Remake Remake Fucking Remake

Started by modage, March 05, 2005, 10:02:37 AM

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MacGuffin

Universal remaking 'Drop Dead Fred'
Pic being resurrected as starring vehicle for Russell Brand
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Universal is resurrecting "Drop Dead Fred," this time as a starring vehicle for Russell Brand.

Dennis McNicholas, one of the writers of Universal's upcoming "Land of the Lost," will pen the remake. Marc Platt is producing via his studio-based Marc Platt Prods. along with Working Title's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.

The 1991 original starred Phoebe Cates as a wallflower who loses her job and husband during the course of a lunch hour. Forced to live back home, she's reunited with her childhood imaginary friend (Brit actor Rik Mayall), who promises to help but causes more havoc.

Produced by PolyGram and Working Title, the first "Fred" was critically drubbed and commercially unsuccessful. But it did achieve a certain cult status and is considered a film that fell short of its full potential.

The take for the new "Fred" is to make a film in the tone of "Beetlejuice," building a universe around the concept of imaginary friends. Brand would play the trouble-making pal.

Brand seems to making Universal his American home. The comedian and former BBC host made his U.S. screen debut with the studio's "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and is rehearsing for the Judd Apatow-produced "Get Him to the Greek," which shoots in May.

Brand also appeared in Disney's "Bedtime Stories" and is attached to star in Warner Bros.' remake of "Arthur."

McNicholas, a longtime writer on "Saturday Night Live," is scripting the feature version of "H.R. Pufnstuf" for Columbia. He and Brand are repped by Endeavor.

Platt is producing "Scott Pilgrim," Universal's adaptation of the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley now lensing in Toronto.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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polkablues

They are scraping very close to the bottom of the barrel.  Pretty soon they're going to be announcing remakes of "Shakes the Clown" and "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane".
My house, my rules, my coffee

Gamblour.

We should really start a pool to see who can predict what will be remade next. A hefty percentage of the pool goes to Xixax, the rest to the correct winner (or split amongst winners).

This way it'll sting twice as much when they decide to remake Jaws or when they remake the remake of Psycho.
WWPTAD?

SiliasRuby

I have a special place in my heart for the original and the great premise so I am weary of this....it COULD be amazing, probably won't be though....
The Beatles know Jesus Christ has returned to Earth and is in Los Angeles.

When you are getting fucked by the big corporations remember to use a condom.

There was a FISH in the perkalater!!!

My Collection

Bethie

aw, Drop Dead Fred. I remember HATING when he cut her hair off.
who likes movies anyway

MacGuffin

'Fright Night' remake in works
New version will keep comedy-horror tone
Source: Hollywood Repoter

Vampires continue their bloody winning streak as DreamWorks is in the process of picking up a remake of "Fright Night."

Michael Gaeta and Alison Rosenzweig of Gaeta/Rosenzweig Films are producing along with Michael De Luca. Rosenzweig, who also is setting up remakes of "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud" and "Angel Heart" with De Luca, brought the project to him.

DreamWorks co-president of production Mark Sourian is overseeing for the studio, which has rarely foraged in the horror genre for material. Its most recent two outings -- "The Uninvited" and "The Ruins" -- grossed just $29 million and $17 million, respectively. But its remake of "The Ring" and its sequel grossed $390 million worldwide.

The original "Fright Night," written and directed by Tom Holland in 1985, was a horror comedy about a teenager who discovers that his neighbors are vampires. No writer has been hired, but the updated version will keep the comedy-horror tone while modernizing the effects.

The CAA-repped De Luca also is producing "Moneyball," starring Brad Pitt, at Columbia, and has the drama "Brothers," directed by Jim Sheridan, coming out this year.

Rosenzweig recently did business with DreamWorks and Sourian on "Nonstop," a sci-fi action thriller from screenwriter Michael Gilvary that Patrick Tatopoulos is directing and Len Wiseman is producing for the studio.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

StudioCanal remounts 'Cliff'
Studio teams with Original Film for reboot
Source: Variety

Storming into Cannes with an ever-more muscular international slate and standout financial results, Gallic mini-major StudioCanal has announced that it will be teaming with Neal Moritz's L.A.-based Original Films to reboot "Cliffhanger."

