Now that Deep Throat has been revealed and there has been a generation or two since Watergate, is it time to remake the Redford/Hoffman classic?
I don’t know if modern audiences care enough to make it a hit the way it was in the seventies.
Who would play the two daring reporters? There really couldn’t be better casting than the original. Redford and Hoffman are not only legends, but actually looked a lot like Woodstein.
And I’m sorry, but it would be tough to replace Jason Robards. He won an Oscar for the role.
They could go for farce and have Sean William Scott play Woodward and Jack Black play Bernstein! Leslie Neilsen could fill in as Bradlee.
Except they already did that with Dick, with Kids in the Hall vet Bruce McCulloch as Bernstein and an absolutely riotous Will Ferrell as Woodward.
I think what made the original great was the fact that it touched on nerves that were still extremely raw about the recent political scandal, plus, it was an era that saw more adult-oriented movie-making reaching a wide audience.
Now, nobody really cares except as an historical artifact (and does it really matter that we know DT now? Are you not going to shoot him in shadows anymore?). Plus, whoever made it would undoubtedly make a ton of concessions to “liven up” the proceedings. The Pakula film has lots and lots of talking–artfully done, of course, but at a pace that would try the patience of the average contemporary audience.
Dick was a combination of a funny little satire with the worst SNL sketch comedy ever not used on the show. (Ferrell et al.)
However, if you liked the movie you might like this recent Slate article on it.
watsonwil is correct. You couldn’t just redo ATPM, you’d have to go backward and forward in time to include Felt. And the original was close enough in time for everyone to remember if not all the details, then the nature of the black pit of purest evil that was the Nixon administration. Today’s political climate would prevent anyone short of Michael Moore from coming out and portraying Nixon as he really was, and the need to explain the intricacies of the multitude of events that we shorthand as Watergate would doom to film before it began.
If anyone’s itching for some good newsroom drama, check out “Shattered Glass”.
It was one of the best movies I saw last year. I thought it was riveting. I don’t use that word loosely. I was riveted.
If you were SERIOUSLY trying to remake ATPM, you couldn’t do much better than Peter Sarsgaard (who was in “Shattered Glass”) and, let’s say. . .Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
Both have done roles with increasing anxiety and tension through a movie and both can dial up the intensity when needed. I’d also just like to see them together on screen, the angular face of Sarsgaard contrasted with the more slovenly Hoffman.
