Wait, I Think I Saw This Already: Remakes and Reboots

[methodwriter85]

     The delightful Lost In Austen BBC mini-series, which followed a young woman who finds herself transported into the world of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is getting a movie remake. This time around, it'll follow a young American woman from Brooklyn who is transported into Austen's world. A new writer has been hired to take over and finish Nora Ephron's script.

 

    I'm cautiously optimistic about this. I think it can be good, provided they cast well and remember that this is a pretty niche market and not some big blockbuster potential property.

[methodwriter85]

So this summer, we saw a tale of two reboots. One was a huge hit (Jurassic World), the other was a huge bomb (Terminator Genisys). Currently the Vacation reboot isn't really doing that well.

 

Are there any upcoming reboots you're looking forward to? Any that you're dreading?

[Spartan Girl]

My brother and I have no interest in the Fantastic 4 reboot. And that's because we didn't like the original in the first place.

I'm also not thrilled with them doing Spiderman AGAIN. I was happy with Andrew Garfield, couldn't they have at least kept him??

[Princess Sparkle]

I never even understood why they had to remake Spiderman with Andrew Garfield.  I was perfectly happy with Tobey Maguire.

[Spartan Girl]

I never even understood why they had to remake Spiderman with Andrew Garfield.  I was perfectly happy with Tobey Maguire.

Tobey was fine, but I fucking hated Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane with a passion.

[Trini]

My brother and I have no interest in the Fantastic 4 reboot. And that's because we didn't like the original in the first place.

 

Well, the FF reboot seems to be taking a decidedly different direction than the 2005 movie.

[methodwriter85]

The buzz around the Fantastic Four reboot isn't good. Bummer. I really like the main cast so I had high hopes.

 

Now that we're rebooting stuff from the 2000's, I wonder how long it's going to take before we see a Twilight reboot.

[Kel Varnsen]

I never even understood why they had to remake Spiderman with Andrew Garfield.  I was perfectly happy with Tobey Maguire.

Wasn't part of that the fact that Sam Raimi told them he couldn't meet the deadline that Sony wanted to make spiderman 4. So instead of hiring someone else, they just rebooted the whole thing.

[blueray]

I have no interest in the new fantastic 4, they made them to young. I didn't actually mind the first original one, the silver surfer was meh. But the first one was pretty good.

 

Spiderman: Tony's version was much better then that reboot. Both of which aren't that old.

[ChelseaNH]

Saw a commercial today that the Transporter series is getting a relaunch.

 

The remake of The Crow seems to be in turnaround, which is fine by me.

[methodwriter85]

Saw a commercial today that the Transporter series is getting a relaunch.

 

The remake of The Crow seems to be in turnaround, which is fine by me.

 

Honestly, the Crow is just SO rooted in 90's grunge and the feeling of that era with the added tragedy of Brandon Lee's death that it's hard to see it resonating with current audiences.

[proserpina65]

Saw a commercial today that the Transporter series is getting a relaunch

 

Unless it's Jason Statham driving fast and hitting people, I'm not interested.

[Rick Kitchen]

Unless it's Jason Statham driving fast and hitting people, I'm not interested.

 

It stars Ed Skrein, who was Daario Naharis in Game of Thrones.  He also has a role in the upcoming Deadpool.

[OakGoblinFly]

Now that we're rebooting stuff from the 2000's, I wonder how long it's going to take before we see a Twilight reboot.

 

If we're lucky, never

[proserpina65]

It stars Ed Skrein, who was Daario Naharis in Game of Thrones.  He also has a role in the upcoming Deadpool.

Yeah, that doesn't make it any more interesting to me.  And I don't even know what a Deadpool is.

