Of remakes and sequels
Justin Camilleri muses about the number of remakes that are hitting the screens
If Michael J. Fox's Marty from Back to the Future (1985) used the DeLorean time machine and appeared in 2007, one quick glance at the film titles and he would be baffled to say the least, thinking he stumbled upon the wrong year or precipitated in some strange space time continuum vortex, because the film's showing at a cinema near you looks so eerily familiar.
In this past year alone we have seen a remake of the TV series Miami Vice, The Poseidon Adventure and horror classics of the likes of The Omen, The Amityville Horror and The Hills Have Eyes. There also seems to be no end to sequels which are basically a recap of the first instalment as in Superman Returns, Rocky Balboa, Oceans 13, Die Hard 4.0 and The Bourne Ultimatum. Next year we will have to contend with more remakes, as the British gangster flick The Long Good Friday and The Warriors have just been given the go-ahead for filming.
According to Variety magazine, out of 46 studio movies that were scheduled for wide release this summer, almost half are either sequels or remakes. Therefore, it is very questionable if these sequels and remakes do half as good at the box office; can they ever surpass the original's crowning glory? I think not.
Film-makers seem to have run out of steam in their ability to invoke originality in their screenplays leaving 30+ cinema audiences utterly dismayed to say the least. Therefore Hollywood in its infinite wisdom keeps regurgitating supposedly new versions of old flicks. The obvious question is: Why revive stellar films that were already ahead of their time? No one attempts to paint a new version of the Mona Lisa, except perhaps adventurous art students and brash forgers out for the fast buck. Ask a marketer and he would mention brand recognition. In an interview on The Guardian, film critic Ryan Gilbey quoted Ashok Armitaj, chief executive officer and chairman of Hyde Park Entertainment, as saying: "Marketing and distribution costs so much, almost as much as making the film. So it's important to have a title that people recognise, irrelevant of whether or not they saw the film in the first place - if you've got that recognition, it's a valuable asset to a movie because it makes it easier to sell".
Stamping their feet in protest, film critics like Mr Gilbey and John Patterson have suggested an acute dearth of creativity in Hollywood, spurred in large part by the tremendous cost of making a studio movie and an aversion to risk, on the part of the executives in charge, and the bankers who hold the real power.
When it comes to remaking films from the 1970s and 1980s, no one can talk with more conviction than John Carpenter, whose Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog have only been remade recently. Mr Carpenter was quoted by The Observer as saying: "There's currently a 20- to 30-year nostalgia cycle; we long for those great old movies of yesteryear."
Even if filming is currently underway on new versions of Mr Carpenter's The Thing and the 1980s cult classic Escape from New York, and the latest remake of Halloween has just been hit the US screens, the director said: "I'm flattered if someone comes to me with the idea of remaking one of my films". He added: "Remake or original, making a movie still comes down to old-fashioned hard work."
However, Mr Carpenter's views may be the exception to the rule, as his Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog were unsuccessful and possessed low production values upon initial theatrical release. They subsequently developed a large cult following when they were released on video back in the 1980s. Ironically, the 2005 remake of The Fog, with its supposedly lavish production values, failed miserably at the box office, due to its poor performances, bolstered by its countless plot holes which did not do any justice to the original film.
Somehow, I have the distinct feeling that if it were Steven Spielberg or Francis Ford Coppola being asked to comment, they would respond differently on the subject matter. I mean seriously, can we imagine a remake of E.T. or a makeover of The Godfather? Again, with all the hype that is written on tabloids and broadsheets with remakes being the "in" thing, remakes are nothing new. Ben-Hur (1959), which garnered 11 Oscars, was previously a 1925 silent film and a Star is Born (1937) has been remade twice, first in 1954 starring Judy Garland, then in 1976 with Barbra Streisand, if you take into account all the borrowed elements from the original premise, there's also 2001's disastrous Glitter featuring Mariah Carey.
The remake spin doctoring machine seems to work on two facets; either producers/directors revamp an oldie that audiences have never heard of, or else remake a picture whose lead actor or actress has succumbed to a dire level of obscurity. Such was the case with the latter in DreamGirls which was based on the Warner Bros hit film Sparkle (1976), starring Fame's Irene Cara and Miami Vice's Philip Michael Thomas. Here lies the anomaly, as DreamGirls' success encouraged Warner Bros to release Sparkle on DVD last January.
