Remake Remake Fucking Remake

[MacGuffin]

Clive Barker to Write Hellraiser Remake

Clive Barker has announced on Revelations that The Weinstein Company is developing a Hellraiser remake and has asked him to write the script:

"They're going to remake Hellraiser One with a lot more money and they've invited me to write it – the invitation came from Bob Weinstein – which I am going to do, on the basis that if I don't do it, it will be done in some way that I probably won't like!

"It's only that one that I really, really, really care about in terms of its remake value - and it'll be kind of fun to have the extra money to do the effects and all that cool stuff.

"So it puts me in the situation of writing both the beginning and the end of Pinhead at the same time – 'In my end is my beginning...' I'm not in the middle, as it were, I'm leaving out his middle age, I'm just dealing with his beginning and his end.

"I'm excited about it - actually it'll be kinda cool to revisit it once and see if there are things we can do to it which will make it significantly better."

Barker adds that he won't direct, but that he'll be producing as well.

[MacGuffin]

Marilyn Manson taking on Rocky?
Source: Moviehole

Prepared for a remake of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show' starring Mr. Manson?

According to Bloody Disgusting – quoting the shock rocker's words to E! – the gothic artiste has been asked by Twentieth Century Fox to headline a remake of the cult classic, simply titled "Rocky Horror".

News of a "Rocky Horror Picture Show" remake first surfaced in 2002, with Stephan Elliot ("The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert") apparently attached to direct a TV movie version. Thing is, that was supposed to air to coincide with the original film's 30th anniversary - - and that has been and gone.

Around the same time, it was reported that writer Richard O'Brien had written a direct sequel to his "Rocky Horror" – and no, it's not "Shock Treatment" – which would see Frank-N-Furter arising from the grave. No idea if that's a floating duck, or still an alive idea. And well, no word on whether the 'Manson' movie is either of those projects, or the connection is to an all-new incarnation of the Time Warped classic.

[squints]

every single post in this entire thread automatically evokes an "Oh my God. Please no."

[MacGuffin]

Rogue will face 'Death'
Focus genre label to remake cult horror pic
Source: Variety

Focus genre label Rogue is developing "Faces of Death," a feature remake of the series of gory videotapes that became cult faves in the 1970s and '80s.
J.T. Petty is attached to direct.

It's unclear if Michael Carr will return as the aptly named Frances Gross -- who in the originals played the "Doctor" and narrated the deaths.

The first "Faces" tape came out in 1978; it wasn't immediately a mass hit but slowly caught on among young people.

The gonzo movies depicted the gruesome and varied ways people and animals can die via explicit footage that many viewers believed to be real, including a famous scene in which live monkey brains were served to diners at a restaurant.

Several movies followed, all continuing the theme and containing characters with credits such as "Leader of Flesh Eating Cult." John Alan Schwartz wrote and directed many of the pics, sometimes under pseudonyms.

Project had been in development by Angryfilms and producers Rick Benattar, Susan Montford and Don Murphy. Original "Faces" producer John Burrud will serve as exec producer.

Rogue declined to comment.

Producers aim to capitalize on the revitalized popularity of gory horror pics, as "The Grudge" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" franchises draw young audiences.

But filmmakers will face a more jaded horror audience that demands ever-higher levels of bloodiness.

Producers, however, hinted that the material would have requisite shock value. "In a world where you can see deaths everyday on the Internet, (fictional character Gross) is looking for a new challenge," Montford said.

[MacGuffin]

Time Bandits, the second coming?
Source: Moviehole

The insipid trend of remaking earlier, better films continues with Variety announcing a remake of Terry Gilliam's 80s fave, "Time Bandits". Like a slap across the ass with a weighty mallet, ay?

The new movie – assumingly being made with Gilliam's contribution – will mostly likely be the same thing, just with a higher film stock. The original 1981 film, produced and directed by Gilliam (who created animations for Monty Python's Flying Circus) and written by Gilliam and Michael Palin, is one of the most famous of more than 30 theatrical features produced by Handmade Films, the London-based independent company backed in part by former Beatle George Harrison.

