Remake Remake Fucking Remake

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

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Pubrick

so, let's recap the reasons movies are remade or franchises are rebooted:

1. first film was a success but not in english.. oldboy, let the right one in.

2. first film made lots of money but is not considered a success, so it's reason to try again.. HULK

3. first film was sort of a success in that it made money but not ENUFF money to immediately greenlight a sequel, that is until the rights are almost up for grabs and studios start acting like GOLLUM or some kind of crazy hoarder who can't throw anything away or more accurately like a little baby who doesn't want the ball until you start playing with it.. daredevil.

..more?

understanding the psychology behind studio decisions is an important first step to making sense of this madness and maybe eventually ending it.
under the paving stones.

pete

comicbooks have formed film studios that are pushing their own franchises anyway they can and are bringing the comicbook business mindset to filmmaking, which involves pushing an infinite number of variations on the same product.  it hasn't failed yet.  that genre seems to big to die, but give it time, it's gonna die.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

MacGuffin

Mr. & Mrs. Smith Also Being Rebooted?
Source: New York Magazine

New York Magazine's Vulture* is reporting that the 2005 20th Century Fox action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith that brought together Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (in many more ways than one) is being given the reboot treatment by Regency, one of the development arms of Fox, with Akiva Goldsman attached to produce.

The original movie showed what happened when a married couple, both working undercover without the other one's knowledge, end up on the opposite side of the world of espionage having been hired by competing agencies to kill the other. According to the story, the new movie would involve a pair of 20-something secret agents who are set up in a fake arranged marriage as covers after graduating the academy. Although it's thought that these would be different characters and not exactly a prequel to the earlier film, it would allow Fox to continue it as a franchise without paying the hefty sum Pitt and Jolie would want for a sequel. As mentioned in the article, this tactic is similar to the mindset that created the comedy prequel Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd a number of years back.
"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


Skeleton FilmWorks

The Perineum Falcon

Ugh, fuck. "reboot" now?

Hollywood needs to reboot itself.
We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

matt35mm


Pas

how is that a reboot... whatever stupid news about a stupid movie bound to make stupid money

Stefen

Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

MacGuffin

'Police Academy' remake on patrol at New Line
Source: Hollywood Reporter

New Line is looking for recruits for a relaunched "Police Academy" movie.

Original producer Paul Maslansky is back for the new iteration, which has no writer or director attached.

"Academy" was a seven-film Warner Bros. lowbrow comedy series that saw a city throw open the doors of its police force to any recruit, much to the chagrin of its serious officers. The misfit officers band together and, of course, save the city.

The first film, released in 1984, starred Steve Guttenberg as Mahoney, a repeat offender who is forced to enter the academy and emerges as the group's leader. Other notable characters included Moses Hightower (Bubba Smith), gun-crazy Tackleberry (David Graf), mousy Hooks (Marion Ramsey) and sound effects-spewing Larvell Jones (Michael Winslow).

Bobcat Goldthwait joined the cast for the second movie in 1985. The series, which included Kim Cattrall and Sharon Stone as romantic leads, ended with the 1994's "Mission to Moscow." All told, the franchise took in about $240 million worldwide and inspired a pair of TV series.

"It's going to be very worthwhile to the people who remember it and to those who saw it on TV," Maslansky said. "It's going to be a new class. We hope to discover new talent and season it with great comedians. It'll be anything but another movie with a numeral next to it. And we'll most probably retain the wonderful musical theme."

The early entries in the series featured sexual humor, but later films became more kid-friendly. Details of the tone of new movie, which would take the story to its beginnings with new characters, were unavailable.

This time around, corporate parent Warner Bros. has sister company New Line taking the title out of its library, as it recently did with the "National Lampoon's Vacation" series.

Sam Brown is overseeing.
"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


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

WORD OF MOUTH: Remaking foreign-language films in English
Foreign-language films don't tend to do well at the U.S. box office, but Hollywood is happy to remake them.
Source: Los Angeles Times

Hollywood loves foreign-language films -- as long as it doesn't have to release them.

