Showing posts with label remake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label remake. Show all posts

Monday, March 23, 2009

True Grit Redux

My natural antipathy towards all remakes had my stomach rolling when I first saw this headline over at First Showing: there's a remake of True Grit in the works. After all, its the film that finally won John Wayne an Oscar for Best Actor. And even if you've never seen True Grit, you've probably seen the clip of Wayne charging the bad guys, reins in his teeth, both guns ablaze. It's one of those iconic film moments that gives you a thrill, especially when you're watching John Wayne fill out the mythical proportions that his screen persona created. Given my fondness for the movie, how do I feel about the remake? I staunchly stand by the idea that Hollywood is out of ideas by investing in ANOTHER remake. And this time, they seem to be getting dangerously close to remaking a classic film, as True Grit treads on the edges of that classification. If the slipperly slope continues, is a Casablanca remake in our future? I do have to admit I'm slightly intrigued by the fact that the Coen Brothers want to shift the film perspective to that of the girl and away from the U.S. Marshall, in an attempt to go back to the original source book of the same name.

In short, please Hollywood, stop remaking films and go find some original ideas. But since this project is already a go, here is a chance to disprove my doubts. Good luck.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Remake Mania: Are there NO original ideas left in Hollywood?

The news this week that came pouring out of Hollywood made me seriously concerned about the amount of creativity left in Hollywood. Story after story told of yet another remake to be made. First Gore Verbinski announced he wanted to do a new version of Clue. Then Guillermo del Toro, the man with more projects then he has fingers mentions in passing he'd like to redo The Count of Monte Cristo, which was made into a film as recently as 2002. Total Recall, The NeverEnding Story, and Damn Yankees round out the line-up of films announced this week to be getting a new spin. Five movies in one week. I think that's something to be concerned about.

While the original of many of these movies were not very good, they do have something of a cult status. The NeverEnding Story in particular is renowned for having terrified little children for years. Why ruin a good-bad thing? We should count our blessings, I suppose, that studios haven't started cannibalizing classic films. But with rumors swirling last year about a rewrite of Poltergeist being worked on. That's getting dangerously close to genuine classics. I know that a work of art is always supposed to be a work in progress, and these directors think they can improve on what has come before, but sometimes the big wigs in Hollywood need to learn to let sleeping dogs lie.
 
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