| Author | Message | ||
     Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
"NOOOOO!!!" was my reaction when a friend gave me the bad news the other day. But it's taken me a while to summon the effort necessary to google two words that should never go together: videodrome remake The idea is apparently to "modernize the concept, infuse it with the possibilities of nano-technology and blow it up into a large-scale sci-fi action thriller." http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/04/long_live_the_new_new_flesh_vi.php What's next? Michael Bay's Dead Ringers? Ugh. I feel faint. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
Hollywood is like an ugly oroburuos, eating its own tail. I hope it chokes to death. | ||
| Lincoln Brown (Lincoln_brown) Username: Lincoln_brown Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 121.214.188.189 |
Probably my favourite film of all time. Niki, don't worry too much - the remake will be so bad, all it will do is highlight how good the original is. | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 94.194.134.45 |
Oh for cryin' out loud, will they never stop? Remaking Aliens, remaking Hellraiser, and now this ... Why don't they just dust off the originals and put them back up on the big screen? Oh yeah, that would actually make a certain amount of sense, and not involve squandering ridiculous amounts of money. | ||
| Simon Strantzas (Nomis) Username: Nomis Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 67.70.22.136 |
On the bright side, no one is taking your DVD away, so relax, sit back, put your feet up, and watch it. Who cares what they're doing in the cinema? | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
I know, I know. I just hate the idea of young people seeing a rubbish remake (always assuming, of course) and having no clue about the brilliant original it's ripping off. And I hate having to qualify things in Google searches afterwards - like "Wicker Man" + Lee, because the title by itself will call up something too hideous for words. I don't know why I feel so personally affronted, but I do. | ||
| Simon Strantzas (Nomis) Username: Nomis Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 67.70.22.136 |
I was listening to reviewers talking this way about the remake of "the Taking of Pelham 123". The truth is, like "The Haunting" before it, no one will remember the remakes. When you say to someone "Have you seen the film Psycho?" no one assumes you mean the Gus Van Sant version. The originals win out, unless the remake is something grand. And let thank our stars Hollywood saw fit to remake "the Maltese Falcon" and "Dracula". | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.209.204.100 |
And of course the remakes of 'The Fly' and 'The Thing' weren't half bad. I must confess I felt a little confused when I read the news of a Videodrome remake as the movie wasn't at all successful on its initial release. I would have thought 'Scanners' would have been more likely to be grabbed by Hollywood for the remake treatment as apart from The Fly it was the only one of Cronenberg's movies to be No.l on the Billboard chart. I'm not even sure if Videodrome made back its $5.5 million budget for Universal. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
I'm sure Videodrome was a video and DVD sleeper hit. Films grow over the years. Some don't do that great theatrically and become big on DVD. Fight Club for example didn't become a hit until it was released on DVD. But yes these remakes are retarted. So much great stuff out there, why keep telling the same stories. And I agree the Fly and The Thing were strong remakes. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
Well, that's put me in my place, Lord P!  Yes, The Fly, The Thing... There are probably dozens more that are so good it's hardly fair to call them "remakes". Good point too about Psycho vs. A Gus Van Sant Film. (Though I do remember overhearing, on someone's mention of Diabolique, a response along the lines of "Oh, that Sharon Stone lesbian one? Yeah, that was hot!") **shudder** I guess I'm just a little protective of my favourites. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
I know a few people who didn't realise Day the earth stood still and Liam Neeson's version of the Haunting were remakes. There is a breed of person, spectacularly ignorant in my view, who refuse to watch any film more than 20 years old on the basis that "It must be crap". I did ask one of these people once what her favourite film was now, and would it still be a good film in 20 years time. Her answer was that it would be, so I asked why she wouldn't watch any older films and she repeated the "cause old films are crap" line again. She really couldn't see the contradiction. I'm afraid i had to bury her deep in the foundations of the M6 toll road... | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.176.5.91 |
Weber - I quite agree. A friend and I were chatting the other week and came to the conclusion that Empire magazine and its ilk feel for the most part that cinema began with Spielberg. | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 94.194.134.45 |
So fast forward 10 or 15 years, and the equivalent generation will think cinema began with Michael Bay. That has to be one of the most depressing sentences I've written this year. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.16.79.235 |