HandMade, headed by exec, Antony Rufus Isaacs, has been digging through the company archives looking for properties he can exploit. In addition to a redo of "Bandits", he'll be making a tardy sequel to "The Long Good Friday".

[MacGuffin]

Affleck Doing Eastwood's "Misty" Remake?  
Source: Dark Horizons
 
One of the more surprising rumours this weekend that has emerged Ben Affleck is apparently in talks with Universal Pictures to produce and potentially direct a remake of Clint Eastwood's 1967 directorial debut "Play Misty for Me."

In the original, Eastwood played a DJ who is stalked by his ex-lover turned deranged fan who gets turned on by a song called "Misty". Jason Smilovic ("Lucky Number Slevin") is expected to pen the update, and Eastwood himself may also produce.

Affleck's own directorial debut "Gone, Baby, Gone", due out next February, has been receiving quite positive feedback from the footage screened so far.

[MacGuffin]

Thing Redo Planned
Uni plots Carpenter classic companion piece.

Universal Pictures and Strike Entertainment are hooking up to bring a remake of John Carpenter's The Thing to the big screen, reports Variety.

The script for the new movie will be written by Battlestar Galactica executive producer-writer Ronald D. Moore. Moore is a veteran of sci-fi TV, having written and produced numerous episodes of recent Star Trek series and Roswell.

Original producer David Foster will executive produce the new movie. Strike partners Marc Abraham and Eric Newman will produce and the company will co-finance the picture.

Producers are actually calling the newly planned film "a companion piece" to Carpenter's 1982 movie that deals with a shape-shifting creature from outer space that terrorizes researchers at an Antarctic facility.

Carpenter's film was itself an indirect continuation of the 1951 Howard Haws pic The Thing from Another World. Both movies were inspired by the John W. Campbell, Jr. novella "Who Goes There?"

[Pubrick]

page 28:

Eyes Wide Shut Again

[MacGuffin]

Fox Atomic can kiss my ass.

School's out as Fox Atomic flunks 'Nerds'

Fox Atomic has officially shut down its first production effort, the remake of the 1984 cult classic "Revenge of the Nerds," after the studio's production was halted this month when Emory University in Atlanta, where the film was shooting, balked at the raunchy nature of the project.

"Everybody has worked really hard on 'Revenge of the Nerds,' and we're all disappointed that we can't move forward," Fox Atomic president Peter Rice said.

Studio spokeswoman Isabel White said Atomic toppers John Hegeman and Rice remain believers in the project but that no adequate solution to restart production had presented itself.

"The whole production was standing by, and it was unlikely we were going to be able to get anything going until after the holidays," White said. "Given the pressures surrounding the film, it felt like we were trying to put a square peg in a round hole."

The $12.5 million film, from fledgling director Kyle Newman, had only been shooting for two weeks, and while Atomic still is assessing the losses on the project, the studio indicated that all members of the production team had been paid to date for their time.

Actor Adam Brody and director McG were producing "Nerds." Both declined comment.

Once the production was kicked off Emory's campus, "Nerds" moved to neighboring school Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga., but the smaller college lacked the large-scale campus feel that the movie's producers felt it called for. Once production was halted, it became a challenge for the studio to find another location acceptable for shooting, while continuing to pay an entire production crew for their time.

The studio has released all parties from the project.

"There is little chance that this incarnation of 'Nerds' will come to be," White said.

[Ravi]

Fox Atomic can kiss my ass.

School's out as Fox Atomic flunks 'Nerds'

Every studio in this thread can kiss my ass.  There, that should stop the remakes.

[1976]

I think this thread needs a remake. It's getting too big.

[pete]

things too big don't need remakes, you're talking about makeovers.

[MacGuffin]

Every studio in this thread can kiss my ass.  There, that should stop the remakes.

