of nostalgia they dredge up, curiosity or concern, these movies still get bums in cinema seats. And as they say, if something works, don't fix it! Hollywood seems to have embraced that saying with a vengeance. We're set for a flood of remakes and reboots, most of them dredged up from the 1980s...
I was planning to post up an extensive remakes list in one go, but given that my blogging time is limited, I'm actually going to break the entry up into 3 parts - starting with those movie remakes and reboots we'll be seeing in the next 12 months.
As a sidenote, I doubt this list is exhaustive (I'm sure I've overlooked at least 1 or 2 films) but these are the high profile remakes that have caught my attention. If you think I've forgotten something important, please leave a comment.
Completed production / Currently filming:
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Starting with the horror genre, one of the most iconic villains of late 20th Century cinema has to be horribly disfigured paedophile Freddie Krueger, who, after being burnt to death by his neighbours, seeks revenge from beyond the grave - stalking their teenage children through their dreams.
As the franchise progressed, it got more silly than scary, but the new film draws its source from the freaky 1984 original, so the project definitely has potential. Assorted young up-and-coming actors play the teens, but the exciting news is that Rorschach himself, Jackie Earle Haley replaces Robert England as Freddie! Haley is wonderfully intense and definitely menacing. For an exhaustive article on the remake, click here. The film is out in April next year.
H2: Halloween 2
Despite being universally reviled by fans of the original Halloween, Rob Zombie's 2007 remake made a ton of cash. Naturally Zombie received the chance to continue exploring his "vision," and in a few months' time we'll get to see Tyler Mane's mostly unmasked Michael Myers stalking his sister Laurie in a shadowy hospital (just like in the original Halloween 2, with Jamie Lee Curtis).
I haven't seen Zombie's first Halloween, but I can't say the trailer for this one looks particularly awful - it's more gratuitous and exploitative than anything else. Serial killers rampaging in unusual locations like hospitals always works for me though. H2 is released on 28 August this year.
Sherlock Holmes
I blogged about this reimagining earlier in the week so there's not much more I can say about this action-adventure from English crime caper king, Guy Ritchie. Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes is teamed with Jude Law's Dr Watson, but this time the eccentric detective has lots of brawn to go with his brains. This said, the film looks fun in a comic book way, and we only have to wait until 25 December/early 2010 to see it.
Clash of the Titans
Most of the time movie remakes are pointless. One that I can totally get behind though is a remake of 1981 mythical/fantasy movie, Clash of the Titans. Chronicling the adventures of Greek hero Perseus, including his encounter with the monstrous Medusa and winged-horse Pegasus, Clash of the Titans had an awesome storyline. Unfortunately its stop-motion special effects have dated badly. For quite some time I've been dying to see mythical beasties given the 21st Century CGI treatment, and now Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier seems to be the man making it a reality.
Clash of the Titans has an impressive cast: Sam Worthington as Perseus, Liam Neeson as King of the Gods Zeus, Ralph Fiennes as villainous Hades, and Gemma Arterton as helpful goddess Io. The only thing I'm particularly disappointed about is the change of storyline. Instead of Perseus attempting to rescue princess Andromeda, he's now leading a band of heroes to the Underworld to stop Hades from dethroning Zeus and destroying humanity. How very Titan Quest... Clash of the Titans is currently filming in Europe (the United Kingdom and Canary Islands specifically) and is set for release in March 2010.
Robin Hood
There's a lot of talent involved in Robin Hood. There's director Ridley Scott (one of my favourite movie helmers!), his Gladiator star Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Vanessa Redgrave, Mark Strong and an ever-growing cast of English actors. Robin Hood has been in development for quite some time now (for a long time the project was known simply as Nottingham), and the filmmakers flirted with several intriguing concepts like reversing roles and portraying the Sheriff of Nottingham as the good guy. Eventually, however, Scott and co. settled on a disappointingly conventional "origins" storyline. Ho hum.
And here I was hoping a new angle would help distinguish this film from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which, despite its silly accents, was a lot of fun, and remains my definitive Robin Hood film. The comparisons are sure to start when Robin Hood is released next year on 14 May.
A Christmas Carol
Haters of Jim Carrey may want to stay far, far away from A Christmas Carol, Disney's big CGI-animated film for the coming holiday season. You see, Carrey not only voices Ebenezer Scrooge, but also all 3 of the ghosts who haunt him. Meanwhile, Gary Oldman also triples up as Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim.
A Christmas Carol has been adapted for the big screen over 50 times (well, that's how it feels at least). The big selling points of this version are:
A) It's a family film from Disney, and
B) It's a performance-capture flick from Robert Zemeckis, who already used the same technique to make Beowulf and The Polar Express.
A Christmas Carol comes out on 6 November this year, in conventional 2D, 3D and even IMAX-3D.
