I envision it as set in the 70s, as written. Sort of a period piece. But the Mossad agent character, played by Shaw, bore little resemblance to the book. Physically, I imagine him looking a bit like a young Tom Jones. Dern played the pilot much too manically. I envision him as the classic “kept to himself” type that nobody really suspected. Much more quiet, calculating in a sinister way. And we should see some of the events that damaged him so much (bad childhood experiences, Vietnam POW).
The Harry Potter people were smart - they followed the books closely. I wish that was done more often, though I understand why some deviations are necessary. But a book like Black Sunday needn’t be modified much, IMO.
They wouldn’t have to put the guy in suspended animation for a whole 500 years. Set the start of the remake in 2006, and have him wake up after 20 years. The premise would work just fine.
Ooh, I got one-- remake 'It’s a Wonderful Life", but without the Heaven / angel stuff. Make it a hard sci-fi about quantum uncertainty and the Butterfly Effect.
I did the complicated quantum calculations overnight. It turns out the box office returns for the studio to justify greenlighting a “Sliding Doors 2” were short by only 2 sold tickets. So in the universe where I saw the movie in the theater and took a date, SD2 went into production, bombed, and sent Paltrow’s career off the rails. She never won an Oscar for ‘Shakespeare in Love’, never appeared in any Marvel movies, and was not able to found Goop, depriving the world of products like candles scented like her vagina.
So, to everybody in this quantum universe, I apologize for not having seen the movie
The Firefly movie. Not just because they killed off some of our favorite characters, but because the plot was so Hollywood-formulaic.
Special mention should go out to the second and third Highlander movies. The second was horrifically awful. The third wasn’t nearly as bad, but wasn’t good.
In the late 1960s, there was talk of Chuck Connors playing Doc Savage. I think it still would have been a George Pal production, so it probably would have sucked just as bad as the Ron Ely film we ended up with. But with a better script and director, it might have been awesome! More recently, there have been rumors of Chris Hemsworth playing the role. Probably won’t happen, but we can hope.
I would like to see some of the old matinee serials remade as big-budget TV series. Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, with Game of Thrones budgets. Dick Tracy and The Shadow, with Boardwalk Empire budgets.
I want a re-make of Canadian Mounties versus Atomic Invaders. I have never seen the original, and I admit it was probably terrible, but the title alone makes me want to see it made with superstar actors and state-of-the-art effects.
About ten years ago I heard that Dwayne Johnson was going to be doing a Doc Savage movie, but I can’t find any specifics on director or potential plot. I’m assuming the project fell through.
The problem with the Highlander sequels is that the original movie was essentially the end of the story for the whole group of immortals. Hard to have a sequel to that.
The TV show was more successful because it ret-conned that, which kind of makes the original movie completely irrelevant.
So the real re-make should be the original Highlander movie. Make it the story of his life. You could probably keep 90+% of the story intact, just drop the whole “This is the Gathering” part. Then you could make lots of other movies about the other immortals. I always wanted to see more of Kastagir. He seemed like a guy who was really enjoying just living an immortal life.
I would like to see two 80s fantasy movies given this treatment.
Firstly Krull. I would love to see all the VFX updated to modern level, and the sets to not feel so studio-bound. I’d like Lysette Anthony’s real voice to be restored. And I want the end fight against The Beast to be reworked, so that the Princess is given some agency, such as the two of them using their shared wedding flame to defeat him. Also, use the glaive more.
Secondly Ladyhawke. I love this movie as is, except for the synth music, and don’t really want it touched. But I could see a complete remake as a limited TV series, allowing the story to explore the origins of the curse, and expand on each of the sequences so we get to know all the characters properly, including the villains.
This topic comes up every now and then here. And my stock answer has always been The Fountainhead. It was made in 1949 and (IMO) was miscast and poorly executed. It’s a great story that deserves to be made into a good movie.
I want them to take the whole Mission: Impossible franchise into a recording studio and loop all of the necessary dialogue to make the Tom Cruise character be named Jim Phelps.