Judging from their track record, good superb remakes are few indeed, and any layman will tell you that it is only the disastrous ones that spring to mind. Gus Van Sant's remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic Psycho was awful mainly because of the lead, Vince Vaughn, who was no match for Anthony Perkins playing Norman Bates; there was also Tim Burton's dreadful version of the 1960s classic Planet of the Apes, but I feel the top of the pops remake misery was heralded this summer, when we bore witness to Sean Bean's mediocre take on Rutger Hauer's evil hitcher role in an unwarranted updating of the 1980s slam-bang thriller The Hitcher.
The latest to be afflicted with the remake malaise are 1980s films and TV series. TV series that we'd never dream of watching again are being brought to the screen like the forthcoming Dallas starring John Travolta as J.R. Ewing, The A-Team and Magnum PI, in which Matthew McConaughey is replacing Tom Selleck. I suppose this nostalgia factor may be a blessing in itself as it is drawing out action stars who were in their prime during the excess decade of shoulder pads.
Probably prompted by the emerging fear of younger wannabe models very eager to take over their iconic roles, these action stars have developed a complex. These past heavyweights are reclaiming what is rightfully theirs; think Sylvester Stallone's (Sly to his fans) big screen return in Rocky Balboa and the forthcoming Rambo 4 (2008) to Bruce Willis in Die Hard 4.0 and Harrison Ford, who is now pushing 65, helming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). This is a statement to their younger colleagues that they are nowhere near their past sell-by date.
More sequels and threequels being released starring 1980s action heroes only add to the current lacklustre shortage of original scripts circulating in Hollywood. However, if this is the case, please continue to bring back the 1980s action stars, as I prefer to watch a sequel starring the original lead actor, as it makes for more compulsive viewing, than remakes featuring younger pale imitators like Brit Gerard Butler (300) attempting to make Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken character the rogue hero we know and love. A remake of Escape from New York hardly entices me especially now, that with a twist of irony, Mr Russell's action man career has just been revived thanks to Quentin Tarantino's DeathProof.
I wonder if in the year 2050 we will ever see a remake of the latest Indiana Jones film, as like current boy bands' bubble gum music, a quaint look at the younger generation of Mark Wahlberg's and Colin Farrell's slapstick off-screen shenanigans; they seem destined to be stuck in puberty, never managing to break the mould from style to manly substance. But that's of course another movie!
In this past year alone we have seen a remake of the TV series Miami Vice, The Poseidon Adventure and horror classics of the likes of The Omen, The Amityville Horror and The Hills Have Eyes. There also seems to be no end to sequels which are basically a recap of the first instalment as in Superman Returns, Rocky Balboa, Oceans 13, Die Hard 4.0 and The Bourne Ultimatum. Next year we will have to contend with more remakes, as the British gangster flick The Long Good Friday and The Warriors have just been given the go-ahead for filming.
According to Variety magazine, out of 46 studio movies that were scheduled for wide release this summer, almost half are either sequels or remakes. Therefore, it is very questionable if these sequels and remakes do half as good at the box office; can they ever surpass the original's crowning glory? I think not.
Film-makers seem to have run out of steam in their ability to invoke originality in their screenplays leaving 30+ cinema audiences utterly dismayed to say the least. Therefore Hollywood in its infinite wisdom keeps regurgitating supposedly new versions of old flicks. The obvious question is: Why revive stellar films that were already ahead of their time? No one attempts to paint a new version of the Mona Lisa, except perhaps adventurous art students and brash forgers out for the fast buck. Ask a marketer and he would mention brand recognition. In an interview on The Guardian, film critic Ryan Gilbey quoted Ashok Armitaj, chief executive officer and chairman of Hyde Park Entertainment, as saying: "Marketing and distribution costs so much, almost as much as making the film. So it's important to have a title that people recognise, irrelevant of whether or not they saw the film in the first place - if you've got that recognition, it's a valuable asset to a movie because it makes it easier to sell".
Stamping their feet in protest, film critics like Mr Gilbey and John Patterson have suggested an acute dearth of creativity in Hollywood, spurred in large part by the tremendous cost of making a studio movie and an aversion to risk, on the part of the executives in charge, and the bankers who hold the real power.