Try harder:

The Haunts Return in 'Poltergeist' Remake
Source: Bloody-Disgusting

Read on for the update: In 1982 MGM released one of the scariest films of all time, Poltergeist, which was written and produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper. The film is of legend, being that it's not only extremely scary, but that it was rated PG (after an appeal from an R). Word has come down from various confirmed sources that the once titled "Poltergeist: Kayeri" is now being retooled as a remake of the original film. Poltergeist, which is about a family's home being haunted by a host of ghosts, is now looking to attach a director.


UPDATE: I've just received official confirmation that the original idea for "Kayeri" will NOT be used for the remake, instead the new film will be a straight-up remake of the first film... pretty much frame-for-frame. Just think Hills Have Eyes...

Although Clint Morris did write the original "Poltergeist Kayeri", it's not believed he is part of the new project.

In addition, I can also confirm that Zelda Rubinstein, Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams will not be part of the remake.

In the original, a young family are visited by ghosts in their home. At first the ghosts appear friendly, moving objects around the house to the amusement of everyone, then they turn nasty and start to terrorise the family before they "kidnap" the youngest daughter.

[MacGuffin]

Columbia plots new 'Cleopatra'
Rudin brings Egyptian queen back to bigscreen
Source: Variety

Based on a 10-page proposal, Columbia Pictures has acquired screen rights to "Cleopatra," a new take on the life of the Egyptian queen that will be written by Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Stacy Schiff. Scott Rudin will produce the adaptation.

Schiff has made a seven-figure publishing deal for "Cleopatra" with Little Brown and will complete the tome in 2009.

The last time Hollywood tackled "Cleopatra" in a big way, the result was one of the most expensive films ever, a 1963 symbol of decadence best remembered for a torrid affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who were married to others at the time.

Schiff's proposal makes it clear she intends to dispel the movie myths that focused on pageantry and Cleopatra's skills as a seductress.

Book will present her as a firm ruler and military tactician who embarked on a ruthless rise to power. Cleopatra twice married brothers, killing each of them as well as a sister. Romantic alliances with the much-older Roman honchos Julius Caesar and Marc Antony helped her solidify power, but her dalliance with Antony undid both of them.

While Rudin's deal is at Disney and Miramax, he is working with Columbia on period drama "The Other Boleyn Girl."Schiff won the Pulitzer for "Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)" and also wrote "Saint-Exupery: A Biography" and most recently "A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America."

[MacGuffin]

'Bunny Lake' remake on fast track
Witherspoon set to star in Carnahan-directed film
Source: Variety

Joe Carnahan is in talks to direct a remake of "Bunny Lake is Missing," a thriller that is fast taking shape as the likely next starring vehicle for Reese Witherspoon.

Deals are just getting under way, but Spyglass Entertainment is in talks to finance the picture, with Columbia Pictures to distribute domestically.

Spyglass partners Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber are producing with Mark Gordon and Type A's Witherspoon and Jennifer Simpson. Those producers joined forces on the project in 2003, when they set up the remake as a potential star vehicle for Witherspoon.

Based on the 1965 Otto Preminger film, pic surrounds the events that occur after a woman reports that her daughter Bunny Lake has gone missing. When police find no evidence that she even existed, they being to question the woman's sanity.

"Quills" scribe Doug Wright -- the Pulitzer Prize playwright of "I Am My Own Wife" -- is working on a rewrite of his own script with Carnahan.

Carnahan, who recently completed the ensemble drama "Smokin' Aces," hopes to helm "Bunny Lake Is Missing" before he directs George Clooney in "White Jazz." Latter pic, which Matthew Michael Carnahan adapted from the James Ellroy novel, is scheduled to begin production in early 2008 for Warner Independent Pictures.

Producer Gordon already has a close relationship with Carnahan through another project they have together, an adaptation of the Mark Bowden non-fiction book "Killing Pablo."