Monsterfans everywhere–hopefully–had a frightfully good time watching Universal Studios’ enjoyably retro-flavored remake of The Wolf Man (be sure to check out FM’s review of the film), but they’ll soon have to spend a lot of time at their local cineplex to keep up with the scary number of remakes coming their way! In his tastefully decorated dungeon, MovieFrightFare’s Ghouly Irv keeps us up on the latest (but will they be the greatest?) reduxes/reimaginings/reboots brought about by Hollyweird’s Remake Monster:
Paramount Pictures and Michael Bay’s production company, Platinum Dunes, are set to produce a remake of the 1987 horror/comedy film The Monster Squad. Paramount announced its intention to remake the film through Platinum Dunes last Thursday, March 18th, with Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) as a possible director.
Cohen was one of the producers of the original film, written by Shane Black and director Fred Dekker, which has become a favorite among monster fans.
The 1987 original centers on a group of young kids who idolize classic monster movies. When they discover that Dracula is real – and seeking a powerful amulet that will allow him to conquer the world – they must do battle with Dracula’s monster hoarde (including a werewolf, the Mummy, the Gill Man, and Tom Noonan as a particularly sympathetic Frankenstein’s Monster) in order to save the world.
Black later on became the highest paid writer of the 1990’s with the Lethal Weapon film series, as well as cult favorite Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and the upcoming Doc Savage adaptation.
Michael Bay, and his partners Bran Fuller and Andrew Form, are currently meeting with writers to develop the story for a modern retelling.
Dreamworks Pictures has entered into negotiations with director Craig Gillespie to helm their proposed remake of the 1985 horror comedy, according to the Los Angeles Times. Gillespie is best known for his work on the quirky 2007 Ryan Gosling indie, Lars and the Real Girl. He also serves as a director and producer on the Showtime original series, The United States of Tara.
This may seem like an odd choice seeing as Gillespie has never tried his hand at horror, but it’s key to recall the spirit of the original film. Written and directed by Tom Holland in 1985, the film centers around a teenager who discovers that his neighbors are vampires. Although it was definitively a film about vampires, it opted for a lighter, more comical tone than certain gory horror franchises — think The Lost Boys with better make-up and effects. The film relied more on the playful chemistry between the young leads, making it into a coming-of-age story that happened to include bloodsuckers.
Under this consideration, Gillespie could be an ideal candidate to revive that sense of development — in Lars and the Real Girl he plainly depicted the conventionally odd relationship between a young man and a blow-up doll he finds on the internet. For this project, the characters won’t be so clearly delusional, but if he can bring the same sense of heart and earnestness to them, we’ll be in for a treat.
DreamWorks previously hired Marti Noxon to write and produce the film. Genre fans may remember Noxon from her increasingly prominent role in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series. Noxon has been involved with a number of genre television projects in the wake of Buffy, such as the short-lived Point Pleasant, and AMC’s breakthrough series, Mad Men.
No deal has officially been signed by Gillespie, but we’ll follow the story and update you if and when it becomes official.
John Carpenter’s The Thing is a landmark in horror — goofy, suspenseful, scary, and weird. So diehard fans were understandably roused by the recent announcement of another film entitled, well… The Thing.
Written by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, the film begins shooting this month in Vancouver, Canada. While the creators have acknowledged that the film is directly related to the original, they have thus far kept coy about whether it’s a sequel, a prequel, or a direct remake. Thankfully now Joel Edgerton, one of the film’s leads, has revealed the true nature of the film.
In an interview with What’s Playing, Edgerton said the following:
“Anyone who is a big fan of the John Carpenter version of The Thing knows that it starts on the American base station, but the investigation of where the Thing has come from leads us to know something very bad has happened at the Norwegian base station, and the prequel centers itself around there and what happened pre-Kurt Russell.”
That sound you hear is the entire collective of fans breathing a sigh of relief. The only issue now is being able to avoid the inherent predictability of framing this story as a prequel. We already know roughly what will happen to the Norwegians — (Spoilers!) they’ll find the UFO, the alien will replace one of them, paranoia, blood and chaos will follow. But we’re going to elect to trust the script from former Battlestar Galactica creator Ronald D. Moore to provide enough unexpected twists and turns to keep it exciting. With Galactica, he took a short-lived but still-beloved story and gave it a unique, modern twist that reinvigorated the storytelling. Maybe he can do the same here.
Hopefully they decide to use animatronics and practical effects, especially for the gory details, because the effects created by Rob Bottin in Carpenter’s version were amazing. Some CGI is inevitable, but the handmade nature of the monster in the original made it all the more terrifying.
Overall, it’s hard not to be skeptical, but maybe it’s best to remember that Carpenter’s “original” was itself a re-imagining of the 1951 Howard Hawks-Christian NyBy film The Thing From Another World. For that matter, both are technically adaptations of the novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr. Maybe this story is just as timeless as it is fatalistic. As long as the people telling it remain talented, then that’s okay by us.