 

{Edited to note that I know the Statham isn't in the Transporter reboot, and that's why I couldn't care less about it if I tried.}

Edited August 14, 2015 by proserpina65

[methodwriter85]

If we're lucky, never

 

Well, the good thing is that we can't get a "sequel" or reboot-with-the-original-actors-playing-their-roles-and-advising-the-new-characters, because of the whole Kristen Stewart and James Patterson can't really pull off being high-school aged anymore and vampires can't age.  It would have to be a straight-up remake.

Edited August 17, 2015 by methodwriter85

[Rick Kitchen]

There's a female-centric reboot of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in the works.

 

[methodwriter85]

I think the long-rumored Dirty Dancing remake is dead, but man, I know this was a joke but Channing Tatum is the one actor I think could've pulled off Johnny:

 

 

I think the reason why they're having such a hard time remaking it is that Dirty Dancing has never really went away- each new generation seems to be getting into it. It helps that the movie was a period film, which keeps it from feeling dated because it's not supposed to be set in the present.

 

If they try to set a remake in the present, you basically lose a lot of the plot (Penny's abortion, the Jewish Catskills, the references to Kennedy), but keeping it in the past also makes things hard.

 

I think it's similar to why a new theatrical Grease hasn't been done- we've got the Live Musical coming on T.V., but that's as close as we've gotten to a remake in 37 years.

Edited September 24, 2015 by methodwriter85

[magicdog]

If they try to set a remake in the present, you basically lose a lot of the plot (Penny's abortion, the Jewish Catskills, the references to Kennedy)

 

I guess it depends on the era.  The Summer of '63 was chosen for the film because it was often described as the last period of American innocence.  Kennedy wasn't dead yet, the Vietnam War/anti war movement wasn't in full swing yet (though the Folkies in Greenwich Village were), Rock and Roll was still mostly fun and happily shared radio space with Pop and the previous generation of singers (Frank Sinatra et al).  I've been told - by those who remember it - as a time in which optimism of Americans was still strong.  People were less jaded. 

 

However, the movie could still be set in a different era  (or even in the present) with some creative changes to match what the Summer of '63 was to the original.  It could be set in the 80s and ride that wave of nostalgia (everything from the clothes and music to the renewed optimism Reagan brought to many Americans).  The abortion bit could still remain - the difference being it's scandalous to the [Catholic family] whose [daughter] had one and was afraid of being disowned.  Maybe the getaway could be in the Wintertime at a ski-resort, or summer at the Jersey shore or the Hamptons. 

 

Wasn't there a quasi prequel set in Havana Cuba before the revolution?

[Princess Sparkle]

I would be perfectly fine if they never remade Dirty Dancing, or Grease for that matter.  Both of those films are great to me as-is, and the actors are so iconic in the roles, that I don't really see the point of remaking it.  

[methodwriter85]

I would be perfectly fine if they never remade Dirty Dancing, or Grease for that matter.  Both of those films are great to me as-is, and the actors are so iconic in the roles, that I don't really see the point of remaking it.  

I mean, the remake of Dirty Dancing has been bandied about for such a long time, and for whatever reason, it seems to keep falling apart. Probably because both of those films have had a very long shelf-life.

 

 

However, the movie could still be set in a different era  (or even in the present) with some creative changes to match what the Summer of '63 was to the original.

 

They could set it during the summer of 2001, maybe in the Jersey Shore or some beach that lot of people from New York City go to, and the idea of 9/11 looming.

Edited September 24, 2015 by methodwriter85

[Trini]

Wasn't there a quasi prequel set in Havana Cuba before the revolution?

 

Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights! I wouldn't call it a "prequel", though. It has little to do with the original movie, but they share some of the same concepts. Quasi-remake?

[methodwriter85]

Creed Is A Winner, and Also A Valuable Lesson

 

I do think the lesson here was basically followed by the other successful reboot of the year with Jurassic World. I think they were smart to keep similar beats, while adding something new in this- basically, that the dinosaurs had become pretty passe and pedestrian after 20 years, and they were under pressure to keep adding "new attractions" with new dinosaur mutants. That was a great angle to go with.