American studios, producers and filmmakers are pursuing remakes of several prominent foreign titles -- including "Let the Right One In," "Tell No One" and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" -- even as most domestic distributors steer clear of everything with subtitles.

"It's funny how many remakes there are," says producer Rick Schwartz, who recently completed an English-language version of France's "13 (Tzameti)" and is developing a Nicole Kidman-starring remake of Colombia's "At the End of the Spectra." "It really is a huge business."

But not necessarily for the brave souls still committed to releasing the overseas movies in U.S. art houses. The original "13" grossed just $121,000 in domestic release; "Spectra" never made it to American theaters.

Of the nearly 1,000 foreign-language films released in the U.S. since 1980, only 22 have grossed more than $10 million, with more than 70% of them taking in less than $1 million, according to boxofficemojo.com. Attendance for overseas product has fallen by as much as 40% over the last five years, according to one estimate. It's hard to say if the collapse is being driven by audience indifference, specialized film distributor downfalls (Miramax, Picturehouse, Paramount Vantage, Warner Independent and ThinkFilm all have vanished), unrealistic box-office expectations or a combination of the three. What's undebatable is that, to some distributors these days, overseas imports are about as attractive as dramas about the Iraq war.

"They were treating these films as Hollywood fare, and it had a negative effect on everybody," says Jonathan Sehring of IFC Films, which with Sony Pictures Classics and Music Box Films is among the most dedicated distributors of foreign fare. "The advances that were paid to the sales companies were out of whack, and the marketing costs were out of whack with what the return on investment was," Sehring says.

"The cost of releasing these films is expensive, and people don't want to put up the money to market them," says Gloria Feldman of Circle Associates, who represents foreign distributors and producers. "They also play to a small art house circuit, and mainstream exhibitors don't see enough money in return to exhibit them."

Adds Glen Basner of the independent production and international sales company FilmNation Entertainment: "One of the biggest issues with foreign-language films is that they don't qualify for pay TV deals, and that's a key engine for U.S. distributors."

Graded on a slight curve, there are nevertheless some recent success stories.

The 2008 Swedish vampire story "Let the Right One In" grossed more than $2.1 million domestically, while the 2006 French thriller "Tell No One" grossed $6.2 million. If Sweden's 2009 crime drama "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," which opens in L.A. theaters this week, attracts a tenth as many American patrons as it has in Europe, it could join those minor hits.

The Niels Arden Oplev-directed adaptation of Stieg Larsson's crime novel about disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist and quiet but fearless investigator Lisbeth Salander looking into a decades-old disappearance already has grossed more than $100 million globally. Those eye-popping returns are consistent with the blockbuster sales for the late author's "Millennium" trilogy, which also includes "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest."

The first novel was released here in September 2008, debuting at No. 4 on the New York Times bestseller list in early October (there are more than 1.6 million copies of the book in print, and the paperback version hit No. 1 by the end of 2009). "The Girl Who Played With Fire" went on sale in July, and became the first translated work in 25 years to hit the top spot on the hardcover list. (The third book arrives in the states on May 25.)

Given the books' popularity -- coupled with their often gothic violence and unforgettable characters -- it was little surprise that American companies wanted a piece. The English-language rights ultimately went to producer Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures, with "Schindler's List" screenwriter Steven Zaillian adapting. Among those rumored to be interested in the American version: directors Sam Raimi and David Fincher, and actress Natalie Portman as Salander.

The foreign-language remake fetish is understandable.

In addition to looking for movies that have pre-sold awareness, studios also are searching for stories that already have been tested: There's such an inherently good plot in the 2002 Hong Kong police drama "Infernal Affairs" that it didn't take a huge leap to imagine it as 2006's "The Departed." Future remakes include Chloe Moretz in "Let Me In" (from "Let the Right One In"), Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in "The Tourist" (France's "Anthony Zimmer") and Russell Crowe "The Next Three Days" (France's "Anything for Her").

