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Chris_morris (Chris_morris)
Username: Chris_morris

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 12.165.240.116
Posted on Thursday, September 24, 2009 - 03:51 pm:   

Cronenberg's apparently interested in remaking his remake of THE FLY.

http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/2009/09/david-cronenberg-doing-reboot-of-the-fl y.html
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.255.217
Posted on Thursday, September 24, 2009 - 04:28 pm:   

Why doesn't he follow the Hollywood trend and do a prequel called THE MAGGOT?
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, September 24, 2009 - 05:01 pm:   

Not Cronenberg as well... see what I mean now about him going off the boil.

Do something original on a similar theme if it fascinates you so much but not a bloody remake!!!!
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Jonathan (Jonathan)
Username: Jonathan

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.143.178.131
Posted on Thursday, September 24, 2009 - 05:41 pm:   

I don't think he's gone off the boil at all, his last three films have been superb.
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 213.158.199.76
Posted on Thursday, September 24, 2009 - 07:21 pm:   

Jonathan - I agree, mate. Personally, I think he gets better with each film.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.4.18.104
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 12:37 am:   

I'm one of David Cronenberg's biggest fans!
He was literally incapable of doing any wrong in the 70s and 80s but then got a bit self indulgent in the 90s. His films since then have never been any less than fascinating and are frequently still touched by genius (e.g. 'Spider') but ultimately lack the cohesion and vision of his early work. A redundant remake of 'The Fly' (one of his best films) would be something like the final nail in the coffin.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.122.108.128
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 07:41 am:   

District 9 expanded those themes. As will Avatar, I believe. But a remake, because the effects might be better? (which is what is implied here)
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.183.60
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 09:45 am:   

This is a bad idea. The effects in The Fly are just fine. Who wants to see a CG Brundlefly?
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.122.108.128
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 10:20 am:   

Unless it's about a man who becomes half CGI after a run-in with a telly.
'Will you still love me when I look puzzlingly unrealistic?'
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Mark West (Mark_west)
Username: Mark_west

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.39.177.173
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 12:07 pm:   

That'd be a good film, Tony! But only if they used practical effects.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 01:13 pm:   

>>Unless it's about a man who becomes half CGI after a run-in with a telly.
'Will you still love me when I look puzzlingly unrealistic?'<<

That's brilliant, Tony - I love it!
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 213.158.199.97
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 06:44 pm:   

I can't see Cronenberg using CGI for The Fly. If he does this, I hope he doesn't.

As for Avatar, I hope it flops. I want to see it, but I've got a headache from just thinking about it.
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 213.158.199.97
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 06:46 pm:   

Stephen - Spider seems to me so much like one of Ramsey's short stories. Probably why I adore the film.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.122.108.128
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 07:33 pm:   

Oh, Frank! Don't will things to flop! I have a feeling of sweetness about Avatar and am quite looking forward to it.
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 213.158.199.97
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 07:37 pm:   

Tony - sorry, mate. I don't really think that. Just being a miserable bugger.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.122.108.128
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 07:55 pm:   

I understand - it's easy to be flip here.
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Chris_morris (Chris_morris)
Username: Chris_morris

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 12.165.240.116
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 08:29 pm:   

I'm not really looking forward to AVATAR, but I am looking forward to the remake of AVATAR sure to come a few years later.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.4.18.104
Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 - 12:18 am:   

Frank, I agree about 'Spider'. By far his best film since 'Dead Ringers' and actually better in my opinion. You're right, it does have that touch of Ramsey Campbell about it. Would love to see Cronenberg make an equally subtle version of 'The Influence' say. We can but dream...
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.202.166
Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 - 11:20 am:   

Fly, Spider... surely the next one should be Bird?

Even if Cronenberg's recent stuff is uneven, it still feels like he's trying. NAKED LUNCH has improved tremendously with time -- I think it's one of the best films ever made about the strange practice of writing.

Wasn't William Hurt in A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE the least convincing gangster since Marlon Brando's ludicrous cotton-wool in mouth thing in THE GODFATHER? While I'm at it, I'll have a go at TOUCH OF EVIL, which also features one of the worst performances I've ever seen -- Dennis Weaver playing an insane Indiana Jones. A director who'd let an actor away with that was clearly nodding on his throne at that stage in his career.

A remake of THE FLY is actually the oddest thing Cronenberg could do right now. I hope it's a choice. Sam Mendes said in an interview that in the current climate he wouldn't be able to get REVOLUTIONARY ROAD made today. He's talking about a film with huge stars released just last year! Better get back to work on my KEEPING UP APPEARANCES script.
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 213.158.199.79
Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 - 12:06 pm:   

Proto - have you and Craig been supping from the water supply
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 213.158.199.79
Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 - 12:06 pm:   

...same water supply, I meant.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.4.18.104
Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 - 12:49 pm:   

After all the hype and expectation I was so underwhelmed by 'A History Of Violence'. Haven't seen the Russian mafia one but I hear it's much better.

