I’m rereading Watership Down for the hrairth time, and I just found out they’re making another film out of it. The BBC is remaking it, with CGI.
I’m not sure whether to be scared or intrigued…
Well, to begin with, the classic animated film came out in 1978, not 1987. I don’t think it got much of a release here in America because I first saw it on HBO circa 1980 or so and loved it (and would have remembered it being in the theaters). I read the book the following summer, and was amazed at how faithful to it the film remained.
I’m very cynical in general, and given the sissy-fication of the entertainment world over the last 20 years I can’t help but cringe to think how watered-down a treatment it would be given today. But who knows, it might have a chance if made by the BBC.
It’s one of my favorite books, and I own the movie on DVD. I, too, fear they will omit or tone down some of the more intense situations in the new movie, to be able to sell tickets to families. The animation in the original movie is beautiful, and I love the stylized El-Ahrairah sequences.
I’m interested. I’ve also read the book a bunch of times and seen/own the film but I’d be interested in seeing a new version of it. Although I like the film, it does feel somewhat dated and I don’t see the harm in in seeing the world through a different set of eyes.
It’s being done by the BBC so I assumed it would be a televised film and paid for by taxes; no ticket sales required. Or maybe the BBC does cinema and my American brain never picked up on it.
Love the book, though I haven’t read it in decades. Also liked the film and as a young lad I had a still of it hanging on wall, featuring General Woundwort and Bigwig locked in combat, blood streaming from their wounds. Awesome wall decoration when you’re an eleven-year old boy :D.
However I think the film could be improved on in a number of ways. A few characters like Blackavar really got shafted and the does were essentially cut out entirely. Running time is obviously an issue ( unless the were to do an animated mini-series ). Still I think it could be updated successfully.
Which of course doesn’t mean it will be. Just as likely it will be a steaming pile of hraka. But I’ll cross my fingers.
The original did a really good job of portraying the rabbits and environment realistically. It would be good to see them even more realistic.
There was a remake in 1999 but that reduced them to a more cartoon look.
I’m guessing:
Benedict Cumberbatch
Judi Dench
George Clooney
David Hyde Pierce
Jeremy Clarkson
Cate Blanchett
Chloë Grace Moretz
and Natalie Portman as a new young strong-willed fighting female rabbit for balance.
Any Yank accents can be accounted for by claiming they are the descendents of American bunnies who came over to fight Hitler with Eisenhower eighty generations before.
I see what you did there. [My emphasis] 
Oh yes, and didn’t they make Blackberry into a female? (Sigh!)
Remakes aren’t dangerous.
I’d like to see it. Give my daughter another shot at it. She went tharn trying to read it and gave up.
Was that a remake of the film? I thought it was more of a short-lived series of additional stories aimed for younger audiences (and unrelated to Tales From Watership Down). I never saw it though, just remember when they started making it.
You may be right, I didn’t see it either. All I knew was Richard Briers was back but not as Fiver.
There’s nothing wrong with the original Watership Down film! Okay, I actually haven’t seen it in years so I have no idea how well it’s held up, but wow, that was a great film. It was really bloody.
I guess in some ways I’m intrigued to see how they would do it today with CGI … but my expectations for capturing the intensity of the book in the same way as the original film are not high. I would be more enthusiastic if it were a mini-series that let the creators include all the side stories that got dropped from the original movie.
This is one of my all time favorite books and I hope it’s not as tragedy like the animated film. Basically a long Art Garfunkel video. I was always hoping the folks who made “Babe” would jump to make WD.
Heh.
Glad I missed the 1999 version. That just looks… wrong.
The BBC is actually one of the big players in the British film industry. Some projects developed for television end up getting cinema releases or vice versa. It is not as if made-for-TV films have quite the same connotations in the UK as they do in the US and the distinction between them and British art house films is, in terms of production, often very blurred.
I was unaware of this movie until this thread, so we rented it last night on Amazon. The animation was all over the place but some of it was quite delightful, especially the bits with Frith and El-Ahrairah.
It did frighten my daughter somewhat, but on the whole I’m glad they kept the bloodiness intact.
How old is she? I’ve always wondered how old most kids were when they got into WD. I never read it until I was an adult, though I was somewhat aware of it as a kid.