What is the fascination with remaking everything? I’ll use Ghostbusters for this example. In the mid 80s the original Ghostbusters was a pretty darn good movie. We won’t talk about part 2- which absolutely ruined my earlier view of Time Burton’s Batman (it was a rare day when we could afford to see two movies on the same day). Funny, witty, a crowd favorite- people cheered when the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was defeated. Time helped the movie become a classic.
So why remake it? Why can’t Hollywood reach into the wealth of novels or stories to create something new? I can imagine how the pitch meeting went. “We have this great new concept for a movie- We’re going to remake Ghostbusters but, get this dynamic twist- we’re going to do it with women! Whaaaaaat!”
Now before you go all crazy, I don’t care if it was with women or men or little green aliens. The point is, there is nothing new about this. I get that sometimes you want to pay homage to a classic by redoing, but it has come to a point where Hollywood no longer cares about entertainment. All they want is our money with old/used stories. I don’t care how many times in a decade they decide to reboot Spiderman- I’m still not going to be that interested.
Speaking of comic books, how long in Marvel going to ride the superhero movie train? A cash cow to be sure, but the end of the line has to be coming. Look at the slow death inside the comic world. Thor (A god of former major religion) is now a woman (ummm won’t the Vikings get ticked?) Iron MAN- MAN- is about to become a young teenager black girl. Why? These characters have been around for over 50 years. Why shake them up? Create new characters, ripe with flaws and strengths unique to themselves. Don’t rehash something that has already been done to death and pretend it’s new and hip. There was a time I went to the movies almost once a week. I’ve only seen two in the four months.
My advice to Hollywood and to all writers is to be as original as possible with your work. There is a wonderful world out there just waiting to be discovered. Go forth, use your imagination and let the adventure take you.
Agree with you. There are multitudes of exciting new books out every day. Hollywood can’t remake the oldies to compare with the original. It’s like trying to serve leftovers from two weeks ago, may be eatable but looks like leftovers.
One of the big headlines on the news today was how Ben Hur bombed over the weekend. While it looks visually appealing and opens a new story for the younger generation, it is really difficult not to imagine Charleton Heston on that chariot. Flashy doesn’t equal substance.
I agree with you.This whole new age hippie revival of old things like LP players, old movies and anything Retro is boring. If they are so starved for material to make movies out of, read more books and make those original works into movies.
Exactly! Books, video games, even some cartoons are well done and original. There is only so many times I can watch the same thing before I disconnect the cable and go back to just reading.
There are so many original stories out there. Give us something new I say!
I think it has to do with risk. A successful past movie will likely be a successful movie today if for no other reason than fans of the original will go see it just to see if it is as good as the original or so they can relive their moment of seeing it for the first time through their kids seeing it for the first time.
That’s an interesting view. Considering how some movies have been expected to thrive but turned out to be busts. Disney thought John Carter was going to be their next Chronicles of Narnia and it fell flat. (I actually liked the movie) But then again, the latest Independence Day movie didn’t even last the month of July..