They're remaking "When Worlds Collide"

Stephen Sommers, of The Mummy and Van Helsing fame, is writing and directing

Whoopie!:eek:

Why, in the name of pluperfect Hell, do they keep remaking old science fiction movies, instead of making new movies of newer books (or even older, unfilmed books)? And the remakes are almost invariably worse than the originals – see my recent thread on The Day the Earth Stood Still, a movie that did not gain anything by being remade.
I mean, what’s the point? The original When Worlds Collide was never exactly a well-known and beloved film icon. I’ll bet most Gen-Xers have never even heard of it. The book it’s based on is 76 freakin’ years old, and is more than a bit dated.
Why does Hollywood give us four — FOUR! – adaptations of the not terrifically impressive Invasion of the Body Snatchers (a story that was a cliche when Jack Finney wrote it – his story appeared after Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters, fer cryin’ out loud), whose basic conceit has been done to death many times over in other works, but ignores the vast wealth of original ideas that have appeared through the years?

Aaaaaaaaaaagh!

I don’t know why they’d remake this one, because the original movie wasn’t all that great. The book wasn’t bad, although, as you said, it’s dated now.

Maybe it could be one of those exceptions where the remake is better. I can see how it could be updated, for contemporary audiences.

I do agree though, there’s a lot of stories that have never been done that I’d rather see before this project.

I don’t really understand either. My guess is that they’ve gotten some bug in their heads about name recognition being all-important ( given how they tend to copy the name but not the body of the work ), and it’s gotten out of control. Someone decided that remaking When Worlds Collide MUST be better than making something new, because it has ( a tiny bit of ) name recognition. It’s similar, I think, to the idea that you can make a movie a hit just by putting the right actors in it - and then producing a garbage film with well known actors in it.

Sir! I shall see you upon the field of honor!

/Throws down gauntlet

Seriously - sure, the basic premise of “mind-controlling aliens” may not have been that original, but Finney’s wrinkle upon it was brilliant. The fact that the only way to protect oneself wasn’t just to avoid the monsters, but to avoid sleep, dialed the story’s horror up to eleven. And that’s why the movie has been remade so many times, for better or worse - because that story has teeth to it.

If your going to remake something, old horror and sci-fi movies seem a better target then other genres, if for no other reason then the special effects (and sometimes the science) often don’t age well.

Of course most of the remakes end up being crap, but then most sci-fi movies in general end up being crap.

And is it really a remake if it’s based on a book? Isn’t it just two people making a film version of the same book? Was the Tom Cruise war of the worlds a remake of the earlier films, or was it just Spielburg making a movie out of the novel?

Who even watches this (or reads the book) anymore. I’m betting that there will be nasty aliens on Bronson Beta. When the movie was done (and even more the book) building a spaceship was pretty exciting. Now, not so much. The title will be used, but the content will be dumped.

Which bugs me, and shows the contempt or lack of understanding the move makers have for the fans. The people who are likely to be drawn to movie due to it having the same title as an earlier work are exactly the same people who are most likely to be turned off when it diverges radically from that work. It’s self defeating.

Actually, there were nasty aliens on Bronson Beta in Wylie and Balmer’s sequel, After Worlds Collide, a sequel that was nowhere near up to the original novel IMHO.

Also, IMHO, Mr. Excellent, I stick to my guns. I don’t see that partixcular wrinkle as original or brilliant. And the ending of the book was unpardonably lame (The pods give up! And fly away!). Give me Heinlein’s fightin’ heroes any time. Or Eric Frank Russel’s Three to Conquer.

When Worlds Collide was a movie about 2 planets coming at earth . Of course the authorities and scientists reject the idea that a direct hit will come. So a rich guy pays for it as long as he can go along. He is a nasty selfish guy who is wheelchair bound. When it becomes obvious that we are going to be destroyed, civilization breaks down and everybody wants a free ride. They start fighting to get on . Someone pushes the rich guy away and runs on the ship. As it starts to take off he stands up and walks away from his chair.
Special effects will do a lot as we see the earth get creamed. They also can show the breakdown of society as they start to figure things out. Then the accompanying planet as a nice clean earth to begin all over.

That, and I would add that an update can also deal with the nowadays serious shortcomings of many classics.

