So the GF and I when to see Captain America last weekend and I had to do a double take when I saw a poster for a footloose remake...Seriously? Then she calls me a few minutes ago and tells me they are also remaking Dirty Dancing. Ughh and double Ughhh when is Hollywood going to get a clue?
A day ending in "y"? Must be time for another thread lamenting the death of originality and griping about remakes! Remakes have been happening for about as long as Hollywood's been around. Deal with it. Don't want to see remakes? Don't go see them! It's that easy.
They do have a clue. They have over a century of experience telling them that remaking familiar properties sells movie tickets. (Seriously. Back in the days of silent films and early talkies, they remade the same movies over and over, much more frequently than they do today. The Judy Garland Wizard of Oz was the seventh film adaptation of that book.) Purists may balk, but not everyone is a purist, and the record consistently shows that remakes can succeed at drawing in audiences. And although there have been some famously dreadful remakes, there have also been plenty of acclaimed and beloved remakes and reboots, from The Man Who Knew Too Much all the way through Rise of the Planet of the Apes. So forgive me, but the people who need to get a clue are the people who react to remakes as if they were always a bad idea. What determines whether a movie is good or bad is the skill that goes into making it, not where the source idea comes from. Didn't George Lucas already do that? And didn't the purists already express their dissatisfaction about it?
Heck, Lon Chaney starred in two different versions of The Unholy Three, once as a silent and once as a talkie. And, as you noted, Hitchcock directed two different versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much. And Tod Browning remake his own film, London After Midnight, as Mark of the Vampire. Shall we recite the litany of classic remakes one more time? The Wizard of Oz, Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Tarzan of the Apes, The Mark of Zorro, The Maltese Falcon, Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, Some LIke It Hot, The Magnificent Seven, Scarface, The Thing, The Fly, Victor/Victoria, The Fugitive, The Three and Four Musketeers, Batman, Superman: The Motion Picture, Batman Begins, Casino Royale, The Lord of the Rings . . . need I go on?
It looks like they're remaking all those 80's dancing movies. They already remade Fame. I don't see what's stopping them from remaking those other ones listed.
Assuming that George surrounds himself with the right kind of creative folks and not just yes-men, that might not be as terrible as it might seem. Sure, the mind boggles at the challenge of recasting Han Solo, but would Luke and Leia really be so difficult? If they hurried, they could get Jennifer Lawrence for the latter. At least she looks like Mom. Spock was a harder character to recast than any of them, since he's far less of a type, and that worked out amazingly well. Of course, there would need to be a recognition that the scripts of ANH and ESB would need only the most minor of tweaking, and maybe it's more the directing that should be tweaked - a real fight between Vader and Obi-Wan; more realistic reaction from the twins at seeing their families/planet obliterated. Somewhat less whining from Luke would be welcome. Establishing that Vader reneged on his deal with Lando because he recognized Leia was his daughter would be a nice touch. ROTJ could use some major work. The PT needs a total do-over. So more than half of the series would benefit from a remake. Get to work, George.
It won't happen. I think he once said he had a plan for his companies to continue but not the film. Things can change but I don't see it happening.
George Lucas is not immortal, and I doubt Never Remake Star Wars or I Will Rise from the Grave to Wreak Unholy Vengeance is something that's enforceable in a will. If Lucasfilm goes public someday (after George's death), a remake becomes far more likely. Public companies have a responsibility to their shareholders to capitalize mercilessly on their intellectual property. So far, George has been pussyfooting around compared with what a real company would be doing.
usually it was several decades if not many of them, that they happen though. I tseems now that wait about ten years we TPTB say wow the movie goers are so fucking gullible...it's only been 5-10 years ..we can get money saying it's better!.... And look how that one turned out! What is next "GHOST" or "Titannic"?....
Yeah, I don't buy that one either. As of a few years ago, Star Wars had grossed over $13 billion in sales. He's merchandised it to death over the years, as well as doing seven movies (counting the animated film) and a bunch of animated shows. Seeing as George is the lone "stockholder" of the SW francise, he owes it to no one what he does with his intellectual property.
