Remake Remake Fucking Remake

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

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MacGuffin

POLTERGEIST Remake to Be Directed by Gil Kenan
Source: Collider

With news that Gil Kenan (Monster House) will be directing MGM's reboot of Poltergeist, you can finally put to rest the rumors of Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) sitting in the captain's chair.  Raimi will still be behind the scenes as a producer on the remake of Tobe Hooper's 1982 classic horror film.  Written by committee, the most recent adaptation has seen work by David Lindsay-Abaire (Oz the Great and Powerful), Scott Derrickson (Sinister), Juliet Snowden (The Possession), Stiles White (Boogeyman) and Paul Harris Boardman (The Exorcism of Emily Rose).  That's quite the mix of horror writers in there, with Lindsay-Abaire holding it down for the familial aspect of the story that centers on a suburban home possessed by spirits.

Deadline reports that Kenan will indeed be directing the Poltergeist reboot, but few other details are available.  Kenan, best known for his Oscar-nominated feature Monster House, only helmed one other feature in his career: 2008′s adaptation of the Jeanne Duprau novel City of Ember.
"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

Universal, Joel Silver To Remake John Hughes Comedy 'Weird Science'
BY MIKE FLEMING JR | Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures and Silver Pictures will remake Weird Science, the 1985 ultimate nerd wish fulfillment comedy that was written and directed by John Hughes. The film will be produced by Joel Silver, who made the original with Hughes at Universal. Michael Bacall will write the script. He scripted the sleeper hit Project X for Silver Pictures and wrote the script for 21 Jump Street, another 80s-centric property that became a hit for Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.

Now, the knee-jerk reaction would be concern about messing with any film by Hughes, who made this comedy right when he was in that wheelhouse of transitioning from screenwriter of Mr. Mom and National Lampoon's Vacation to director of teen-angst comedies like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club (which preceded Weird Science) and Pretty In Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (which followed Weird Science).

This film will attempt to carve out its own identity by being redrawn as an edgier comedy in line with 21 Jump Street and The Hangover, which were R-rated; the studio says the rating for Weird Science is not certain at this nascent stage. The original starred Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith as brainy nerds who attempt to create the perfect woman to fulfill their heavy-breathing adolescent fantasies, only to find she is something more than a sex object. The original also starred Bill Paxton and Robert Downey Jr, with Kelly LeBrock playing the bombshell creation. It was later turned into a TV series for USA Network.

Silver Pictures' Silver and Andrew Rona will produce, while Alex Heineman will be exec producer. Uni's Scott Bernstein will oversee the pic. Bacall is repped by CAA and Jeff Shumway.
"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

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Talks to Star in 'Toxic Avenger' Reboot (EXCLUSIVE)
Source: Variety

Arnold Schwarzenegger is in talks to star in the new "Toxic Avenger," but he's no Toxie. He's in negotiations for another lead role in the reimagining of the 1980s cult pic.

International Film Trust, the sales outfit launched last week by Benaroya Pictures and Miscellaneous Entertainment, is pitching  Steve Pink's reboot of the campy 1984 action comedy in the run-up to Cannes. New project has been described as an action adventure geared toward mainstream auds.

Schwarzengegger is talks with the producers to star.  "Hot Tub Time Machine" helmer Pink and Daniel C. Mitchell penned the script while Elysium Films is attached to produce, along with Akiva Goldsman, Richard Saperstein, Charlie Corwin and Michael Benaroya.

Pic is one of several testosterone-laden projects targeted to appeal to older teens and adults at this year's market. Others include Sean Penn starrer "The Gunman" and "Candy Store" with Robert de Niro.

Troma Entertainment's Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman directed the original 1984 pic, which initially flopped before gaining cult popularity through midnight screenings. "Avenger" went on to spawn three sequels, a musical and a cartoon.

Story centers around Melvin Ferd III, a 98-pound weakling who gets transformed into a superhuman crime-fighting creature after falling into a vat of toxic waste.