Here’s the international trailer for Warners’ upcoming remake of Clash of the Titans, which will be released in 2D and 3D on March 26.
And yes, there’s quite a bit more “Clashing” in this trailer, but more importantly a few performance moments with action-star-du-jour Sam Worthington as Perseus, current-shorthand-for-ultimate-villain Ralph Fiennes as Hades and movie-god Liam Neeson as Zeus. Not to mention a whole mess of James Bond alumnus!
As well as a heavy dose of monster-mania… Gotta love giant scorpions, tree people, etc. Get a load of that Kraken – nice how the new design manages to nod its head back to Harryhausen’s Ymir-inspired beastie of the original 1981 film.
Here are two new TV spots for Overture Films’ upcoming remake of George A. Romero’s 1973 horror classic The Crazies.
Directed by Breck Eisner (Sahara), the remake stars Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell as a husband and wife in a small Midwestern town find themselves battling for survival as their friends and family descend into madness. A mysterious toxin in the water supply turns everyone exposed to it into mindless killers and the authorities leave the uninfected to their certain doom.
Posted by Jesse in Latest News on January 13th, 2010
Speaking with Sci-Fi Wire, Jackie Earle Haley – playing Freddy Krueger in the upcoming remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street – commented on December’s recent reshoots for the film.
“We did do some re-shoots over the Christmas holidays, and I feel really good about that,” Haley said, during a group interview promoting his new television series Human Target, for Fox. “Just some re-shoots and tweaks that I think are probably customary for pretty much every movie that gets made,” Haley continued.
After test screenings last fall, many have speculated on the nature of the reshoots, wondering if they were any indication that the film was in trouble.
Concerns have also arisen in some circles over Haley’s voice, as heard in early trailers. “We’re still working on it,” Haley said. “There’s still more [ADR] stuff to do, so it’s an ongoing process, I think, until it comes out.”
Spoiler TV has gotten the scoop on character descriptions for Universal’s upcoming (should be shooting in March) prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 version of the The Thing.
The currently untitled film, to directed by Matthijs Van Heijningen, from a script by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) and Eric Heisserer (the upcoming A Nightmare on Elm Street remake), would follow the Norwegian expedition that first unearthed the space-borne shapeshifter in Carpenter’s version.
Both films are based on the original 1951 Howard Hawks/Christian Nyby classic The Thing From Another World, itself based on the 1938 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Posted by Jesse in Latest News on January 12th, 2010
With Spider-Man 4 stalled over at Sony for the last month, it seemed obvious that one of two things was going to happen: either Raimi was going to compromise and work with whatever villain Sony mandated, or, he was going to walk and Sony would find someone new.
Of course, this being Hollywood, there was a third – more unnecessary – option. Chuck the whole thing out!
Personally, I’m not offended by the idea of rebooting Spider-Man, not in theory anyway. There’s so many eras, so many stories, so many characters in the comics, and so many creative, talented filmmakers who would no doubt be attracted to the franchise, that I can see many voices giving Spidey a makeover that’s both inventive and true to the spirit of the piece.
What offends here is the timing. Why do we need a reboot now?
There’s little way to defend this, it’s Hollywood reactionaries at their worst. The Spider-Man films really ushered in the modern Golden Age of comic book movies that we’re currently enjoying; the first film is a solid, perfectly cast and rather touching origin story, the second is an improvement on every front, some of the best popcorn entertainment of the previous decade, and Spider-Man 3, while seriously flawed, is not so far removed from the first two to indicate that a reboot would be necessary. If anyone wants to make the case that 3 has created some sort of Batman and Robin situation, they’re seriously mistaken, both in terms of film quality and in terms of monetary success. (Batman and Robin’s domestic gross was almost $60 million less than the previous entry in its franchise, while Spider-Man 3 dropped only about $30 domestically, not to mention its international was on par with the previous two and its opening the largest of the trilogy).
We’re so inundated with sequels, prequels, spin-offs, remakes and reboots by this point, that we’re almost enured to them. But there are problems here, ones that try to ignore out of fear. The problems are originality and longevity. It’s almost trite to bemoan the lack of originality in Hollywood these days, but how can we not lament – loudly and actively – that we live in a town full of creative, richly diverse people, who are inevitably relegated to serving the visions (re: business needs) of studio heads who don’t even like movies, let alone care about their power? It is unfair and untrue to suggest this is all studio execs; some of whom are brilliant, some of whom are well-versed in cinema, some of whom genuinely care about art at least as much as they care about commerce. But it would be similarly (and dangerously) naive to suggest that these execs are the majority.
Why is this a big deal? “I just want another Spider-Man movie,” “I just want another cool flick to see,” you say. Well, the big deal is longevity.
