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Re: Hollywood heading back to the 80s
Studios have gone back to the future as they develop their upcoming slates, eyeing a slew of hits from the 1980s to remake, reboot or reimagine.
The irony is that "Back to the Future" isn't one of them.
Everything else is essentially getting the "Clash of the Titans" treatment: retooled with flashier f/x and a new cast of recognizable names to reintroduce the material to a new generation of moviegoers.
At least 30 films from the '80s are being revamped, including the comedies "Police Academy," "Short Circuit" and "Private Benjamin," horror fare like "Fright Night" and "Poltergeist," actioners "Escape From New York," "RoboCop" and "Red Dawn," and everything in between from "Near Dark" to "Footloose" and "The Karate Kid." New sequels are in store for "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Ghostbusters."
The projects are the latest sign of Hollywood's continued retrenchment into a safe zone where it only greenlights films with built-in awareness -- pics based on kids and young adult books, videogames, comicbooks and toys, for example.
Of course, Hollywood isn't just remaking movies from the '80s. Studios have dug into their vaults and are eyeing remakes of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds," comedy "The Graduate," sci-fi classics like "Fantastic Voyage" and oater "True Grit."
It makes sense that Hollywood is gravitating toward films that will be 30 years old by the time their new incarnations hit the bigscreen. Many of the higher-profile properties were produced at a time when studios were first embracing the concept of the summer tentpole after films like "Jaws" and "Star Wars" proved that high-concept pics could translate to big business at the box office. And the thinking is: If they worked then, why not now?
Michael Bay's production shingle Platinum Dunes, especially, has gone after the youth market with reboots of "Friday the 13th," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "The Hitcher," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "The Amityville Horror," "The Birds" and "Monster Squad." It was working on a reboot of Kathryn Bigelow's vampire tale "Near Dark," but put the project on hold because of "Twilight."
Many of the films feature strong characters -- Conan, He-Man, RoboCop and "A Nightmare on Elm Street's" Freddy Krueger -- that are bankable in their own right and bring auds to the megaplex while also giving something of a spotlight to the actors that portray them.
Six actors have played James Bond on the bigscreen over the years; four have similarly donned Batman's cape and cowl. Russell Crowe is the latest Robin Hood, and Robert Downey Jr. is now suiting up as both Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes.
It's why Legendary Pictures (which produced "Clash") is looking to reintroduce Godzilla on the bigscreen, not as a remake of Sony's 1998 pic but as an update of the Japanese pics that first introduced the rampaging lizard in the 1950s.
That iconic status is why Universal keeps eyeing its classic monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein, the Wolfman, the Invisible Man and the Creature of the Black Lagoon as prime for bigscreen returns. U is moving forward with "Dracula Year Zero" as an origin story of how Prince Vlad the Impaler becomes the bloodsucking vamp, with Sam Worthington set to star. It also has a "Frankenstein" remake in the works with Guillermo del Toro set helm.
The reality, however, is that not all of these current remakes will work. The latest, "Death at a Funeral," from Screen Gems, has been panned by many critics, and the original Brit farce died at the B.O. in 2007.
Lionsgate stumbled twice with "The Punisher," with four years in between pics. MGM also tripped up with a reboot of "Fame" last year, which danced its way to just $24 million at the domestic B.O.; "Death Race" didn't cross the finish line with a big haul, either. Remakes of "Rollerball," "Get Carter" and "The Bad News Bears" also failed to win over auds.
Still, with "Clash of the Titans" conquering the box office, Legendary will now focus on unleashing "Godzilla" on a new crop of moviegoers. Producers at the shingle are looking to fix what didn't work in Roland Emmerich's pricey version, including the rampaging lizard's overall look. In the new "Clash," they similarly made tweaks, tossing Bubo the mechanical owl from the original to the side and making the Kraken more menacing.
Similarly, MGM changed "Red Dawn's" Russian baddies to invading Chinese communists to make the plot more relevant to the current state of the world. The new "Nightmare on Elm Street" now serves as an origin story of how Freddy becomes a serial killer. And Strike Entertainment and Universal's "The Thing" was developed as a prequel to John Carpenter's original scarefest, and focuses on the Norwegian crew that first discovered the shape-shifting alien in Antarctica.
You can make changes, update the plots and add more weight to the characters," says a producer.
The question now is, what happens if the new versions don't work? Or what if they do? Will Hollywood be remaking the remakes 30 years from now?
- dr_love6977
- Rep: 38
Re: Hollywood heading back to the 80s
They need to make "Snake Pliskin in Escape from Detroit."
Re: Hollywood heading back to the 80s
Hollywood is just running out of ideas. There's hardly any original thoughts or movies out there these days. I have NO interest in any of those remakes.
I think the music industry is out of ideas as well. There are only so many chord progressions that can be played.
Re: Hollywood heading back to the 80s
The 80s was a golden age for movies, music & TV imo. They're not even counting the TV adapations that have happened or in the works. The Dukes of Hazzard was released to theaters and got a DTV sequel, Miami Vice was a modern reboot in 2006, The A-Team comes out this summer, 21 Jump Street is finally moving along, and a Dallas film has toiled in development hell for years, with rumored stars ranging from John Travolta to Kevin Costner as JR and Brad Pitt to Luke Wilson as Bobby.
"Escape From New York" was supposed to happen with Gerard Butler, but when Kurt Russell and John Carpenter both publicly denounced it, interest fell, and even revived talks of "Escape From The World" (the proposed third film), and possibly the prequel "Escape From Cleveland" (referenced in the original film), with Russell interested in returning to either.
There was even talk at one point of a "Back To The Future" reboot with Zac Efron as Marty McFly. When that idea was turned down, it became "Back To The Future Part IV" with Efron as Marty, Jr. and Fox reprising Marty, Sr. in a supporting role, and bringing back all of the original supporting cast like Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Thomas Wilson. Robert Zemeckis said "not gonna happen". Universal wanted to make money off of it, but at the same time, Uni also knew that the BTTF Trilogy is still FAR too recent and FAR too popular in the memories of audiences to even go there. Not only everyone want to leave it "as is" with Part III being the finale, but a reboot is doomed for failure, because Michael J. Fox is an icon as that character. They also wanted to change the car from a DeLorean. Why we're at it, why don't we do another Star Wars and remove the Millenium Falcon.
Other than maybe the new Batman franchise... I think we ALL could do without any of these films. Nothing stood out, nothing blew my mind. I really liked Miami Vice 2006, but I liked it because it was totally fresh and different from the original series, which is why most hated it. The cast could've also been better, with Jamie Foxx the exception.
I'm looking forward to Beverly Hills Cop IV, and if Russell & Carpenter even do an Escape III. Short of that, no thanks.
And that Police Academy, if done, short bring back all of the original living cast if they're gonna do it.
Re: Hollywood heading back to the 80s
I would have much more interest if they were re-doing these movies with the same actors, at least the ones I cared about back then. Ghostbusters I could care less about, so that doesn't count. But take The Karate Kid for example. I could give a shit about Will Smith's kid learning karate from Jackie Chan. But if you brought back Ralph Macchio, maybe have him teach his son. Or bring William Zabka back and have them have a re-match 30 years later. NOW, you're talking.