I like the remakes as a guilty pleasure only - I know they're wrong, but I get great enjoyment out of them. Often they're fun, but not to be confused with the originals. The worst were: WHEN A STRANGER CALLS, but in its defense, the original is pretty lousy. The second worst was PROM NIGHT, and it has the same defense. I can't wait to see FRIDAY THE 13TH tomorrow - I will watch and derive great pleasure from it, I'm sure! But remaking VIDEODROME?!... it can't be better than the original, however much I might or might not enjoy it.... | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
There again, in the days when I was condemning Lovecraft and King Kong in print I thought the Hammer Frankenstein was far superior to James Whale's, on the basis that the latter seemed primitive. People do grow up, in the main. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
I do enjoy some remakes and I remember saying last year that I wished someone would remake My Bloody Valentine because the chopped-to-bits original wasn't that great. I still haven't seen it or Friday the 13th, but I imagine I'll enjoy them. It's movies that are established classics (especially established CULT classics) that it seems almost blasphemous to remake. That said, Rocky Horror could be an interesting project for someone really clever. It's an organic phenomenon (like Star Trek), so any re-envisioning would become just another part of its subculture. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
NO REMAKES of the following please: A Clockwork Orange If . . . 2001: a Space Odyssey Once Upon a Time in the West Death in Venice Session 9 I can think of a few other films . . . | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Now, Hubert, if I were being difficult I could suggest If was a remake. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
I'd like to see (or even be instrumental in bringing to the screen) a remake of The Monster Club (although it would probably qualify for a reimagining as I'd want to change pretty much everything and not even use the original stories - Hollywood here I come!!!) I quite like the idea of remakes that are so wholly different from the original that they end up being something special in their own right. I'd love to see Once Upon a Time in the West remade as Once Upon a Time in South Wales, set at the height of the 1926 miners strike. And I might not want to remake If... but I'd love to film a fictionalised account of my early life and at the finale have a massive gun battle on speech day at my public school. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.135.216 |
What of, Ramsey? I mean, apart from being a remake of society. I recently saw THE BAADER-MEINHOF COMPLEX, a documentary that rather underlines Trotsky's critique of terrorism as a revolutionary programme. Ultimately, IF... sees violent revolutionary acts as leading political consciousness, and is thus very much of its era. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Well, I was being difficult! But the roots of If are certainly in Jean Vigo's Zero de Conduite - some of them, anyway: http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/libraries/collections/anderson/inhisownwordsifzero.php I suspect this wouldn't have been so much the case if (as was originally planned) the film had been made by Nicholas Ray. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
I was aware of those parallels - Anderson mentions Vigo in the foreword to the If screenplay - however since I haven't actually seen Zéro de Conduite I can't really comment. As Joel suggests, revolution was very much in the air in those days (May 1968 and all that) and as I recall it was actually fashionable to be revolutionary or at least use the word revolution in every other sentence or so. Those were the days! | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
. . . in the foreword to the printed edition of the If screenplay . . . To think that a young Peter Gabriel (who was in Charterhouse at the time) very nearly made it as one of the boys! | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.144.234 |
"To think that a young Peter Gabriel (who was in Charterhouse at the time) very nearly made it as one of the boys!" Very nearly made it with whom? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
With Bobby Phillips, probably  | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.4.22 |
Imagine Rob Zombie doing a remake of Don't Look Now with a whole origins sequence at the beginning... the dysfunctional home life of - well, don't want to ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it... you get the idea.... I saw a trailer for H2 - it's now his turn to exactly remake the second one, it seems. I hope it's better than that first piece of sh*t. I'm in the minority here, I think, as a fan of his other two flicks...? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
House of 1000 corpses sent me to sleep almost. It made Cabin fever look like a well thought out meditative thriller. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
Craig - I like Zombie's first two films. There's something about them that just clicks. It's almost a new sub genre: gonzo horror. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.129.42 |
New? I was sick of gonzo horror before the 80s had ended. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
You mean Gonzo from the muppet show. :-) | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