 

With Creed, I loved that they explored African-American culture in 21st Century Philadelphia, which is right now in the midst of changing from the depressed industrial wasteland that it was into a gentrifying city that still has a lot of abject poverty and violence not too far away from where people are renting 2k a month condos.

[BooBear]

I watched the shop around the corner last night. Wow.. liked it so much better than "you got mail".  The latter was such a twisted garbled story and the former was so simple. In the shop around the corner the two man characters are co workers (though of course the guy is sort of in charge) who don't like each other, at work, and do not know they are anonymously corresponding. Both are single. The girl admits she actually had found her co worker attractive before they had trouble getting along while in you got mail you can't see that Meg Ryan was ever really interested in Tom Hanks. Plus it is hard to put too much stock in their attraction when they are both with other people.

 

Someone should remake shop around the corner exactly as it was... where the two main characters are retail workers in the same shop and then e-mailing each other at night.

[Rick Kitchen]

Shop Around the Corner was remade as the musical In the Good Old Summertime, starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson.  It was also remade as the Broadway musical She Loves Me, which was also made into a film.

[methodwriter85]

There's this thread over at Reddit, which declares that Titanic is now the only film in the top 10 movies of all time (unadjusted) in gross that isn't a part of a franchise. (Or will be.) I just kept thinking, "Yet." I think it's pretty much the movie's price tag that is keeping someone from trying to make a reboot.

[Joe]

It's based on a real incident, anyone can adapt it for the screen. The question is, how much would it be influenced by Cameron's version? But I like the idea of a direct sequel, where the iceberg goes hunting for Kate Winslet.

[methodwriter85]

It's based on a real incident, anyone can adapt it for the screen. The question is, how much would it be influenced by Cameron's version? But I like the idea of a direct sequel, where the iceberg goes hunting for Kate Winslet.

It would be approximately 1930 in Titanic World. Imagine Rose as a retired film star in her late 30's, traveling to Africa or on some kind of safari, and then the ship she's on starts to sink. Bradley Cooper could be a 40-year old widower who she is sparking with, being a widow herself.

 

I mean, there HAVE been many other versions and adaptions of the story, but it would be interesting to see someone actually try and make something related to the James Cameron film. You KNOW people are trying to figure it out, especially now that Titanic is at prime "remake" age. The problem is that it has a pretty high bar to reach in terms of budget, star power, etc etc.

Edited December 30, 2015 by methodwriter85

[Bruinsfan]

Pity the timing wasn't right to coincide with the zombie movie craze a few years back.

[methodwriter85]

NBC wants to reboot Cruel Intentions as a t.v. show.

 

Ugh. I know Sarah doesn't have much going on, but I hope she's very, very careful about this.

Edited February 24, 2016 by methodwriter85

[BatmanBeatles]

Didn't they already try to do that?

[Rick Kitchen]

Michael B. Jordan will be starring in a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.

[methodwriter85]

Didn't they already try to do that?

I figured they tried to launch a big-screen version and there weren't too many takers, so they decided on a t.v. show set 15 years after the movie instead?

 

I do think that an actual Cruel Intentions remake wouldn't work in the current environment. It's too sexual, and most mainstream teen movies getting made right now are PG-13 affairs. I sure as hell can't see a movie made right now that would allow a teenage girl to store cocaine in her crucifix. (Honestly, they'd be more like to have Bennedict be a non-denominational private school and get rid of any Catholic imagery.)

 

Also, can't you just picture the little SJWers going off on Sebastian? I don't think he'd be appealing to 13-year old girls.

Edited February 25, 2016 by methodwriter85

[absnow54]

Also, can't you just picture the little SJWers going off on Sebastian? I don't think he'd be appealing to 13-year old girls.

He just has to be charming enough to slide into that "Problematic Fav" slot.

[topanga]

Michael B. Jordan will be starring in a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.

