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AIRPLANE! Reboot

Mr. Laser Beam

Mr. Laser Beam

Fleet Admiral
Admiral
If Airplane! was filmed today, who do you think should star?

My recommendations:

Brad Pitt as Ted Striker

Sandra Bullock as Elaine Dickinson

Sean Hayes as Johnny

Michael Hogan as Dr. Rumack
(MH would also be great in a Police Squad! reboot)

Patrick Stewart as Captain Oveur

Edward James Olmos as Steve McCroskey

Vaughn Armstrong as Rex Kramer

(or perhaps switch those last two)
 
That's not a reboot. It's remake.

And you'd never get Brad Pitt or Sandra Bullock to star in it.

Airplane was a low budget film that featured TV actors, mostly with dramatic backgrounds. That was part of the charm. If you are going to remake it, at least do it in a similar fashion.
 
The only TV I'm at all familiar with these days is L&O, and I'm not sure if any of its actors would fit (Sam Waterston as Captain Oveur, maybe?).
 
It doesn't have to be TV actors from these days. In fact, at the time of the original Airplane, most of the cast were kind of considered "over the hill."
 
Airplane! would never work as a remake, IMO. The reason the original was so good was because it was thrown together on a low budget with a bunch of no-name actors and dramatic bit players considered past their prime. There's no way a remake would be low-profile enough to achieve that kind of magic again.
 
I'm with Canadave. It would be like trying to catch lightning in a bottle a second time, and in any case Airplane! has aged well.

Anyway, I'm not sure that the Zucker Abrahams Zucker would support a straight remake. Consider the character of Frank Drebin, who appears to be a liberal remake of Inspector Clouseau.
 
Wereghost said:
Anyway, I'm not sure that the Zucker Abrahams Zucker would support a straight remake. Consider the character of Frank Drebin, who appears to be a liberal remake of Inspector Clouseau.
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That's what Drebin was in the movies, but it's nothing to do with what he was in the original Police Squad! TV series. That show was meant to be a parody of tough-cop shows, in particular M Squad starring Lee Marvin. Drebin was actually supposed to be based on tough, no-nonsense TV cops in general, characters like Joe Friday or Steve McGarrett, or like the serious cop characters Nielsen had played in the past. That was the idea behind Airplane! and Police Squad! -- to take actors who were known for their reputations as serious dramatic performers and having them lampoon those reputations by bringing the same grave, melodramatic, deadpan approach to totally ridiculous comedic situations. So by the standards of his insane universe, Frank Drebin was actually a skilled, capable lawman who had the respect of the people around him, people who were just as ridiculous and just as deadpan about it as he was.

But for some reason, when they took it to movies, they reworked it so that Drebin became a stumbling buffoon that other, more normal characters looked on with scorn -- as you say, more like Clouseau. And that's a key reason the movies don't work as well as the series. It's a totally different style of humor from the kind that made Airplane! work.
 
the G-man said:
JarodRussell said:
The thought of remaking a spoof movie alone is so incredibly weird...
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"Young Frankenstein" was a spoof movie that got remade into a successful Broadway musical.
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Which is, of course, entirely different, as it's a remake for another medium. And then it's about the rather timeless Frankenstein story, and not about the rather contemporary Airport movie craze in the 70s and 80s.

A remake of Spaceballs as a Star Wars parody or Hot Shots! as a Top Gun pardoy would also be pointless by now.
 
the G-man said:
Airplane was a low budget film that featured TV actors, mostly with dramatic backgrounds. That was part of the charm. If you are going to remake it, at least do it in a similar fashion.
Click to expand...

This

Canadave said:
Airplane! would never work as a remake, IMO. The reason the original was so good was because it was thrown together on a low budget with a bunch of no-name actors and dramatic bit players considered past their prime. There's no way a remake would be low-profile enough to achieve that kind of magic again.
Click to expand...

And this.

JarodRussell said:
The thought of remaking a spoof movie alone is so incredibly weird...
Click to expand...

Plus this.
 
JarodRussell said:
...and not about the rather contemporary Airport movie craze in the 70s and 80s.

A remake of Spaceballs as a Star Wars parody or Hot Shots! as a Top Gun pardoy would also be pointless by now.
Click to expand...

This. Does anyone even remember the wave of disaster movies that was so popular back then?
 
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