I won’t call you naïve. Just…sweet.
:: pats StusBlues on the head and gives him a butterscotch ::
You better have a marriage license in your hand if you’re doing that, son!
At least one racist character is given a backstory explaining he’s prejudiced because of a misunderstanding or misperception early in childhood. After Atticus gives his closing argument, said racist will be brought to tears and realize the errors of his way. He’ll help clear Tom’s name.
Barring that, the racist who’s been whipping everyone else into a frenzy will learn he, in fact, is black! Much soul searching ensues. Once their instigator backs off the others are shown to be not such bad people after all. Hugs all around.
Even assuming the story was handed to somebody who actually got it and the studios didn’t meddle to give it a happy ending, I think there’s three major screwups that would be nearly inevitable:
-
They’d try to portray the kid’s “adventures” and playing around in an artsy, CGI dream / fantasy world. Just showing kids screwing around and talking wouldn’t pass.
-
There’d almost certainly be an attempt to make some of the black characters more fleshed-out and “human,” which would likely soften the undertones of racial division.
-
They’d tell the kid playing Dill to to his best Hoffman-as-Capote impression.
Put the entire story in a racially divided neighborhood of New York City. And while we’re there, instead of dressing up as a ham, Scout can be a portobello mushroom.
I’ll go with that. Let’s make it the sheriff, so we can start out with him being just another ignorant redneck Southern stereotype.
I don’t think they’d mess with the story; it’s a great story.
They might make Scott older, have her attracted to Dill, and be a bit ugly when he came out to her (from embarassment, not natural hatefulness).
They would definitely never get gentile slightly run-down sense of the town.
Seth Rogen as Atticus Finch. He’ll need a buddy, maybe Luke Wilson. Ellen Page as Scout, Will Farrel as Jem. At least one chase scene. Rabid dog won’t be put down, but cured.
I agree with what some others have said. If they were making To Kill a Mockingbird nowadays, the studio would decide it needs to reach a “YA” demographic. They’d make Scout, Jem, and Dill high school age (and cast actors in their early twenties).
I certainly don’t get it. I’ve adored Johnny Depp from day one, and he’s never been in any real dogs. Just my opinion. So because of “The Tourist” now we have to start hating him?? That’s more to do with the stink of Angelina Jolie, they definitely had no chemistry. But that’s a real exception. TKAM would have to be remade as a period piece, wouldn’t it? More PC, though.
He’s a good actor but he’s been omnipresent the last couple of years. It’s just fatigue.
Dakota Fanning as Scout and Zac Efron as Dill.
Efron? That’s so 2008! Bieber is the new Zac Efron. Get on with the times.
Isn’t Zac Efron going to be in the Lorax, though? That’s why I thought of him. He’s going to ruin one classic, why not another?
No, they would cast Will Smith as Atticus Finch, never mind that it makes absolutely no sense. Willow and Jaden would be Scout and Jem.
Please don’t even let them remake this movie. Gregory Peck is perfect, I don’t want to see anyone else in that role ever.
And steal the movie from under everybody else, that’s the problem.
Yeah, Boo would still be eccentric but he would pop out and do a little dance every time anyone walked by.
And then he and Boo (played by Robert Duvall, natch!) would form the first chapter of North American Man-Boy Love Association
Hell, no. Whoopi would be perfect! Directed by Steven Spielberg.
This - and when the mob comes to the jailhouse to lynch Tom, Atticus decks the leader, and disperses the mob, rather then Scout (played by Selena Gomez), shaming them into dispersing.
As Atticus walks out of the courtroom, instead of saying, “Jean Louise. Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passing,” Rev. Sykes would start a “slow clap.”
Oh, and Scout would be played by Miley Cyrus!
Modernize it by placing it in the future on a distant planet.
Will Smith & clan are the Fitches. The defendant is an Alien!
Boo is played by Owen Wilson, doing his usual shtick.