50 remakes on the build

[Callie Del Noire]

http://www.nextmovie.com/blog/upcoming-movie-remakes/

I think some of these can be done.. but in all honesty I think (Nolan's Batman aside) there should a moritorium on a remake of at least 30 years.

Of course some movies I hope NEVER get made from what I heard.. Akira live action for one.. sorry.. that sounds like DragonballZ live action take 2

[Shjade]

Of course some movies I hope NEVER get made from what I heard.. Akira live action for one.. sorry.. that sounds like DragonballZ live action take 2

The sad thing is, I can actually picture a live-action Akira movie being made well. It just wouldn't be made well if it were made at all. :|

Some thoughts on the subject from Moviebob.

[Oniya]

I remember watching Akira...

Maybe it could be done with CGI, but I think they'd have to mangle the story in order to get it into the theaters.  It was rated 'R' as an animated feature for graphic violence and brief nudity, and the mutation scenes were pretty over-the-top graphically. 

DBZ live was just - sad.  If they'd taken one of the OVAs, they wouldn't have needed to mangle it.  As it was, the fans were going "where's ______?" and the non-fans were going "what's going on with ______?"

[Shjade]

I think they could pull it off if they toned the visual representation of the kids' powers way down. Get to the basics. It was always much more a story about politics and class after all; the psychic stuff is just a plot device. You don't need mecha-Godzilla-Tetsuo wrecking the auditorium to have Akira.

I always enjoyed the more visceral, down-to-earth combat scenes in the series more than the psychic pewpew fights anyway.

The big showdown between Tetsuo and Kaneda, for instance. Oh sure, it starts out with lasers and psychics and pewpew pewpewpew, but neither side really ends up accomplishing much until after the laser breaks.

As it turns out, those rifles are fucking heavy, leading up to one of the most memorable sequences for me: Tetsuo's neck-first introduction to the staircase.

Yeah, the psychic crap is a big element of what makes Akira Akira, but I think it'd carry the concept a hell of a lot better to focus on all the animosity between those two more than the details on how they go about expressing it. 'Cause when it comes down to it, even after Kaneda becomes sort of this accidental leader of a rebel band and Tetsuo turns into a psychic god, they're still just a couple of kids from the ghetto trying to get by.

[gaggedLouise]

Speaking of Akira, The Seven Samurai should be left right alone. Akira Kurosawa was a genius of a filmmaker and Samurai is right up there with The Godfather - funny, engaging, with brilliant fighting scenes, watchable any number of times. No chance of getting close to it with a remake, and no way by just emphasizing the man-on-man fighting.

Westworld would be very interesting, in an updated version with new technical horizons. I've heard about the project before, thought it had been shelved due to contract problems. The 1973 film is very good.


A reboot of (or "film inspired by") Stalker could come out quite good, if it were made by the right director and actors and in the right place. I love Tarkovsky's original, seminal film, but in this age of post-disaster, post-apocalyptic stories it would be very cool to see what could be made of the concepts of that film now, even though Stalker wasn't centrally about the disaster or the rundown town and the deserted zone (I'm also planning to try the Ukrainian PC game which was inspired both by the film and by the Chernobyl event - have wanted to play it for a long time but didn't have a computer that would support it)

[Sasquatch421]

Did anyone catch the little thing when they were talking about a remake of The Seven Samurai and they mentioned that Tom Cruise signed on to do a remake of The Magnificent Seven? So there it number 51.....

I'm not sure how good some remakes could be... The new Dredd will have to be better then Stallone's version which sucked to begin with. Others should just be left alone and I'm looking at The Neverending Story, Short Circuit and The Birds as I say this.

As for live action anime remakes the reason most suck is because they have to much to put into one film. I heard nothing but bad things when they did the live action Devilman, but I actually thought it wasn't terrible. I didn't mind the live action Blood: The Last Vampire either. Now Dragonball Evolution on the other hand... Not even Chow Yun Fat could save it and I did laugh at his Master Roshi....

[Shjade]

I'm confused about the listing for a remake of Heavy Metal.

I just. I don't. What?

[Oniya]

Because Heavy Metal F.A.K.K did so well? *eyeroll*

(I could actually see a second Heavy Metal in the same fashion that Disney 'redid' Fantasia in 2000.  We have scads of the magazines, so I know the material's out there, and all they'd need is some 'over story' like the Lok-Nar to staple it together.)

[Callie Del Noire]

Part of the problem I have with Akira live action is the studio wanted it set in Manhattan and word is that the writers/directors ideas all clash with the studio execs, who want it as cheap as possible. Some articles read that they don't want it to be set in Tokyo cause it would be confusing to the American audience, ect

The usual BS the execs crank out when they want it to be THEIR movie and not the talent they hire. 

[Shjade]

If they pull Akira out of Japan, it really doesn't matter what else they do, it'll all be downhill. Japan is Akira.

[Sarena]

I'd be interested to see a remake of American Werewolf in London (loved the original!) and Carrie.  And there are a few others on that list that I totally support a remake of because they were just...ugh.  BUT!  Why remake a movie like Dirty Dancing?  I still don't get why they remade Footloose either.  I love those two just the way they are and still have not seen the new Footloose because I'm just not so sure about it.  And you have to echo the author's question...just who in the world could fill Patrick Swayze's shoes?!  I mean come on, when he says "No one puts baby in a corner" or when they are dancing at the end and he crooks that finger indicating for her to come to him....it does not matter how many times I've seen the movie.  I freaking melt.  Every. Single. Time. 