Schwarzenegger has been keeping busy since his Governatorship ended in 2010. He most recently appeared in Lionsgate's "The Last Stand" and wrapped production on David Ayer's action thriller "Ten."
"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

MGM In Talks With Timur Bekmambetov To Steer Chariot On 'Ben-Hur' Reboot
BY MIKE FLEMING JR; Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: I can't say definitively that the negotiations are going to work out, but MGM is in talks with Wanted helmer Timur Bekmambetov to helm Ben-Hur, a new adaptation of the 1880 Lew Wallace novel Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ, which in its time outsold every book but The Bible until it was eclipsed by Gone With The Wind. This all got set in motion after MGM bought a Ben-Hur spec by Keith Clarke (he scripted the Peter Weir-directed The Way Back), a package that came with Sean Daniel and Joni Levin attached to produce, and Clarke and Jason Brown exec producing. This happened last January, right after MGM got new funding and was flush with proceeds from the 007 pic Skyfall and The Hobbit. I have been chasing the possible deal with Bekmambetov for the past two weeks, and it seemed intriguing enough as another Biblical epic moving forward that I felt it was worth noting despite the fact they haven't reached financial terms and I don't know for certain that they will.

MGM actually released the 1959 Charlton Heston-starrer Ben-Hur, as well as the 1925 silent film Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ. MGM sold the Heston film to Ted Turner in the 1980s, but the book is public domain. The studio's decision makers, Gary Barber and production president Jonathan Glickman, loved a spec that is faithful to the book and carves out an identity that is different than the 1959 William Wyler film that focused on the adult blood feud between Judah Ben-Hur (Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd).

This film will tell the formative story of the characters as they grew up best friends before the Roman Empire took control of Jerusalem. Judah Ben-Hur was a Jewish prince and Messala the son of a Roman tax collector. After the latter leaves to be educated in Rome for five years, the young man returns with a different attitude. Messala mocks Judah and his religion and when a procession passes by Judah's house and a roof tile accidentally falls and hits the governor, Messala betrays his childhood friend and manipulates it so that Judah is sold into slavery and certain death on a Roman warship, with his mother and sister thrown in prison for life. Judah doesn't die, and vows revenge on Messala which, like in the films, culminates in the famed chariot races. There is another way the script differs from the movie, in that it will tell the parallel tale of Jesus Christ, with whom Ben-Hur has several encounters which moves him to become a believer in the Messiah, and which culminates in Christ being sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate. Intertwined in all this is the lifelong struggle between Ben-Hur and Messala.

Bekmambetov, who last directed Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, is repped by WME.
"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

Clive Barker writing Hellraiser remake
Doug Bradley will return as Pinhead
Source: Total Film

Good news for fans of '80s horror, as legend of the genre Clive Barker has announced he is set to pen a remake of Hellraiser for Dimension Pictures.

The original film told the story of a mysterious puzzle box, the opening of which unlocks the gateway to another dimension, where the fiendish Cenobites lie in wait...

"The idea of my coming back to the original film [was to tell] the story with a fresh intensity," says Barker. "Honouring the structure and the designs from the first incarnation but hopefully creating an even darker and richer film."

Better still is the news that original star Doug Bradley will return to reprise his role as Pinhead, the fearsome S&M demon from the original franchise.

"I told the Dimension team that in my opinion there could never be a Pinhead without Doug Bradley," continues Barker, "and much to my delight Bob Weinstein agreed."

Barker also confirmed that the film would still be dependent on practical effects, saying, "it will not be a film awash with CGI. I remain as passionate about the power of practical make-up effects as I was when I wrote and directed the first Hellraiser."

Looks like Fifty Shades Of Grey will have some competition in the sadomasochistic stakes...
"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 support this. The Hellraisers were memorable for their imagery and sense of dread, but they were always pretty terrible as actual movies. There's a great Hellraiser film that's always been waiting to be made and nobody's ever done it.
My house, my rules, my coffee

jenkins

they can make hellraiser better and the idea asks for it. let's see them do it!!(?)

polkablues

The one hurdle is that, thematically, the original Hellraiser was very specifically a product of its era. The whole concept of unrestrained hedonism, of the "me" generation pushed past its logical conclusion, the film was practically a companion piece to Wall Street (which came out the same year), just with its preoccupation shifted to sex rather than wealth. A remake would likely automatically be a better movie simply by virtue of being better-made, but without figuring out how to relate the themes of the story to the culture of today, no amount of better-made would prevent it from being instantly disposable.
My house, my rules, my coffee

jenkins


Reel

Don't go making empty promises now, he's had his heart broken enough.

classical gas

Hmm.  This makes me kinda sad cause I really love the original.  Maybe it will be okay?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1327604/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1

It's the director's first movie too.  He's an American.

