How many of you get uneasy when you hear the word “reboot”?
I immediately think "Okay, shallow movie exec has no new ideas, so spins the big wheel in his office, and when the pointer stops at Goonies yells ‘I’ve got it! We’ll change the setting from the Oregon coast to SanFran, and we’ll write in a troubled past for Mikey, maybe he’s a skater graffiti artist … and a love interest! If we can just get Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus it’ll be bomb-proof!’"
In the Reboot the Back To The Future films thread, Stranger On A Train quips “… as foolish as trying to remake Rear Window or On The Waterfront”.
Amen.
If you could dig a fire-break around any films and say “You! Shall! Not! Reboot!”, which films would those be? And what reasons would you give those soul-less movie execs who are willing to re-imagine Citizen Kane with Will Ferrell: (“Finally, Chuck RULZ Xanadu! In full color, full 3D, and full bodily fluid humor!”)
Well, for one thing, a single, standalone movie cannot be rebooted by definition. (In my ever-so-humble opinion.) It can be remade, but the term ‘reboot’ applies to a franchise or series, not to a single work.
Which is not to say that ignorant people haven’t tried to use the term.
Well, a remake of Back to the future sounds like a recipe for disaster. You could still make a good actual movie out of the concept, but the original series took the concept and made it blossom in a way that seems very hard to replicate. Even if you took the same crew today (I of course take Michael J. Fox out of the equation here), they would be totally unable to repeat the feat. And that’s usually the indicator for films that shouldnt be remade. The concept of remake is more appropriate for B movies, where the execution wasnt necessarily perfect (see the Highlander thread).
Sooo, I’m gonna go for CHUD here. They really shouldnt make a remake of that.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Every few years the rumours start up again (remember when Marilyn Manson was going to play Frank N. Furter?) and every time it sounds like an awful idea. Even if the remake was good - and that’s a pretty huge if - the fans would never accept it and the critics would rip it to shreds.
The only way it could work is if it was changed so much that it almost became a new film rather than a remake - like if they took the songs or the characters or both and put them in a different story with a different setting.
I don’t know if you knew this already, but The Pink Panther was already remade, starring Steve Martin and Arthur is currently being remade, starring Russell Brand.
I disagree. The Pink Panther could have been done well by the right performer. Steve Martin was not it. I have no idea what would make anyone think he was it. I always figured that part was made for Martin Short, but probably not any more though. The Pink Panther was a great franchise, but surviving that SM travesty will be a shot in a million.
Of course, not all of the Peter Sellers PP were great.
Gone with the Wind Casablanca the Wizard of Oz the Exorcist Star Wars (the original tilogy) E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial the Godfather (I or II)
Probably more, but these films are too indelibly ingrained in the collective pop culture consciousness to ever be remade successfully with a different cast.