Will a remake really have THAT kind of power?

/derail

[Callie Del Noire]

If they pull Akira out of Japan, it really doesn't matter what else they do, it'll all be downhill. Japan is Akira.

I find it amusing that these guys will pay MILLIONS and not even look over the source material or brush it aside as needing an experience moviemakers eye to work and that they can see the 'core idea' of the story and that their changes make that visible to the viewers.

[Beorning]

After reading the list, I have only one thing to say: this is simply... sad.

For instance: they want to remake American Psycho? This movie is what, a little over 10 years old? And they want to remake it *already*?

As to the remakes of Birds or Seven Samurai: HANDS OFF!!! Seriously. These are classics!

Ah, and the idea of New York-based Akira is just... mind-boggling.

[Callie Del Noire]

Ah, and the idea of New York-based Akira is just... mind-boggling.

One with NO Japanese characters.. all American/Western names and characters.

http://www.akira2019.com/live-action-film.htm

Things like moving a budget down from 160 million, to 90 to something LESS than 60 million does not inspire things.

[gaggedLouise]

I never bothered to watch Mel Gibson's updated remake of Edge of Darkness because the original tv series is an absolute classic, one of the best political thrillers ever made for tv. I revere that one, so do many others. And it needs its slowburn format, it needed those six hours to allow the story and the characters to sink in and take those many turns, just like Homeland does. An under-two-hours thriller set post 9/11 would have to be a no-go.

On the other hand I loved the Jason Bourne trilogy, and I've seen the earlier tv series with Richard Chamberlain. But the Bourne trilogy stood on its own two legs, it was essentially a new deal from the start.

[Callie Del Noire]

Having read the original Bourne Identity and seen the Richard Chamberlain movie, I agree with you gaggedLouise.. they did an EXCELLENT job of rewriting the story. The books covered an era when computers were literally rooms of machines..and things like the internet, cell phones and such were science-fiction.

The new movies take the essence of the story, a man whose identity had been destoryed and rebuilt to create a machine that was made for killing and clawing his way back to being a human. In my opinion.

[SinXAzgard21]

A majority of those movies need to be left the hell alone...

[TheGlyphstone]

Movies I could care about:

Dredd: Well, it can't be WORSE than the first one...
Red Dawn: Meh. Could be decent. Depends on if they keep the core themes - giving it a 'happy ending' would ruin it.
Carrie: Eeeeh....updated special effects won't help, the story did fine on its own.
Evil Dead: Girl-Ash? Who knows.
Robocop: No, just no. The old one was fine.
AQotWF: I didn't even know it was a movie, though I read the book in 7th grade.

Mad Max: Might be worth it, it's a pretty bland tale to begin with.
Pet Semetary: It says it'll be R-rated, that promises better than making that story PG-13.
Starship Troopers: Ehehehehehhehehehehehheheee...
The Birds: HERESY!
Commando: Eh, it won't be The Governator.
Highlander: Don't make me say the line for you...
The Phantom Tollbooth: Oh, please please please don't screw this one up...

[Beguile's Mistress]

I sometimes get the feeling that if there was a moratorium on remakes releases would be down about 50%.  Every other movie appears to be one even if they don't admit it.

[Callie Del Noire]

You know.. growing up in the 70s.. the only sequels I recall were the pink panther and bond sequels and no rush to remake every decade.

[Inkidu]

Mostly I would watch some of these. I think RoboCop could benefit from a more-modern approach (I love the original) but I tend to treat movies and their remakes separately. See, Total Recall. They strike me as separate movies using the big ideas put forth in We Can Remember it for You Wholesale and filtering it through different directors.

I would love a remake of Starship Troopers however, it'll never be that good because no director has the intestinal fortitude to take the hard line that Heinlein took with his book. You'd need a director who believed in pro-military armament and the concept that democracy is wrong. Few directors are willing to broach both subjects. The first movie was almost the opposite message entirely. 

[Callie Del Noire]

I would love a remake of Starship Troopers however, it'll never be that good because no director has the intestinal fortitude to take the hard line that Heinlein took with his book. You'd need a director who believed in pro-military armament and the concept that democracy is wrong. Few directors are willing to broach both subjects. The first movie was almost the opposite message entirely.

I don't think he was so much anti-democracy as civil responsibility. Only folks who served were allowed to vote.  I personally would  LOVE to see the scene from the first chapter.

"I'm a 10 second grenade, 9 second, 8 second..." Psych Warfare grenade.

[Inkidu]

I don't think he was so much anti-democracy as civil responsibility. Only folks who served were allowed to vote.  I personally would  LOVE to see the scene from the first chapter.

"I'm a 10 second grenade, 9 second, 8 second..." Psych Warfare grenade.

The concept that democracy can fail, or isn't the God-sent government, more correctly speaking.

[Callie Del Noire]

The concept that democracy can fail, or isn't the God-sent government, more correctly speaking.

I took away that the right to vote ..wasn't. It is a duty and responsibility. Hence my sometime rants on the politics page. There are very few phrases that piss me off more than 'My vote don't count'

Looking over the Red Dawn remake.. I'll pass.. the North Koreans invade.. because they rewrote it since you don't want alienate the Chinese by making them bad.

[Shjade]

Dredd: Well, it can't be WORSE than the first one...

Sure it could: they could have Rob Schneider star as Dredd this time instead of being a supporting role. x.x