Seriously, though, there's a certain manic shitness to Zombie's first two films that I find hugely enjoyable. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.200.147 |
Favourite Muppet Show moment ever: FOZZIE BEAR: Kermit, what's on next, what's on next? KERMIT: Goldilocks and the Four Bears. FOZZIE BEAR: But that's one bear too many. Oh.... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.233.17 |
THANK YOU, Michael Bay!!!!  The remake of FRIDAY THE 13th was everything you could ever want for a comic-book-world slasher-flick. My expectations for same were high... and they were all met. I loved every single minute of this gory violent wonderful pic. This is not high-art, this is not Shakespeare - it's just a fun re-visioning of a familiar old story - getting to see what we've seen before through a latter 2000's lens, with that "look" that is the new slick horror movie, was pure fun. Better than MY BLOODY VALENTINE by a notch (had the other guy in it too, from that light-horror TV series "Supernatural"). This is called a "guilty pleasure" all the way... and it delivers on all the pleasure, and all the guilt. Zed, indeed, the first two R. Zombie pics are quite well-done, for the genre - is it "gonzo horror"? As good a title as any. There's actually a lot of RZ's influence on this new "look" of remade horror films of late.... I thought THE DEVIL'S REJECTS actually better than HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES - it's a desperately dark, manic, insanely ludicrous swath of rabid gruesomeness. Sid Haig (Captain Spaulding), he's a Simi Valley-ite, a regular sight around town. You always run into him - I was eating in a Coco's just a week or so back (think: Denny's) with my mom and sister, and there's Sid Haig, at the counter across from us, eating his breakfast. My sister knew who he is, but my mom didn't - I just said, "He's done some horror movies." She'd be aghast at those RZ flicks.... | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.60.106.5 |
I liked the first two Zombie pics as well- but not his Halloween, at all. He should stick with his 'own' material. I'll have to admit Craig that a friend passed me the new Friday 13th on a burned DVD and I stopped it half way through- or rather I fast forwarded it to the end. I just saw Haneke's Funny Games remake-what an amazing picture. Great performances- and what a screenplay - fantastic. Naomai Watts can just about do anything now. Also watched Cold Prey- I was impressed with what the filmmakers got out of their budgets- it was also a BIG surprise. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.255.181 |
And speaking of remakes..... ------------------ Title: Bride of Frankenstein Logline: A monster, on the run from an angry mob, has a series of adventures and persuades Dr. Frankenstein to create a mate. The doctor is successful, but the bride winds up rejecting the monster in the end. Writer: Neil Burger Dirk Wittenborn Agency: Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency Law Firm: Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern Studio: Universal Pictures Prod. Co: Imagine Entertainment Genre: Horror Logged: 6/17/2009 More: Remake of the 1935 film. Brian Grazer and Sean Daniel will produce. Burger will also direct. Imagine's Karen Kehela, David Bernardi & Chris Wade will oversee. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.108.71 |
Oh - no no no! | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.176 |
"A friend and I were chatting the other week and came to the conclusion that Empire magazine and its ilk feel for the most part that cinema began with Spielberg." Mick, I'm not sure I agree with you on this. Although Empire was born during the advent of the multiplex I think they generally have a decent respect for quality, whatever the age of the film. I find I trust most of their reviews most of the time, even though they have a tendency to overhype the odd film now and again (but that normally gets readjusted by the time it's reviewed on DVD). | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.176.6.105 |
Fair enough - in that case consider the point made against 'its ilk' instead. I bought Empire regularly in its early days for some years but felt, in the end, it was aimed at current cinema, and not anything earlier than the 'seventies, praising the likes of Speilberg and Scorsese, but hardly mentioning any earlier directors at all, apart from maybe Hitchcock and a handful of others. Maybe it's changed over the years... | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.176 |
I think it's better than Total Film. Although I do acknowledge it does concern itself with fairly mainstream 'older' films. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
"Title: Bride of Frankenstein Logline: A monster, on the run from an angry mob, has a series of adventures and persuades Dr. Frankenstein to create a mate. The doctor is successful, but the bride winds up rejecting the monster in the end. Writer: Neil Burger Dirk Wittenborn Agency: Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency Law Firm: Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern Studio: Universal Pictures Prod. Co: Imagine Entertainment..." ...because you won't get any. Well, perhaps I shouldn't condemn it unseen. We used to have a takeaway up the road called the Lucky Balti, which prompted me to coin the slogan "If the food's good, it'll be Lucky." | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