Remember when there was a sort of grace period in between when Hollywood felt it had made a mistake – let’s take Batman and Robin as a prime example of a Mistake with a capital M – and when it felt comfortable rectifying it? Batman and Robin was released in 1997. The studio mulled over the reaction to it for about a year, entertained sequel ideas, prequel ideas, etc. and eventually just dropped it. Then, two things happened. Firstly, comic book movies came into their own, ushered in tentatively by the sleeper success of Blade, then strongly by X-Men, and then finally defined by Spider-Man’s blockbusting. That film was an event, on par with the 1978 Superman or the 1989 Batman. People talked about it. It was everywhere. It was the perfect film for that time. And so, every comic property was thrown into warp drive, and by the next year you had Daredevil, X2 and Hulk. Warner Bros. decided it was time to explore bringing Batman back, and to do it they hired a creative team headed by people with a genuine passion for, fascination with, and understanding for the character, who decided to redefine him on screen by telling a story we had never seen and presenting him in a fundamentally different way from how we’d previously known him. Batman Begins, thus, is released in 2005, eight years after Batman and Robin.
How has this changed? Hulk was released in 2003 to mixed reactions. The film was by no means a bomb, but it was no Spider-Man. Marvel wanted to rectify this and quick, so by 2008 we’ve got The Incredible Hulk, starring a different cast, made by different people and taking the franchise in a very different reaction, tonally and conceptually. The result? The Incredible Hulk bested Hulk’s gross by… $2 millon dollars. I won’t bother with inflation here.
Established franchises are now rebooting ad nauseum, as horror fans know all too well. Friday the 13th. A Nightmare on Elm Street. James Bond has done it, and very, very well – as has Star Trek. Now Fox wants an origin movie for their X-Men franchise, a well director Brian Singer is happy to dip back into.
Again, why is this a problem?
The Empire Strikes Back didn’t make as much money as Star Wars. What if Fox (let’s forget Lucas owned the rights to the franchise) decided, “Oops, won’t do that again – let’s start over.” What if Warner Bros. has gone through with recasting the Harry Potter kids? What if the next Star Trek film doesn’t make as much as the last, but is wonderful? Will that cast and those filmmakers not be allowed to move forward?
To successfully reboot a character, there has to be a need. And that Sony is unwilling to let Sam Raimi tell the story he wants to tell – a man whose made them, what, three billion dollars? – and would rather just begin again because it’s easier, well, that’s not a need. That’s… a mistake.
Can Jim Henson’s Spider-Babies be good? Hell, it could be great. And I’m hoping it is, because who wouldn’t love a great Spidey movie? No one, that’s who. But this is a disturbing idea, not just from the standpoint of someone willing and ready to watch the franchise overcome a stumble, to continue to watch these characters (hopefully) grow, but from someone who desperately wants to see filmmakers allowed to explore their creative instincts. And for anyone who says that that isn’t a commercial idea in regards to a Spider-Man film, well, you know, a quick perusal of Box Office Mojo should make that complaint moot.
You know what’s great about this though? Sam Raimi is free. I know he wasn’t in bondage or anything, but Drag Me To Hell was fantastic, and it was great to see him cut loose in the genre he loves and made his name in. I seriously hope that he won’t let the film’s rather middling box office stand in the way of doing what he loves to do, whatever that is. If Sam Raimi wants to make a rom-com, I’m there, because if nothing else, it’ll be special – his is a voice so unique and so enjoyed, how could you not want to follow him wherever he goes?
And that is such a big reason that I love going to the movies. To see artists do what they do better than anyone else.
And that is, exactly, what I’m afraid is going away, bit by bit, reboot by reboot.
Sony’s next Spider-Man is set for release Summer, 2012.
The original press release is as follows:
Culver City, CA (January 11, 2010) — Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012.
Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.
The new chapter in the Spider-Man franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.
“A decade ago we set out on this journey with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire and together we made three Spider-Man films that set a new bar for the genre. When we began, no one ever imagined that we would make history at the box-office and now we have a rare opportunity to make history once again with this franchise. Peter Parker as an ordinary young adult grappling with extraordinary powers has always been the foundation that has made this character so timeless and compelling for generations of fans. We’re very excited about the creative possibilities that come from returning to Peter’s roots and we look forward to working once again with Marvel Studios, Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin on this new beginning,” said Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
“Working on the Spider-Man movies was the experience of a lifetime for me. While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job,” said Sam Raimi.
“We have had a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration and friendship with Sam and Tobey and they have given us their best for the better part of the last decade. This is a bittersweet moment for us because while it is hard to imagine Spider-Man in anyone else’s hands, I know that this was a day that was inevitable,” said Matt Tolmach, president of Columbia Pictures, who has served as the studio’s chief production executive since the beginning of the franchise. “Now everything begins anew, and that’s got us all tremendously excited about what comes next. Under the continuing supervision of Avi and Laura, we have a clear vision for the future of Spider-Man and can’t wait to share this exciting new direction with audiences in 2012.”