Yeah, William Hurt was painfully miscast in that film whereas Marlon Brando in 'The Godfather' (my 2nd fav movie of all time) was the most inspired piece of casting in the whole of 1970s cinema.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.4.18.104
Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 - 01:14 pm:   

Okay, here goes... Cronenberg could do no wrong up until 'Dead Ringers' for me which was a great film but also vastly overrated by the "intelligentsia". After that he started to believe his own hype and became very hit-and-miss:

'The Naked Lunch' was a brave attempt at an unfilmable novel that remains a fascinating oddity but can't really be deemed successful.

'M. Butterfly' was an astonishingly misguided abject failure the least said about which the better.

'Crash' was another brave attempt at the unfilmable that doesn't quite work - like NL it comes across as too tame compared to the novel - still fascinating though.

'eXistenZ' at last was something of a return to form with the type of surreal sci-fi/horror he appears most comfortable with. Lacked the visceral punch of his early films though and isn't quite vintage Cronenberg.

'Spider' is the one genuine masterpiece he has directed since his glory days for me. Subtle, haunting, brilliantly acted and shows Cronenberg is as good at portraying mental abnormality as he is physical bodyshock horror.

'A History Of Violence' was when the bubble burst for me. A grotesquely over-hyped run of the mill crime thriller that shows little understanding of the genre or flair for action/suspense. Cronenberg is no Peckinpah!

'Eastern Promises' I've yet to see...

All of course imho.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 89.19.91.137
Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 - 01:16 pm:   

I never understood all the Godfather hoop-la. They're pretty good, a bit hammy in places (James Caan biting his fist when he sees his sister's bruise is very funny) but ultimately it's just somebody mumbling in a dark room.

EASTERN PROMISES is good, all right. The small cast and lack of extras on the streets make it feel like a chamber piece, much like THE FLY and VIDEODROME.
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 213.158.199.79
Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 - 01:19 pm:   

Stephen - I recently read an article about the making of the Godfather. I've read several books about 70's Hollywood, but this was the first time that I read Coppola defending Brando. He said that Brando had crazy ideas, yet when they tried them out, they all worked perfectly. Guess there's a method in the madness.

I didn't think Hurt was miscast though. I suppose it depends on how you like your organised crime characters to act.

I mean, Christopher Walken for me was the embodiment of a Hollywood 'wiseguy' in True Romance, whilst Paul Sorvino was the real thing in Goodefellas.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.4.18.104
Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 - 01:32 pm:   

There was just no sense of menace or conviction with William Hurt's performance in AHOV.

Brando was able to give the impression of sheer power and ruthlessness with a mere narrowing of his eyes or gesture of his hand without ever having to raise his voice. It's a brilliantly understated (and unfairly maligned in some quarters) performance. In fact the whole cast of that film, and the sequel, acted out of their skins like never before or since.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.237.4
Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 07:36 am:   

'A History Of Violence' was when the bubble burst for me. A grotesquely over-hyped run of the mill crime thriller that shows little understanding of the genre or flair for action/suspense. Cronenberg is no Peckinpah!

Absolutely! Amen! Alleluia! The other end of the spectrum from GODFATHER/GODFATHER II (hell, you'd have no AHOV without G/GII!) - forgettable crap, AHOV: time will cover it up, erase its existence, and that will be that.

... ExISTENz - that movie was so odd watching it - the pace was sometimes like watching paint dry... and where it went, so limiting, the choices it made so peculiar, seeming missteps all along the way... and still, it waxes better and better, in my memory, in retrospect....
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Skunsworth (Skunsworth)
Username: Skunsworth

Registered: 05-2009
Posted From: 89.242.185.98
Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 12:23 pm:   

I heard that Cronenberg was involved with the remake of the Fly as a live opera. Sadly, I can't remember where I read it, but it wasn't a joke. Although the end result might well be...

S
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.229.90.65
Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 12:36 pm:   

I agree with Mr Walsh - I thought that 'Spider' was a true return to form for Cronenberg after the imitatedness of Existenz. 'Spider' allows DC to continue to develop his themes of transformation, but at a psychological rather than physical level. I really liked it.

The latest Sight & Sound mentions his next project was a Robert Ludlum adaptation, but now he's moved onto something equally uninspiring.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.193.225
Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 03:33 pm:   

Come on Mr. Cronenberg - how about an adaptation of Incarnate or The Influence? I'd love to see Cronenberg or Lynch or Carpenter adapt a Ramsey Campbell novel.
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Gcw (Gcw)
Username: Gcw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.156.38.102
Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 04:56 pm:   

Even they wanted too (which they may) I doubt they would get the finance in this day n'age.

gcw
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.4.18.104
Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 05:44 pm:   

Come to think of it Cronenberg would be a natural for an adaptation of 'Incarnate'. Would be great to see all that body morphing done with make-up and animatronics - NOT CGI!
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.193.225
Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 08:13 pm:   

That's what I was thinking, Stephen. Cronenberg would be perfect.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.4.18.104
Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 09:24 pm:   

Filmed in the same grainy atmospheric style as 'Spider' and with understated use of old-fashioned special effects creating that "something impossible glimpsed at the periphery of vision" vibe. Wouldn't it be wonderful!!
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Seanmcd (Seanmcd)
Username: Seanmcd

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.153.166.237
Posted on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 09:26 pm:   

Not to mention feckin' scary !!

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