A big-budget international action-adventure thriller set in a big mountain milieu, the makeover of Renny Harlin's 1993 pic will center on a group of young climbers.

"Just as they rebooted 'Star Trek,' we're going to do the same with 'Cliffhanger,' " said Moritz, who will produce. Unlike the original, where Italy stood in for the Colorado Rockies, the new redo looks set to feature multiple cliff-face locations.

Moritz ("Fast & Furious") and StudioCanal are looking to attach a screenwriter.

Aiming for a 2010 shoot, the makeover forms one of "a half-dozen or so projects" linking StudioCanal and Moritz, said StudioCanal chairman Olivier Courson.

Moritz is already producing an $80 million-plus  remake of "Escape from New York" for Warner Bros.-New Line and StudioCanal. And Universal and StudioCanal are co-financing the Moritz-produced narrative remake of docu "The Complete History of My Sexual Failures," with Jay Roach attached to direct.

Owned by Vivendi paybox Canal Plus, StudioCanal will fully finance "Cliffhanger."

"The Cliffhanger" announcement comes as StudioCanal looks to drive with ever more force into U.S., international and local movie production. It's also upping the number of international pictures it's producing per year to around five.

Despite the global economic downturn, StudioCanal has just released eye-catching financials with total 2008 sales of E400 million ($532.8 million), up 7.5%, and $74.6 million operating profits, up 22%.

But the Gallic studio wants more. Its production investment in 2008 was at $200 million. According to Courson, StudioCanal will now approach investors to raise complementary financing -- targeting specific slates -- pushing yearly production investment beyond $270 million a year.

StudioCanal has international production relationships with a slew of high-profile companies: Original, Montecito (on "Chloe"), Spyglass (the Charlize Theron-starrer "The Tourist"), John Woo and Terence Chang's Lion Rock Prods. (for Kim Jee-woon's "Max and the Junkmen") and Media Asia -- where it co-finances Johnnie To's $40 million "The Red Circle," from a script by "Eastern Promises" director Steve Knight.

"Circle" begins to shoot in early fall, Courson said.

Taking world rights outside the U.S., StudioCanal also co-financed thriller "Soon the Darkness," Argentine Marcos Efron's debut feature, with Amber Heard ("The Rum Diary"), and  Karl Urban ("Star Trek").

On Thursday, StudioCanal will showcase first footage from Ben Stassen's "Around the World in 50 Years," Europe's biggest digital 3-D movie to date, which StudioCanal will distribute directly in the U.K. (via Optimum Releasing), Germany (via Kinowelt) and France; StudioCanal will also handle international sales.

"The idea is to be the leading European studio, a credible alternative to Hollywood's majors, at the level of, say, Summit or Mandate, in production and international sales," Courson said.

Currently pushing hard into U.K. production, StudioCanal has the base, and the will.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

'Buffy' in for feature relaunch
Players meeting with writers for new take on the franchise
Source: Hollywood Reporter

A new incarnation of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" could be coming to the big screen.

"Buffy" creator Joss Whedon isn't involved and it's not set up at a studio, but Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment are working with original movie director Fran Rubel Kuzui and her husband, Kaz Kuzui, on what is being labeled a remake or relaunch, but not a sequel or prequel.

While Whedon is the person most associated with "Buffy," Kuzui and her Kuzui Enterprises have held onto the rights since the beginning, when she discovered the "Buffy" script from then-unknown Whedon. She developed the script while her husband put together the financing to make the 1992 movie, which was released by Fox.

Kuzui later teamed with Gail Berman, then president of Sandollar Television, bringing back Whedon to make the TV series, which was produced by Fox TV and launched on the WB in 1997. Kuzui and Sandollar received executive producer credits on "Buffy" and its spinoff, "Angel."

The new "Buffy" film, however, would have no connection to the TV series, nor would it use popular supporting characters like Angel, Willow, Xander or Spike. Vertigo and Kuzui are looking to restart the story line without trampling on the beloved existing universe created by Whedon, putting the parties in a similar situation faced by Paramount, J.J. Abrams and his crew when relaunching "Star Trek."

