Remakes! Remakes! Read all about 'em!

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » December 8th, 2008, 9:47 am

Hollywood makes it so easy to hate its industry when it gets this lazy...!

Seriously, it's bad enough when they try to remake classics like "Casablanca" and "The Wizard of Oz." It's even worse when a lazy or scheming executive decides to greenlight a remake of "Three's Company," "Weird Science," or something else even more recent.

That requires absolutely no imagination at all.

I just recently saw the movie version of "Get Smart" when my sister and her boyfriend rented the DVD over Thanksgiving.

It was totally forgettable and utterly mediocre to the point of asking, "Why bother with this?"

And Ben's right... Half the point of a lot of these remakes is for executives to make some quick money. Execs don't make money on re-releases of existing films and TV shows, BUT if they greenlight remakes you can bet that they have it written into a contract somewhere that they will get a piece of the profit, or at least some money for greenlighting the project.

I took a class or two taught by the producer of "Pete's Dragon" and the original "Witch Mountain" movies. And guess what? Disney's remaking the "Witch Mountain" movies!

I think the old gentleman could care less now (he's in his early 80's), but he told me a big reason for remakes was so that the current executives would get money off the newer versions... Of course, this was all around 10 years before the current wave of film and TV series remakes.

Post by **EricJ** » December 8th, 2008, 2:59 pm

Ben wrote:They're remaking Child's Play!??!??!????!?????

Surely that's a franchise still rip for another follow-up?

80's MGM...See how it works?

Also considering that Sony owns contemporary-MGM, has been growing increasingly desperate that they just don't have an audience-identifiable 'Boomer Marketing Franchise like Warner and Disney do (which explains why they keep ramming UA's Pink Panther down our throats) and is only too happy to let MGM indulge their 80's trips for cash, in the hopes of who it attracts and who they can sell to...

Post by **Ben** » December 9th, 2008, 6:57 am

...what, like Spider-Man?

Post by **eddievalient** » December 9th, 2008, 10:59 am

Someone needs to remake "The Black Cauldron". I like the film quite a bit, but someone needs to do the Prydain series properly, with one film for each book (Taran Wanderer would be a hard sell, but it's still a good story worth adapting).

Post by **EricJ** » December 9th, 2008, 8:05 pm

Ben wrote:...what, like Spider-Man?

If they owned Marvel, yes.

But more like, back when Sony first bought MGM, and was about to release that Nicole Kidman 60's-TV movie that Shall Remain Nameless, Sony's marketing division tried to flood Target shelves with t-shirts, desk clutter, and assorted frou-frou of what they thought WERE now their two biggest Female Cutesy 'Boomer Pop-Culture Marketing Franchises:
Pink Panther (courtesy of MGM/UA), and...animated-credits iconography of "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie". (courtesy of Columbia Screen Gems Television).

...Nnnnn-NOT exactly Tweety Bird, Warner/DC Heroes, or Disney Princesses, but they're in there punching.

Post by **Ben** » December 10th, 2008, 6:49 am

Sony never bought MGM. They purchased some stock options in them, but not a controlling share.

Spider-Man makes more money for Sony than it does for Marvel. Like the first Superman, the deal is that Sony licenses the rights and can do what they like with it, paying Marvel a royalty, hence why no Spidey (currently) in all the big and grandiose upcoming Marvel movie plans.

But...I get your point...against what the other studios have to offer, the Torch doesn't really have anything from their own library to compete: they also let Mighty Mouse slip to Viacom through various deals, and even Hanna-Barbera were distributed by Screen Gems, but now they own nothing of that.

About the best they have is Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad and those kinds of films...but you're not going to establish a marketing empire off the back of those!

Post by **EricJ** » December 10th, 2008, 2:55 pm

Ben wrote:But...I get your point...against what the other studios have to offer, the Torch doesn't really have anything from their own library to compete: they also let Mighty Mouse slip to Viacom through various deals, and even Hanna-Barbera were distributed by Screen Gems, but now they own nothing of that.

And any Columbia/UPA hopes for Mr. Magoo are completely tied up by Classic Media, and Gerald McBoingBoing is under the tyrannical world-domination thumb of Audrey Geisel...

Post by **Darkblade** » December 28th, 2008, 2:54 pm

They should remake Bakshi's cool world they way Ralph wanted it. i heard he wanted it as a horror film. Speaking of which rumor is going around of a remake of Dick Tracy{as a new film} and a script is being written by the guys who gave us the dark knight.

Post by **gaastra** » February 26th, 2009, 9:57 am

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/con ... f58da40dfc

Here comes the cgi falcor!

Post by **Rodney** » February 26th, 2009, 12:24 pm

I think this is a great idea. The story is prime for being retold and there is plenty of material to use from the original stories. Overall, I like this idea.

Post by **Daniel** » February 26th, 2009, 1:05 pm

Another reboot!? My goodness. Well, this one doesn't sound too bad, but I'm not sure most people will flock to theaters to see this.

Post by **Darkblade** » February 26th, 2009, 2:16 pm

I hope this turns out better...I disliked the very first one.

Post by **Dacey** » March 2nd, 2009, 12:05 pm

And they're making this because...

Post by **Once Upon A Dream** » March 2nd, 2009, 1:07 pm

Because every movie need a remake?.

Post by **Sunday** » March 2nd, 2009, 3:48 pm

lol, it really is neverending! The original is so firmly rooted in puppetry and prosthetics it's hard for me cut that loose and imagine the eventual CG spotlight this will be.

Remakes! Remakes! Read all about 'em!

Upcoming remakes