How about Nightmare on Elm Street remade as a martial arts musical comedy? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.61.140 |
Fight Fair and Helm Tweet? | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.60.106.5 |
Mad magazine had some fun spoof titles- The Slices of the Hams and Cliffbanger. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.61.140 |
And don't get started on the porn industry . . . Shaving Ryan's Privates, etc. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.234.239 |
I remember MAD's take on A Clockwork Orange -"Let's face it, Stanley baby, your picture really is A Crockwork Lemon!" | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I should perhaps mention that the Nightmare on Elm Street remake is real. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.61.140 |
Why aren't I surprised? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
With the guy who played jason in Freddie Versus Jason taking over from Robert Englund... | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.176.6.105 |
"Why aren't I surprised?" Shouldn't that be "why amn't I surprised?"? | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
I have to say I did think you were joking, Ramsey. Mein Gott... But hey, they made a musical of Carrie - why not Nightmare on Elm Street? Nothing's sacred, after all. While we're at it let's turn The Exorcist into the romantic comedy it was always crying out to be. He was a man who had lost his faith. In love. She was a prepubescent girl possessed by Satan. But together they were about to discover... that love... and evil... were the perfect match. **cutesy bouncy music** | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Craig, There's a pitch for you... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.3.205 |
Too late, you two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tu2IOVfQjU&feature=related | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.250.36 |
For those of you who are concerned about Hollywood remaking old tried-and-trues, you will happy to know that they at least know enough, not to update one thing... the newspaper. http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/06/04/lol-the-reoccurring-prop-newspaper/ (What's funny is, the moment I saw it? I recognized it!!! [that girl's face, mostly]) | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.131.109.205 |
That's vaguely creepy, like every story in every movie or episode is happening on the same day. | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.170.165 |
"40 MOVIES . . . ONE NEWSPAPER . . .COULD IT BE . . . ED O'REILLY AND NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN ARE TAKING PLACE IN THE SAME UNIVERSE!? BUM-BUM-BUMMMMM . . . ! | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 217.171.129.72 |
In response to some earlier posts, to be fair, can you consider any new adaptation of a film who's genesis is a short story or novel, to be a "remake"? For example, if some director really were to make a new adaptation of 2001 or Don't Look Now, would it not be a reinterpretation of the story or novel rather than a remake of the film? I'm just being devil's advocate here. I admit that both of those movies would be nigh on impossible to better but then that's not exactly the point... or is it? Nic Roeg's Don't Look Now was just an interpretation, that's all I'm saying. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Bodysnatchers would be an excellent example of that. We don't consider the next dracula movie based on Stoker's book to be a remake so why id Invasion a remake of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers? Or The Thing a remake of the Hawks film version of Who Goes Here | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.131.109.71 |
I've decided the remake of Bodysnatchers is my favourite, the Sutherland one. The original short of DLN was really flip, I thought. Not half as good as the film. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.131.109.71 |
Shit - someone should track down the girl in those paper pics and make a movie ABOUT HER. Now that movie I would see... | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 188.28.89.113 |
Did you know Sam Peckinpah appears in Invasion of the Body Snatchers as the meter reader? Yes, you probably all did. | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.154.130.224 |
Movie remakes, pah! If publishers followed suit,could you imagine a hack 'rewrite' of 'Incarnate' set in 2011? | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Patrick - re. your point about whether a new adaptation of a story that's been filmed previously can be classed as a remake - I suppose it depends on the tact the new film takes. If it returns to the source material and adapts that (The Thing, for example) then it's a valid interpretation. If it ignores the source, and simply re-does the plot of the first film version then it's pointless. Your Bodysnatchers example is a good one. Strangely, the people behind this new version of Let the Right One In made all the right noises about going back to the original novel and bringing in stuff that was left out of the Swedish version. But from what I can tell from the trailer, it looks like a straight remake of the film, which is waste of time and effort. |