One of the underlying ideas of "Buffy" allows Vertigo and Kuzui to do just that: that each generation has its own vampire slayer to protect it. The goal would be to make a darker, event-sized movie that would, of course, have franchise potential.

The parties are meeting with writers and hearing takes, and later will look for a home for the project. The producers do not rule out Whedon's involvement but have not yet reached out to him.Speaking from Tokyo, Fran Kuzui said the company is constantly approached not only about sequels but theater, video games and foreign remakes for "Buffy." When Vertigo's Lee contacted them, they were intrigued.

"It was Roy's interest in taking Buffy into a new place that grabbed us," she said, noting that original exec producer Sandy Gallin also was consulted. "It was based on our respect for what he does, and his particular sensitivity to Asian filmmakers, that we wanted to work with him."

Kuzui, who is prepping do direct a movie in Japan in the fall, added: "Everything has its moment. Every movie takes on a life at some point, and this seems like the moment to do this."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

"Navigator" taking flight again at Disney

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Disney is readying a relaunch of the 1986 sci-fi adventure movie "Flight of the Navigator." It has hired "Wild Hogs" scribe Brad Copeland to write the remake.

The original movie told the story of a 12-year-old boy (Joey Cramer) who is abducted by an alien spacecraft in 1978 and reappears eight years later, still the same age and with no memory of what happened. NASA scientists discover a connection between the boy and a downed spacecraft and try to exploit the boy, who ultimately escapes with the ship and attempts to reunite with his family.

The movie, which also featured Sarah Jessica Parker and Paul Reubens, grossed only $17 million theatrically, but was later rediscovered on VHS, becoming a cult hit.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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polkablues

I watched that movie so many times as a kid.  I used to have a recurring nightmare about coming home and discovering that I had been missing for years and everyone had aged except me.
My house, my rules, my coffee

MacGuffin

'Valley Girl' redux set
Jason Moore signs on to direct
Source: Hollywood Reporter

"Shrek: The Musical" director Jason Moore has signed to helm MGM's re-imagining of "Valley Girl" as a musical feature. Amy Talkington's updated screenplay spurred studio head Mary Parent and the first-time filmmaker to move on it quickly.

Idealogy's Sean Bailey and Matt Smith, who are producing, pitched MGM last summer on their fresh approach to revamping the 1983 cult comedy, which starred Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman in a romance that bridged the '80s punk scene and suburban San Fernando Valley culture. MGM exec Becky Sloviter is shepherding the project for the studio.

"Valley Girl" has been recast as a "Romeo and Juliet"-inspired musical built around the movie's new wave soundtrack (think Modern English, Sparks and the Psychedelic Furs). Martha Coolidge directed the original script written and produced by Wayne Crawford and Andrew Lane.

The '80s archeology is part of MGM's strategy to repackage classic catalog titles for new audiences in novel ways. The first product of this effort, "Fame," dances into theaters Sept. 25. "Red Dawn," "RoboCop," "Poltergeist" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" are in development there.

The UTA-repped Moore has directed episodes of "One Tree Hill," "Everwood" and "Brothers & Sisters." He directed the $24 million Broadway production of "Shrek: The Musical," which is nominated for eight Tony Awards including best musical and won the 2009 Drama Desk Award for outstanding musical.

He also has directed "Steel Magnolias" and "Avenue Q" on Broadway. "Valley Girl" will be his feature debut.

Talkington, who is repped by UTA and the Arlook Group, was a music writer before becoming a filmmaker. She wrote and directed the indie comedy "The Night of the White Pants" and adapted "The Devil in the Junior League" for Fox 2000.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

'Short Circuit' gets 'Robot' touch
Dan Milano to write remake of 1986 comedy
Source: Variety

Dimension Films has tapped Dan Milano to script "Short Circuit," the remake of the 1986 pic.

The original was about an armed robot that acquired a personality after a lightning strike, and sought the help of humans to prevent its destruction by its makers in the military.

Milano, who aside from writing and providing voices for the Adult Swim cartoon "Robot Chicken" and co-creating and playing the title character in "Greg the Bunny," figures to bring a subversive edge to the original film scripted by S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock.