This has the potential to be really good or really bad. Michael B. Jordan is always a good actor, so the outcome will depend on the quality of the script--and the overall production itself. 

Edited February 25, 2016 by topanga

[methodwriter85]

Nah, I think spreading nude photos online of a girl he's hooking up with is a bridge too far, especially with this current teen aged generation. They'd probably have to take that out in a flat-out remake.

 

It's all for moot anyway- Sarah Michelle Gellar has officially signed on for the reboot.

 

I mean, I honestly can't blame her. Kathryn was her second-best role behind Buffy, and her career hasn't exactly been hot. I wonder who they'll get as Annette, being that Reese Witherspoon seems awfully busy these days.

 

We are basically safe from a Buffy continuation, because of that whole pesky "vampires can't age" bit, although that still doesn't stop us from a remake or an adaption.

Edited February 25, 2016 by methodwriter85

[Rick Kitchen]

Isn't the Cruel Intentions remake a TV series, not a movie?

 

And please don't use the term SJW.

[ChelseaNH]

I think spreading nude photos online of a girl he's hooking up with is a bridge too far

 

I'd advise you to google "revenge porn" but I get the sense you are not prepared.

[methodwriter85]

Anyway, are there any actual remakes you WOULD like to see, and think they could be good?

 

For me, I think a remake of The Net could work very, very well. There's so much more control that the internet/computers have over our lives now, and I think it's entirely possible now that you could completely erase someone's existence using computer hacking, especially if you're talking about a loner who only has one living family member. (And said family member is incapacitated.)

 

I also would really like to see a remake of St. Elmo's Fire, but set in 2008. I think that could work- Demi's financial problems would be even more relevant, and you could have Andrew McCarthy's character actually be gay and not just pretending to be.

Edited March 1, 2016 by methodwriter85

[Trini]

Anyway, are there any actual remakes you WOULD like to see, and think they could be good?

 

My guilty pleasure, Solarbabies -- the movie so bad any change would be an improvement. And dystopian is all the rage now, too.

 

Or any low-budget film from the 70s or 80s that would benefit from today's cheaper and better special effects.

[methodwriter85]

I think Night of the Comet could actually work well. They can do a lot with the zombies now, and being that you really only have about three core cast members, it'd be pretty cheap.

 

I've been morbidly curious to see Spike Lee do an updated version of Do the Right Thing after his rant a couple of years ago about hipsters. Imagine Do the Right Thing, but set in this decade, in a previously all-black neighborhood that is being gentrified by white urban professionals. I really do think that's an issue that isn't being talked about as much in film yet, and it's something that could be interesting to mine. (They did movies with "white flight" as a background; now the reverse is happening. I'd love to see that get reflected in film.)

Edited March 1, 2016 by methodwriter85

[Popples]

 

My guilty pleasure, Solarbabies -- the movie so bad any change would be an improvement. And dystopian is all the rage now, too.

 

Or any low-budget film from the 70s or 80s that would benefit from today's cheaper and better special effects.

 

This sort of reminds me of something similar Simon Pegg (I think it was him) said, instead of remaking successful films from the 70's and 80's, write really good sequels to the bad ones.

[Trini]

How about a re-make of The Bodyguard? There are so many singers doing acting, I'm surprised it hasn't been tried already.

[wallflower75]

I watched the shop around the corner last night. Wow.. liked it so much better than "you got mail".  The latter was such a twisted garbled story and the former was so simple. In the shop around the corner the two man characters are co workers (though of course the guy is sort of in charge) who don't like each other, at work, and do not know they are anonymously corresponding. Both are single. The girl admits she actually had found her co worker attractive before they had trouble getting along while in you got mail you can't see that Meg Ryan was ever really interested in Tom Hanks. Plus it is hard to put too much stock in their attraction when they are both with other people.

 

Someone should remake shop around the corner exactly as it was... where the two main characters are retail workers in the same shop and then e-mailing each other at night.