When it comes to remaking films from the 1970s and 1980s, no one can talk with more conviction than John Carpenter, whose Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog have only been remade recently. Mr Carpenter was quoted by The Observer as saying: "There's currently a 20- to 30-year nostalgia cycle; we long for those great old movies of yesteryear."
Even if filming is currently underway on new versions of Mr Carpenter's The Thing and the 1980s cult classic Escape from New York, and the latest remake of Halloween has just been hit the US screens, the director said: "I'm flattered if someone comes to me with the idea of remaking one of my films". He added: "Remake or original, making a movie still comes down to old-fashioned hard work."
However, Mr Carpenter's views may be the exception to the rule, as his Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog were unsuccessful and possessed low production values upon initial theatrical release. They subsequently developed a large cult following when they were released on video back in the 1980s. Ironically, the 2005 remake of The Fog, with its supposedly lavish production values, failed miserably at the box office, due to its poor performances, bolstered by its countless plot holes which did not do any justice to the original film.
Somehow, I have the distinct feeling that if it were Steven Spielberg or Francis Ford Coppola being asked to comment, they would respond differently on the subject matter. I mean seriously, can we imagine a remake of E.T. or a makeover of The Godfather? Again, with all the hype that is written on tabloids and broadsheets with remakes being the "in" thing, remakes are nothing new. Ben-Hur (1959), which garnered 11 Oscars, was previously a 1925 silent film and a Star is Born (1937) has been remade twice, first in 1954 starring Judy Garland, then in 1976 with Barbra Streisand, if you take into account all the borrowed elements from the original premise, there's also 2001's disastrous Glitter featuring Mariah Carey.
The remake spin doctoring machine seems to work on two facets; either producers/directors revamp an oldie that audiences have never heard of, or else remake a picture whose lead actor or actress has succumbed to a dire level of obscurity. Such was the case with the latter in DreamGirls which was based on the Warner Bros hit film Sparkle (1976), starring Fame's Irene Cara and Miami Vice's Philip Michael Thomas. Here lies the anomaly, as DreamGirls' success encouraged Warner Bros to release Sparkle on DVD last January.
Judging from their track record, good superb remakes are few indeed, and any layman will tell you that it is only the disastrous ones that spring to mind. Gus Van Sant's remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic Psycho was awful mainly because of the lead, Vince Vaughn, who was no match for Anthony Perkins playing Norman Bates; there was also Tim Burton's dreadful version of the 1960s classic Planet of the Apes, but I feel the top of the pops remake misery was heralded this summer, when we bore witness to Sean Bean's mediocre take on Rutger Hauer's evil hitcher role in an unwarranted updating of the 1980s slam-bang thriller The Hitcher.
The latest to be afflicted with the remake malaise are 1980s films and TV series. TV series that we'd never dream of watching again are being brought to the screen like the forthcoming Dallas starring John Travolta as J.R. Ewing, The A-Team and Magnum PI, in which Matthew McConaughey is replacing Tom Selleck. I suppose this nostalgia factor may be a blessing in itself as it is drawing out action stars who were in their prime during the excess decade of shoulder pads.
Probably prompted by the emerging fear of younger wannabe models very eager to take over their iconic roles, these action stars have developed a complex. These past heavyweights are reclaiming what is rightfully theirs; think Sylvester Stallone's (Sly to his fans) big screen return in Rocky Balboa and the forthcoming Rambo 4 (2008) to Bruce Willis in Die Hard 4.0 and Harrison Ford, who is now pushing 65, helming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). This is a statement to their younger colleagues that they are nowhere near their past sell-by date.
More sequels and threequels being released starring 1980s action heroes only add to the current lacklustre shortage of original scripts circulating in Hollywood. However, if this is the case, please continue to bring back the 1980s action stars, as I prefer to watch a sequel starring the original lead actor, as it makes for more compulsive viewing, than remakes featuring younger pale imitators like Brit Gerard Butler (300) attempting to make Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken character the rogue hero we know and love. A remake of Escape from New York hardly entices me especially now, that with a twist of irony, Mr Russell's action man career has just been revived thanks to Quentin Tarantino's DeathProof.
I wonder if in the year 2050 we will ever see a remake of the latest Indiana Jones film, as like current boy bands' bubble gum music, a quaint look at the younger generation of Mark Wahlberg's and Colin Farrell's slapstick off-screen shenanigans; they seem destined to be stuck in puberty, never managing to break the mould from style to manly substance. But that's of course another movie!