Whether its feelings of nostalgia they dredge up, curiosity or concern, these movies still get bums in cinema seats. And as they say, if something works, don't fix it! Hollywood seems to have embraced that saying with a vengeance. We're set for a flood of remakes and reboots, most of them dredged up from the 1980s...
I was planning to post up an extensive remakes list in one go, but given that my blogging time is limited, I'm actually going to break the entry up into 3 parts - starting with those movie remakes and reboots we'll be seeing in the next 12 months.
As a sidenote, I doubt this list is exhaustive (I'm sure I've overlooked at least 1 or 2 films) but these are the high profile remakes that have caught my attention. If you think I've forgotten something important, please leave a comment.
Completed production / Currently filming:
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Starting with the horror genre, one of the most iconic villains of late 20th Century cinema has to be horribly disfigured paedophile Freddie Krueger, who, after being burnt to death by his neighbours, seeks revenge from beyond the grave - stalking their teenage children through their dreams.
As the franchise progressed, it got more silly than scary, but the new film draws its source from the freaky 1984 original, so the project definitely has potential. Assorted young up-and-coming actors play the teens, but the exciting news is that Rorschach himself, Jackie Earle Haley replaces Robert England as Freddie! Haley is wonderfully intense and definitely menacing. For an exhaustive article on the remake, click here. The film is out in April next year.
H2: Halloween 2
Despite being universally reviled by fans of the original Halloween, Rob Zombie's 2007 remake made a ton of cash. Naturally Zombie received the chance to continue exploring his "vision," and in a few months' time we'll get to see Tyler Mane's mostly unmasked Michael Myers stalking his sister Laurie in a shadowy hospital (just like in the original Halloween 2, with Jamie Lee Curtis).
I haven't seen Zombie's first Halloween, but I can't say the trailer for this one looks particularly awful - it's more gratuitous and exploitative than anything else. Serial killers rampaging in unusual locations like hospitals always works for me though. H2 is released on 28 August this year.
Sherlock Holmes
I blogged about this reimagining earlier in the week so there's not much more I can say about this action-adventure from English crime caper king, Guy Ritchie. Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes is teamed with Jude Law's Dr Watson, but this time the eccentric detective has lots of brawn to go with his brains. This said, the film looks fun in a comic book way, and we only have to wait until 25 December/early 2010 to see it.
Clash of the Titans
Most of the time movie remakes are pointless. One that I can totally get behind though is a remake of 1981 mythical/fantasy movie, Clash of the Titans. Chronicling the adventures of Greek hero Perseus, including his encounter with the monstrous Medusa and winged-horse Pegasus, Clash of the Titans had an awesome storyline. Unfortunately its stop-motion special effects have dated badly. For quite some time I've been dying to see mythical beasties given the 21st Century CGI treatment, and now Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier seems to be the man making it a reality.
Clash of the Titans has an impressive cast: Sam Worthington as Perseus, Liam Neeson as King of the Gods Zeus, Ralph Fiennes as villainous Hades, and Gemma Arterton as helpful goddess Io. The only thing I'm particularly disappointed about is the change of storyline. Instead of Perseus attempting to rescue princess Andromeda, he's now leading a band of heroes to the Underworld to stop Hades from dethroning Zeus and destroying humanity. How very Titan Quest... Clash of the Titans is currently filming in Europe (the United Kingdom and Canary Islands specifically) and is set for release in March 2010.
Robin Hood
There's a lot of talent involved in Robin Hood. There's director Ridley Scott (one of my favourite movie helmers!), his Gladiator star Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Vanessa Redgrave, Mark Strong and an ever-growing cast of English actors. Robin Hood has been in development for quite some time now (for a long time the project was known simply as Nottingham), and the filmmakers flirted with several intriguing concepts like reversing roles and portraying the Sheriff of Nottingham as the good guy. Eventually, however, Scott and co. settled on a disappointingly conventional "origins" storyline. Ho hum.
And here I was hoping a new angle would help distinguish this film from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which, despite its silly accents, was a lot of fun, and remains my definitive Robin Hood film. The comparisons are sure to start when Robin Hood is released next year on 14 May.
A Christmas Carol
Haters of Jim Carrey may want to stay far, far away from A Christmas Carol, Disney's big CGI-animated film for the coming holiday season. You see, Carrey not only voices Ebenezer Scrooge, but also all 3 of the ghosts who haunt him. Meanwhile, Gary Oldman also triples up as Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim.
A Christmas Carol has been adapted for the big screen over 50 times (well, that's how it feels at least). The big selling points of this version are:
A) It's a family film from Disney, and
B) It's a performance-capture flick from Robert Zemeckis, who already used the same technique to make Beowulf and The Polar Express.
A Christmas Carol comes out on 6 November this year, in conventional 2D, 3D and even IMAX-3D.
Comments
So, essentially, a rip-off of Twilight...which was a rip-off of the BtVS show...it boggles the mind!