While researching another thread, I stumbled across the fact that a new version of Nosferatu came out last year, and yet another is set for release this Christmas.
Really? Who is demanding these ? We already have the original, considered a classic (although it’s been chopped up, not properly tinted, and some of the animation effects are disappointing, even for the period).
Then Werner Herzog remade it in 1979, with Klaus Kinski (who had earlier played Renfield in Jess Franco’s Count Dracula) in the title role. It was filmed in both German and English, but after the English-language version was reportedly laughed off the screen, they only released the German version, with subtitles for non-German markets. (I finally saw the English version on DVD a couple of years ago. It doesn’t inspire laughter – I think the audience just wasn’t ready for it.) It has its moments, but as a whole I find it too drawn-out and boring. Vampies shouldn’t be boring.
But now I find that one version came out last year and another is on its way, and I hadn’t heard about either of them. I have to wonder why? Why now? And what do they plan to bring to the film that’s new?
I would imagine because the novel entered the public domain a few years back.
Dracula (the novel, not the various film versions) has been in the public domain for decades but maybe they felt that’s been overdone at this point.
ETA: never mind. Looking things up, apparently they’ve each been in development/production for several years and only now getting done. The timing may be a coincidence at this point or maybe even a deliberate at synergy.
There is, I think, a history in Hollywood of similar movies being released at roughly the same time. Like two parent-child body switch movies, or two movies about volcanoes in Southern California.
Edited to add, the inevitable Wikipedia list calls them “twin films.”
I was just going to mention that Twin Films are a thing. You got the wiki page, so here’s a Nerdstalgic video I saw a while back where I learned about it.
The one from last year I have never heard of, it looks like it was an extremely low-budget Kickstarter-funded film. But the upcoming Robert Eggers release has been getting a lot of buzz. Surprising you hadn’t heard about it.
The twin film thing has been forever, but notice how they have different titles? Nosferatu being an exception since they are both remakes of the same movie. The Mandela effect people never seem to understand that. It wouldn’t be unusual to have two genie films out at the same time, but no one is going to name one Kazaam! and the other Shazaam!
