Why hasn't Hollywood remade it?

[6thumbs]

Originally Posted by Clarence

Me too. what an abortion.

Just saw that they're coming out with a Transformers movie, due in July. Cool!

i like the original king kong with fay ray

[doctorbongo]

Vacant.
Void.
Devoid.

I have a great idea. Write something new. Produce it with old style values.
TRY to come up with some actors with the subtlety of Fonda or Bogart or Stewart or Peck. Stop pissing all over the legacy of classics by remaking them with trite, special effects-driven scripts.

The sequels to "Planet of the Apes" got progressively worse,
but they were MASTERPIECES compared to the remake of the original.
What a convoluted pile of vomit.

The reason "The Birds" remake would be atrocicious:
The suspense in the film is based on the silence and the acting.
The INTERLUDES are what build the mood.
Your proposed version would center on a huge flock of digital birds.
I'm not scared of digital birds, but I'm scared they will remake the movie.

[soundmotor]

Originally Posted by doctorbongo

I have a great idea. Write something new.

I have to agree. Were I king, there would need to be a certain threshold met before a remake project could proceed. Such as the original story showed promise but was so horribly botched by the director that the resulting film was a disaster. (I do put the blame entirely on the director too. It is his job to get the performances he needs from his actors and hold the story together. You can look at Altman for "MASH" (Sutherland & Gould wanted him fired) or Gondry and what he got out of Jim Carrey in "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind".) If the director totally botches the original, it might be a candidate for remake.

Case in point, the first "Dune". What a mess. So bad it was rescued by Sci-Fi channel in their own remake that exceeds the original in virtually every way. But the list gets pretty short after that. "Planet of the Apes" is rightly mentioned here. I could not agree more that the original was a masterpiece. It was spare, with great plot twists, & shocking reveals. Perhaps the most interesting was the knowledge being concealed by Dr. Zaius. Great stuff! The remake? Talk about an abomination. Who thought Tim Burton would be the right pick for this? He's fine in the genre he prefers but when you throw in his re-envisioning of the original Boulle story you have a absolute trainwreck. "Planet of the Apes" is an excellent example of an awful remake.

In looking back at the -books that should be made into films thread-, I can think of another 50 or so to add that have never been anywhere near a theater. Fertile ground for the screenwriter and absolutely fuels the posit above, "Write something new."

[JBL 4645]

Originally Posted by doctorbongo

Vacant.
Void.
Devoid.

I have a great idea. Write something new. Produce it with old style values.
TRY to come up with some actors with the subtlety of Fonda or Bogart or Stewart or Peck. Stop pissing all over the legacy of classics by remaking them with trite, special effects-driven scripts.

The sequels to "Planet of the Apes" got progressively worse,
but they were MASTERPIECES compared to the remake of the original.
What a convoluted pile of vomit.

The reason "The Birds" remake would be atrocicious:
The suspense in the film is based on the silence and the acting.
The INTERLUDES are what build the mood.
Your proposed version would center on a huge flock of digital birds.
I'm not scared of digital birds, but I'm scared they will remake the movie.

Remaking most films for the sake of technology today seems like a good idea and then a bad idea but it won’t tarnish the original I think with a black eye, it might even work out better than the original. But looking at it from today’s standards seems like a real poor excuse for CGI and Dolby digital to put bums on seats.

Leave, The Birds alone its fine as it is all it needs is a better presentational sound system like JBL and THX sound system to make it look good and sound good not a remake heavens no.

The first Planet of the Apes was a knockout “Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”

I think Hollywood is running out of ideas now seriously running out of ideas and need to halt on remaking films and get a new bread of screenplay mavericks to write new and original stories not simply rehashing the same story over again and again.

The Thing From Another World VS The Thing are two different things entirely one the original always remained the same creature in a suit, where’s with the remake showed it as it was in the book a shape shifting alien that could take on any form or shape at will!

Anyway this debate can go on and on until some remakes this thread into the son of “Why hasn't Hollywood remade it? Part 2!”

[doctorbongo]

And that King Kong remake was pretty good, by current Hollywood standards, which is to say, Hollywood is fine with putting out lots of crap if it makes lots of moolah.

[jeffn]

Ahh yes...... hollywood doesn't believe the audience has the patience to sit through pregnant pauses anymore. Try watching the original The Exorcist again. It's a slow movie at first, and builds slowly, by the effect is totally gripping. You won't see horror like that much anymore......if at all.

[RussinOhio]

My opinion is that Hitchcocks film is fine and should be left to stand alone. Advances in SPX technology would do very little in making a better movie. Hitchcocks editing is what made "The Birds" fun to watch. Next time you see it watch very carefully the scene with the crows on the playground monkeybars....how the number of birds grows suddenly!
It's all about the editing, and AH was very good at it.


Just my 2cents,
Russ

They really don't. I liked Saws 1 & 2, though.

[doctorbongo]

"Hotdog Down the Hallway" was a perfect execution of cinematic technique.
I hope they release a director's cut.

[Twenty20Man]

remake all the classic "silent" films, ( I can't think of any offhand) but it seems it would give someone of talent a chance to showcase what they can do, free rein so to speak....

[jonman]

Originally Posted by Twenty20Man

remake all the classic "silent" films, ( I can't think of any offhand) but it seems it would give someone of talent a chance to showcase what they can do, free rein so to speak....

The new breed of actors would probably forget their lines.

[JBL 4645]

I know why where at why not The Jazz Singer 1927 first film to introduce sound to the public via the Vitaphone and JBL sound system. Or wasn’t that remade sometime around 1980 Neil Diamond.

[Cosmic]

...for starters, noone in Hollywood should be allowed to touch any film for a re-make until they have proven they can actually make a film to begin with.

That film would be one that:
DOES NOT appeal to dumb teens who think anything that has happened before 1975 is, like, unknown, you know, and stuff.

Actually has a script that is: intelligent, well-thought through and has wit in it (if need be, they can look up the definition of wit.)

DOES NOT RELY DESPERATELY ON a 'big' name for said film to be considered sellable (see 'dumb teen' point for clarification.)

DOES NOT rip off (and, inevitably stupidify) major portions of a better film in the pursuit of the "target demographic..."

...and for anyone who thinks this is incorrect, I refer to some studio hack who was asked about the fact that the stinker "Pearl Harbor" was in fact a second-rate soap opera, despite the, well, hard-to-ignore Japanese attack on the place that was featured in the ads.

His answer: along the lines of, 'well, it's not really about the attack on Pearl Harbor, it's a love story...'

In other words, even one of the most memorable moments in US history would be too boring if told without the usual syrup, despite the film having at least as many explosions as any of Arnold's epics.

I rest my case

C.

[arrow 68]

I have done very little reading in this thread. What I can't figure out, is why remake a movie to begin with. And please, don't fuck up a classic movie, or good novel. And why is every movie geared towards dumb people. This goes for people in any age group. I had one person in there 50's that thought that the Thomas Crown Affair was a Brosnan Original. And many younger people that can't watch a movie because it's in B/W. Sadly there are many more of these kinds of people, then astute, engaging, open minded, individuals.

[Tapehead47]

I'd like to see 'Ringworld' in film.

Rick