But the distributors of the foreign films aren't banking that every ticket buyer will wait for the versions without subtitles.

"There is such great product out there," says William Schopf, whose Music Box is releasing "Dragon Tattoo" and also handled "Tell No One." He first watched the Larsson adaptation over the Internet, and even though the picture was tiny its impact was huge. Music Box soon made a deal to release all three of the Millennium films. "I was fascinated by it. It grabbed me," Schopf says. The film will debut in about 30 cities on Friday, with more markets added in the coming weeks.

Roy Lee, one of the most active producers of foreign-language remakes ("The Departed," "The Ring," "The Grudge") tried to buy the U.S. rights to "Dragon Tattoo," calling Larsson's book "as compelling a read as 'The Silence of the Lambs.' " But he worries that the film's huge overseas sales could crimp the international returns of the subsequent American version. "It's a reason you might not want to make it," he says.

Music Box's Schopf says all the "Dragon Tattoo" remake attention is a nice compliment. "But I sure hope people see the film," he says, "rather than just send e-mails about which actress should be in the remake."
"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


Skeleton FilmWorks

matt35mm

Quote from: MacGuffin on March 17, 2010, 11:44:40 PM
Of the nearly 1,000 foreign-language films released in the U.S. since 1980, only 22 have grossed more than $10 million, with more than 70% of them taking in less than $1 million, according to boxofficemojo.com. Attendance for overseas product has fallen by as much as 40% over the last five years, according to one estimate.

:shock:  I didn't know it was that bad!

pete

to be fair, the pre-crouching tiger/ life is beautiful foreign films have all been movies that never would've made any money regardless of the spoken language.  few distributors have began importing foreign blockbusters until the last 10 years or so.  and those have done alright - b13 and amelie and the host and whathaveyou...still no hollywood money but at least successful in the indie/ arthouse context.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

The Perineum Falcon

This just shameless:

Hollywood Bad Idea Dept: 'Real Genius' & Brett Ratner Produced 'House Party' Remakes On The Way
via: The Playlist

Hollywood never has a shortage of bad ideas, but with news of two of them arriving in one day, we're guessing the few people left with taste at the studios were probably intentionally locked in the bathroom while meetings for these projects took place. Pajiba's The Hollywood Cog has revealed that 1985's "Real Genius" and 1990's "House Party" are being readied for the remake treatment. Hooray!

In case you were too young to remember, "Real Genius" is "about the youngest kid to be accepted into a program for geniuses who teams up with his roommates to develop a high-powered laser, which is stolen by the military and used as a weapon." It was made during the height of the Cold War and was a satire of the era's paranoia. However, given that the audience that we saw "Hot Tub Time Machine" with were pretty much non-responsive to the character of Blaine and his love of "Red Dawn" we're not sure how exactly a remake is going to resonate. That said, with a second draft of a script now out to writers we're sure it'll change into your standard teen comedy. The only way you could make us interested in this is if you got Val Kilmer to reprise his role as a teenager.

So what does Brett Ratner do when he's not busy repeatedly proving himself to be one of the worst directors in Hollywood? He's watching shitty movie vehicles for novelty music acts and even worse, he's turning them into contemporary vehicles. Under his appropriately named producing banner Rat Entertainment, the auteur is producing the remake of the Kid 'N Play "comedy" "House Party." The film, which actually sort of unbelievably spawned two sequels took the mainstream idea of hip hop popularized in "The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air" and made it even more ridiculous. This is such a bad idea, we don't even have any suggestions on how to make this better. And we swear to god, if Chris Tucker comes near this thing we might just have aneurysm.
We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

©brad

Okay now I really want the terrorists to win.

Fernando

good lord.

wouldnt surpprise me if ratner at some point 'updates' his shitty 1st film money talks, because and I quote "at that time I didnt have the money to do it right".

matt35mm

 :(

House Party is a good movie (95% positive on Rotten Tomatoes).  Ratner's remake will be terrible, sure, but why'd the Playlist have to shit on the original?