So I just found out, and maybe you all have heard this before me…. They are REMAKING the classic 1984 film Footloose. I’m beside myself.
Not only does this chill me to the bone that Zac Effron and others auditioned for the remake to be released in 2011, but the fact that they are beginning to remake classic 80′s films at all. I fear they will now begin to remake my favorite films that I grew up with. What would you do if they remade Pretty in Pink, The Goonies, The Breakfast Club, or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?
One reason why this might be so bothersome is that these films were originals in their own time. They hold nostalgic meaning for me and I will show my kids the originals even though the quality might be crappy, that is the way they were meant to be seen. (Just as I will show them the original Gene Wilder version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.)
I am seriously worried. The director set to do the new Footloose is Craig Brewer, the very same Craig Brewer that directed Black Snake Moan. Draw your own conclusions as for what that will mean for this project. Also I’m a little outraged the the Reverend Shaw Moore will be played by Dennis Quaid! Not happy. Quaid is too gentle to play a raging, abusive, legalist.
In any case, I really hope this remake bombs so they will not remake any more of my old favorites. Seriously, Hollywood, get some WRITERS who will write ORIGINAL things. Hire any one of my screenwriting friends!
Also on this note, I heard that there will be a Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo due out in 2012, headlined with none other than Daniel Craig, George Clooney, and Johnny Depp. This one has at least a better director – David Fincher, but really Hollywood? Can’t we just let Sweden have it’s time? This story came out of their country and the movie was completely produced and distributed worldwide before Hollywood decided to do the copy cat thing. This makes me quite sad, and I really think that there are some amazing stories out there that have not been tapped. The question is, Hollywood, will you be brave enough to tell them?
I was thinking about this EXACT same topic as I pulled into our local libraries parking lot. I was returning the book Bloom by Wil Mccarty, one of the finer SciFi novels I’ve ever read. I recommend it. But that’s just a plug, since I was listening to Feist, the Reminder. This was her follow up to her debut album, and a consequent remake of the entire album made by artist she invited to cover her songs. Some felt it was a shameless, some what lazy approach to putting out ‘new’ material, but to me I felt it was ballsy, and quite inclusive. What I mean by that is she made a statment as an artist, saying “I’ve made this, it is the it I wanted it to be, but since I am not all artists in one, what is your take? How would you perform it? What would you do?” Since the first album self titled album was so stinking good, a lot of the covers worked. Some didn’t. But she had her cake and ate it too.
I thought about that in relation to the medium of movies. I am not against the remake, I am against the safe remakes that don’t push the story or characters. The A-team. Psycho circa 98. But what it speilberg said “Hey, Waitress could have been a little better, and I’m gonna redo it, and I promise not to add aliens.” Or take the recent Robin Hood, a remake that pretends it’s not and then fails to be either, just a suedo-historical that stole a name. I constantly watch films and rewrite dialogue, add tension where I think it should be, get rid of characters, etc. The issue is that no one wants to take a mediocre project and remake it, and yet I feel those would be worthwhile. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button could be remade and be something spectacular, not a meandering story with a character that never has crisis. Everybody likes Benjamin, he gets to sleep around, blah blah. I would like to see Chris Nolan remake the movie End of Days, because it’s a great concept with people not taking the right chances. I want the Mummy returns to have revised diaolgue. “There is a fine line between coincidence and fate my friend” becomes “Fate is the master of coincidence, my friend” or something like that.
I don’t see a problem with the remake. I was disgusted by Death at a Funeral, black version, but apparently it was a fairly solid film (haven’t seen it yet). I’m upset that all remakes today tend to have the same shallow concept of safety, people will watch what we tell them to watch. The studios have always had the goal and obligation to create profits, but it used to be that profits were assured with high production values. If you took care of that, the profits would come. Now the reverse is true, if we take care of the box office, then we’ll be considered quality. That’s a gross oversimplification, but covers a multitude of sins.
my point is that I dont believe any of those 80s movies or the Swedish film are mediocre and worth remaking. Hollywood chooses to remake them because they have nothing left to give. All the good writers have moved to TV > 30 Rock, The Office, MadMen, etc.
Some remakes, you are correct, were well worth it (THANK YOU CHRIS NOLAN!!) but for the most part Hollywood is picking films that do no need a makeover and in the end, the remake will butcher the good name of the originals.
Pretty in Pink happens to be one of my top 5 and I will never watch a remake because for me there’s no one that can portray those roles as well as Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarhty did in my opinion of course…I agree that Hollywood should invest their time in new ideas and leave the movies that don’t need to be remade alone