Nah. You know I'm theorectically fine with a Star Wars remake, but I see no reason for it to be something like Gus van Sant's Psycho. Do what other remakes do: Take the concept, update where relevant, and make a solid film out of it. Princess Leia is captured by the evil Empire, a scrappy farmboy from a desert planet, a space pirate, and an old mystical knight guy go off to save her from a fellow with evidently serious repistory issues. We don't need to follow the original beat for beat for beat, although I'm sure we'd see a fair few visual cues and lines sprinkled throughout (the opening shot of the Star Destroyer looming overhead seems hypothetically inevitable). While remakes are not by definition bad ideas, there's certainly plenty of remakes that are soulless or idiotic retreads of earlier, better films, so the hate's definitely coming from somewhere genuine and legitimate. As good as Rise of the Planet of the Apes was - and it was great - before it, there was Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes. And really, is anyone thinking that remakes of Footloose or Dirty Dancing are going to be anything other than disposable cinematic detritus? I suppose it's theorectically possible but I don't think it's terribly likely.
It wasn't that bad. The thing about it is that it lacked atmosphere, but then again I wasn't exactly looking at that with the original, but it definitely was missing something. I did appreciate how they expanded on the notion of fame through different areas though.
First off, the original movies weren't that great, sorry to burst anybody's bubble. Remaking them isn't killing any sacred cows. And also, if you're old enough to complain about them remaking these movies, then, and this is what it all boils down to, you're too old for the studios to care about watching this movie. Sure, they'll attract some of the curious. But there's a generation of people out there who wouldn't touch the original Footloose of Dirty Dancing with a 10 foot pole ("really, dad, how did you watch this crap?") So they modernized it, hipped it up, and made a movie for someone ELSE to enjoy that the old fogies will complain about. Remember how old you were when you first saw these movies? It's their turn.
Short Circuit - Already in the works The Breakfast Club - Hadn't heard anything, but I bet a new Brat Pack is coming Sixteen Candles - Easily remade for today Just One of the Guys - Could be remade, but would studios have the balls to do an r rated cut? Back to the Future - Hey, they remade The Karate Kid. Anything could happen! Teen Wolf - A TV series is on now, could captialize on the Twilight fame! Red Dawn - Already in the can. Waiting for funding. Say Anything - They could switch roles on this one. Make a girl be the stalker! Adventures in Babysitting - Easily remade Mannaquin - Again, with a better script, this onecould be good. Weekend at Bernies - This one could be a parody of the actual Weekend at Bernies. Commando - Already in the works! With Conan, and Total Recal comming out, remakes of Arnolds works are no longer out of the question! Predator - Again, see above. First Blood - Stallone has already talked about it! Everything old is new again. As for Star Wars, it will never EVER happen. Unless it's done by Lucas' company or by The Maker himself. Lucas has all sequel/prequel/remake rights to Star Wars which he got when the original came out. FOX execs laughed at him when the original came out, and gave over all merchanising, and other rights solely to him, which Im sure many here already know. If FOX kept everything, we'd have Episode 15 by now, and a remake of the original on the way! Imagine, in some other alternate universe...
I saw some preview footage from Footloose yesterday, and it looks like a lot of fun. The dance moves are more ambitious and I don't know if it's true for the whole movie, but in the clip I saw they were dancing to hip-hop so it's not just regurgitating the soundtrack from the original.
Er, you do realize that there were at least three previous movies about the Titanic? And a tv mini-series? And Hollywood never waited "several decades" before remaking classics. Just one example: the John Barrymore version of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde was in the twenties, the Oscar-winning Fredric March version was in thirties, the Spencer Tracy version was in the forties, the Hammer Films version was in the sixties, the Jack Palance version was in the seventies . . . and so on. Heck, there was only nine years between Nosferatu (1922) and Dracula (1931)