Alexandro

Quote from: classical gas on January 02, 2014, 09:11:38 PM
Hmm.  This makes me kinda sad cause I really love the original.  Maybe it will be okay?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1327604/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1

It's the director's first movie too.  He's an American.

why not just make a new, different movie that is kind of the same?? (you know, like the great beauty to la dolce vita). even if the social context is cleverly updated, and unemployment, economic hardships and other elements of the original come into play here, umberto d. is still a corner stone of italian neorrealism, which is to say that the film has a weight to it that goes beyond just the story, it's a fucking school of cinema...I don't know why they even bother.

MacGuffin

Climb Toward 'Cliffhanger' Reboot Moving Forward; Joe Gazzam Set To Write
   
EXCLUSIVE: Producer Neal Moritz and StudioCanal are ready to move forward with Cliffhanger, a re-imagining of the 1993 Renny Harlin-directed mountain climbing film that starred Sylvester Stallone. They've set Joe Gazzam to write the screenplay after he was among a group of screenwriters who pitched their take on a movie that still holds up as a guilty pleasure. The original was made by Carolco before that company crashed, and TriStar distributed it. StudioCanal ended up with the rights. There is no domestic distributor in place, but since Moritz's Original Pictures is Sony-based, that studio should get a first crack at the project. Sony already has a mountain climbing project in Everest, the Doug Liman-directed film that has Tom Hardy attached to play Sir Edward Mallory, the British mountaineer who tried to be first to summit the world's highest mountain. Cross Creek, Walden and Universal financed another film called Everest, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, Robin Wright, Jason Clarke and John Hawkes starring in the Baltasar Kormakur-directed film about a disastrous attempt to summit the mountain in 1996 when the climbers were hit by a blizzard.

The original Cliffhanger revolved around a traumatized mountain climber forced back into an expedition after a plane crash leaves a lot of stolen cash and bad guys strewn on the Rocky Mountains. Moritz and Ori Marmur will produce for Original, and StudioCanal's Ronald Halpern is in the middle of the whole thing too. Gazzam was in the right place at the right time. He has been working with Original on his spec Shadow Run, which Sony bought as a spec several months ago and is fast tracking the project and looking for a director. When Gazzam pitched a Cliffhanger take that sparked Moritz, he got a job a lot of writers wanted. Gazzam is repped by Paradigm and Industry Entertainment.
"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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pete

I'm betting ten dollars on the new hero having some type of ex-marine background to explain why he's so good at fighting.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

MacGuffin

'Terminator,' 'Basic Instinct' Producer Piecing Together 'Audition' Remake
Source: Deadline
   
EXCLUSIVE: Terminator, Rambo, and Basic Instinct exec producer Mario Kassar is assembling an English-language adaptation of Audition, the infamous 1997 novel by Japanese author Ryu Murakami about a lonely widower who gets more than he bargains for when he puts out a fake casting call to find a new girlfriend. Audition was, of course, adapted in 1999 into a cringe-inducing cult film in its own right by Japanese helmer Takashi Miike. The new Kassar-produced version is based on the original Murakami novel and will transplant the story to an American setting.

In this version, to be directed by Richard Gray (The Lookalike), Audition's unlucky protagonist is Sam Davis, who lives alone with his son following the death of his wife seven years prior and is convinced by a filmmaker friend to stage the fake auditions. The former ballerina with a mysterious past he falls for is now named Evie Lawrence, but otherwise details fall closely in line with Murakami's best-seller.
Gray adapted the script and will tackle a fall shoot for Audition after filming wraps on his current project, thriller Sugar Mountain starring Jason Momoa. He also helmed and produced the Justin Long crime thriller The Lookalike, which Well Go USA is releasing this summer.
"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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