David Foster, who produced the original and is back to produce the remake with Ryan E. Heppe and John Hyde, said that Milano first watched the original while he was in high school, and sparked to updating the concept.

"We're bringing Number 5 into the 21st Century and taking advantage of the improvements in robotics that are so massive that robots are now performing heart surgeries in hospitals," Foster said.

The producer said the robot's visual look won't change, even though Foster said Pixar's "Wall-E" is a dead ringer for the original "Short Circuit" protagonist.

"We think of 'Wall-E' as an extended trailer for our film, because it's the same face," Foster said.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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squints

Quote from: OrHowILearnedTo From The Worst is the Best thread on June 03, 2009, 06:19:25 PM
Short Circuit anyone?

six hours later.

Quote from: MacGuffin on June 04, 2009, 12:27:53 AM
'Short Circuit' gets 'Robot' touch
Dan Milano to write remake of 1986 comedy
Source: Variety

Dimension Films has tapped Dan Milano to script "Short Circuit," the remake of the 1986 pic.
"The myth by no means finds its adequate objectification in the spoken word. The structure of the scenes and the visible imagery reveal a deeper wisdom than the poet himself is able to put into words and concepts" – Friedrich Nietzsche

MacGuffin

'Werewolf' redo in works
Dimension remaking John Landis' 1981 horror-comedy
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Dimension Films has set its sights on remaking John Landis' 1981 cult classic horror "An American Werewolf in London."

Dimension has picked up the rights from Landis in what was described as a competitive environment.

Overture execs-turned-producers Sean and Bryan Furst are on board to produce.

Landis wrote and directed the comedy-horror film, which starred David Naughton and Griffin Dunne as two American backpackers hiking in the Yorkshire moors attacked by a mysterious animal who turns out to be a werewolf. Naughton ends up terrorizing London while Dunne is a reanimated corpse suggesting ways for Naughton to kill himself and stop the curse.

No writer or director is on board but Dimension and the producers hope to make an elevated genre picture that will keep the fun comedy elements of the original as it seeks to be relevant to contemporary audiences.

Landis, repped by Gersh, will act as an exec producer and possibly consult.

Bloody-Disgusting.com initially broke the news of the remake.

The remake falls in line with Dimension's penchant for picking up horror titles with hopes of relaunching money-making franchises. The company is releasing "Halloween II" at the end of August and is developing a remake of "Hellraiser."

The Fursts, who count "The Cooler" and "The Matador" among their credits, are developing a remake of the Icelandic thriller "Jar City," which they hope to have before cameras by year's end.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

'Outland' remake in works
Michael Davis to direct update of 1981 space Western
Source: Hollywood Reporter

"Outland" is in.

Warner Bros. is resurrecting the 1981 space Western in an incarnation to be written by Chad St. John and directed by Michael Davis. Hollywood Gang's Gianni Nunnari is producing, with the company's Craig Flores exec producing.

The original, which drew comparisons to "High Noon," starred Sean Connery as a marshal on one of Jupiter's moons who is investigating mysterious deaths. He's forced to take on the colony's corporate administrators alone when the rest of the colonists refuse to help. It was written and directed by Peter Hyams.

The new take expands the concept, making it tentpole-sized, while keeping the original's theme. The story takes place in an orbiting city around the moon, where a cop uncovers a murderous conspiracy endangering the entire city. With a week before his retirement back to Earth, our hero has to choose between walking away with his wife, or taking on a private army with his overachieving ex-partner and wife's former boyfriend.

Lynn Harris and Jesse Ehrman are overseeing for Warners while Oliver Kramer shepherds for Hollywood Gang.

Hollywood Gang's upcoming productions include "Everybody's Fine," with Robert De Niro and Drew Barrymore, and Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island." Both are being released this fall.

St. John, repped by ICM, wrote time-travel sci-fi spec "The Days Before," which is set up at Warners with Hollywood Gang to produce. He has a blind deal with Warners, which resulted in "Motor City," a thriller to which Joel Silver is on board as producer.

Davis, also repped by ICM, is a storyboard artist-turned-helmer who is best known for writing and directing "Shoot 'em Up," which starred Clive Owen.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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