The 1951 When Worlds Collide has the now unfortunate message that “whites only” will survive, Even for American audiences of today it is a very unrealistic, if not racist, message.

I was wondering what the modern social/political take on the plot will be. The original book was an almost Randian tribute to private initiative, and the sequel even had the survivors struggling against a rival settlement of evil Communists(!). The '50s movie was sort of a variation on the post-apocalyptic genre, only substituting an astronomical event for an atomic war.

That’s a good reason.

It would be cool if they made it like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.:slight_smile:

Me! By pure coincidence, I just finished watching it a couple of hours ago. Not a great movie, but enjoyable nevertheless. Sure it has multiple “why the hell would they do that??” moments. Still, it has an attractive cast, boo-able villain, nice assortment of 50s “high tech”, and the requisite little kid with a dog.

When they land on Zyra, are those pyramids that I see in the distance?

I don’t know why they decided on a remake instead of the obvious sequel. Pal wanted to do “After Worlds Collide”, but it never got off the ground. (so to speak)

The book was dated when I read it 40 years ago, when it was just entering middle age and I was a kid eating up all the Golden Age I could get my hands on. The movie was boring, though shown once a year on WGN’s Family Classics. This is one remake they could completely gut and the product would be better than the original.

ETA: Or should I say, "The movie was boring, so it was shown once a year on WGN’s Family Classics?

I just looked through my copy, and didn’t notice the description of a single death ray. So it won’t do. :slight_smile: And neither the movie or the first book had any aliens, of course.

I like Powerman 5000’stake on When Worlds Colide. I bet you’ve seen worse adaptations

It’s a bit unclear from your post if you knew this, but there was a sequel to the book called “After Worlds Collide”.

Yes, I read it. Yes, I’m a Gen-Xer. Cal. :stuck_out_tongue:

Isn’t that a good reason to remake it? People bitch when they remake good films, and people bitch when they remake bad films. Come on. If you’re gonna remake something, remake a bad/mediocre film and make it better. I liked the original film and the books, but it can be done so much better with today’s special effects. They’ll have to update it so much of the book will have to be gutted. S’ok, I don’t mind. I like the basic story and that’s what’s interesting.

My favorite scenes in the original movie were the “getting ready” parts, choosing what to take, what to preserve and how, such as rows of workers scanning books to put on microfiche. I have a feeling that’s going to be my favorite part of the new movie too.

Yep, this always bothered me. Starting all over with the kinds of assholes who would fight and push away a disabled man to get on the ship. Yeah, the guy was a fuckhead, to be sure, and we all cheered, but still…

Meet the new assholes. Same as the old assholes.
And might I just say, officially and for the record, I LOVED VAN HELSING! There, I said it, and I won’t take it back. It was awesome.

My constant refrain is that there aren’t enough good science fiction films. I like classic old stuff (especially Verne), and would LOVE to see it made into a film, or remade if the first version wasn’t very good.

My complaint is that there is a vast literature of good stuff that hasn’t been touched, yet Hollywood keeps remaking old stuff. In particular, they keep remaking old movies ( I re-iterate – Invasion of the Body Snatchers FOUR times???!!! Even if you loved the bookand think the original was a great flick, doesn’t three freakin’ remakes seem ridiculous?)Wylie and Balmer’s book is n interesting one, but it’s not a classic of the stature of Verne’s best. It’s a 75 year old clunker, and the theme of the Destruction of the World by Collision has been done plenty of times since then, with more sophistication and more accuracy, so why not use something else if you wanted to handle this theme?

By the way, I loved Van Helsing – but for all the wrong reasons. I think it’s spectacular Badfilm.

Wylie and Balmer’s book was great, at least in concept. I’d hope they approach this project as a new adaptation of the novel, not a remake of the 1952 movie. Personally, I’d love it if it were set in the 1930s. (Requiring, as in the book, just the major technological leap of atomic rocket power.)

Or, if it were set in modern day, I’d try to make it as realistic as possible. If this were to happen now, it’s just technologically feasible that we could build spacecraft sufficient to save a core of humanity on Bronson Beta.

However, it’s being written and directed by Stephen Sommers, who tends to make childishly stupid crap. So, little hope.