 

The first time I saw "The Shop Around the Corner" was right after James Stewart died.  It was included in one of those retrospective "great movies you might have missed" lists, and I fell in love with it.  I was so excited about "You've Got Mail" when I heard it was being made...and then was so disappointed with the result.  And this is speaking as someone who loved Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in "Sleepless in Seattle."  To be honest, I'm not a big fan of "In the Good Old Summertime," either, so for me, I don't know that I'd be first in line to see another remake of "The Shop Around the Corner."  I love the original too much.

[methodwriter85]

Next on deck for remaking...Interview With The Vampire!

I think this could probably work, provided casting is good.

If Dakota Fanning was still a child, she would have been a perfect Claudia, probably better than what Kirsten Dunst did.

I can't think of a good Lestat, though.

[Princess Sparkle]

Wait, is this like, fantasy casting or are they actually doing an Interview with the Vampire remake?  And if it is being remade, then the only question I have is "why"?  That film was fine as-is.

[Rick Kitchen]

Jared Leto as Lestat?

 

http://moviepilot.com/posts/3901399

[methodwriter85]

No, there really is a remake going.

Jared Leto. He could actually rock the fuck out of that.

Especially since it seems like nobody wants to work with Jonathan Rhys Meyers anymore for things that aren't going to be direct-to-video.

[methodwriter85]

A reboot I can see working: Father of the Bride. It worked in the 1950's, it worked in the 1990's, and it could work in the 2010's. It just really depends on casting. Hell, both the original and the remake were successful enough to spawn a sequel.

Hell, they could get away with doing a third movie now, as the grandson and the "oops" pre-menopause daughter should both be in their early 20's now. (Or the middle child could be getting married. Kieran Culkin has proven to be a pretty solid working actor.)

People have talked about doing a third movie in the series ...I mean, normally, I'd poo-pah a sequel that takes place so many decades later, but the concept of the Father of the Bride franchise (four movies strong) is pretty durable. It's pretty universal that a father will go through all kinds of emotions

I feel like that tends to be the benchmark of whether or not a reboot can work- does the concept work in a different time period than where the original took place? For example, Saturday Night Fever cannot work in modern-day New York City. So much of that movie is tied into the decay and racial tensions of 1970's New York City. You can't recreate that environment now in a modern era. Especially given that people are actually MOVING to Brooklyn from Manhatten, and I don't think Tony's family would even be able to afford to live in a house in Bay Ridge unless it had been passed down family to family. That's not even going into the disco thing. It would have to be something else that he can do (maybe DJ?), and they'd have to change where he's from (maybe Staten Island or Queens?), and then it's basically not Saturday Night Fever at that point. I mean, it could work, but there are some major tweaks you'd have to do, and it wouldn't really be Saturday Night Fever once you did. And the title itself just screams 1970's.

Going even more to that...there's a Three's Company remake being floated around, and even though they plan on setting it in the 1970's, I just don't think the concept is going to resonate with modern-day audiences. And the show only really worked because of John's comedic talent. That slapstick kind of humor isn't really popular these days- people really seem to prefer dry, ironic humor like Modern Family or The Office.

[magicdog]

Quote

Going even more to that...there's a Three's Company remake being floated around, and even though they plan on setting it in the 1970's, I just don't think the concept is going to resonate with modern-day audiences.

It's not because mores have changed a great deal in 40 years.  When Three's Company first aired, it was considered a radical idea (on TV and real life) for a single man to live with women he wasn't married nor related to.  It was standard American thinking that guys would room with guys and girls with girls if they didn't live with family.  Plus, the constant "misunderstandings" which was part of the show's comedy wore itself thin after a while.  I can't see it working as a reboot unless they treat it like the Brady Bunch movies in the 90s. 

 

Quote

the show only really worked because of John's comedic talent.

I agree.  Catching a rerun recently, John Ritter (and his chemistry with original cast mates, was a huge factor in making it work.