“Spider-Man will always be an important franchise for Sony Pictures and a fresh start like this is a responsibility that we all take very seriously,” said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures. “We have always believed that story comes first and story guides the direction of these films and as we move onto the next chapter, we will stay true to that principle and will do so with the highest respect for the source material and the fans and moviegoers who deserve nothing but the best when it comes to bringing these stories and characters to life on the big screen.”
Let Me In, the American produced remake of the Swedish horror film Let The Right One In, will be released on October 1st, 2010, announced production company Overture Films Wednesday.
The film is directed by Matt Reeves, director of 2008’s monster hit Cloverfield.
The film is, like the Swedish original, based on the novel by John Adjvide Lindqvist. That original film, directed by Tomas Alfredson and released in Sweden and the US in 2008, has been hailed as a genre masterpiece.
The remake stars Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloë Moretz, Elias Koteas and Richard Jenkins. Shooting is still underway in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Hard to think of a more troubled monster show in recent years than Universal’s newest stab at The Wolfman.
From promising beginnings (enter an excellent cast, and a promising director, Hollywood’s biggest make-up legend), to shattering disasters (exit a promising director), to mad shuffling (enter Joe Johnston, how happy is Baker with the final product? and HOW many editors are cutting the picture?), The Wolfman – still due for release on February 12 – has already seen it all.
This November, the studio now famously screened two differing cuts of the film, and the nature of those cuts and purpose behind the dual (not duel, as we’ll get to) tests has been vague for some time. With the filmmakers aiming for an R, was the studio hedging its bets with a more PG-13-ish cut?
Earlier this month it was reported editing legends Walter Murch (THX-1138, Apocalypse Now, The English Patient) and Mark Goldblatt (Terminator’s 1 and 2) were finessing a final cut of the film. Again, the exact nature of this arrangement has been mysterious.
All this preamble is leading to something of an anticlimax (I hope so, actually), because according to interviews producer Scott Stuber has given to many sources (read Chud and Ain’t It Cool’s notable coverage), all is… more or less, well.
I’ll quickly run through a few major points here:
1) The film is finished and has been finished for some time (that is to say, the cut has been locked, work still continues on sound, music, VFX, etc. I’m sure)
2) Unlike what had been rumored, there are not “competing” cuts of the movie, both Universal (represented by exec Donna Langley) and director Joe Johnston are happy with the cut of the film.
3) The film IS Rated R, the rating is and has been locked for some time and this is not going to change, no cuts are happening to lessen gore
4) Murch was brought in to offer a “fresh perspective” on the film (which had been, I think it’s fair to say, mired in post-production for almost a year and a half); Goldblatt was brought in to work on a specific, complicated set-piece
I’m glad to see someone, especially as high in the scheme of things as Stuber, officially addressing the worrying rumors that have been pouring in for some time now. I can’t stress enough how much I’m rooting for this production; these are talented filmmakers with a love for the character who have worked tremendously hard. This deserves to be a great, classy, monster film. Suffice it to say, I’m very hopeful.
But you’d better believe I’m saying my prayers by night.
Variety is reporting that Carl Rinsch, director of February’s forthcoming remake of George Romero’s The Crazies, is in talks with Universal to direct the studios’ long gestating remake of the 1954 classic Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Recently Breck Eisner (Sahara) had been attached to helm the project, but left earlier this year.
Gary Ross (of Seabiscuit and Pleasantville) wrote previous drafts of the project. Fans will no doubt know that Gary Ross is in fact the son of Arthur Ross, one of the co-writers of the original Creature from the Black Lagoon (along with Maurice Zimm and Harry Essex).
Rinsch is currently next directing 47 Ronin, also for Universal, a samurai-adventure pic to star Keanu Reeves.
Universal is eager to continue resurrecting their classic monsters, the Black Lagoon remake would fall into place behind U’s The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving, out in theaters February 2010. The studio is also in talks with Guillermo Del Toro to spearhead a new Frankenstein project.
The original Creature, released in 3-D in 1954, told the story of a scientific expedition that journeys down the Amazon River and discovers the Gill Man, a missing link between marine and terrestrial life. As the group of scientists (led by genre stalwarts Richard Carlson and Richard Denning) tries to capture the beast, it falls for the beautiful Kay (Julie Adams), in classic Beauty and the Beast fashion.
Creature from the Black Lagoon was produced by Mercury Theatre veteran William Alland, who would become Universal’s resident sci-fi producer. It was directed by Jack Arnold, and was his second sci-fi picture (after he and Alland’s debut success It Came From Outer Space). Arnold would go on to helm some of the ’50’s most beloved genre titles, including Tarantula and The Incredible Shrinking Man.
The Gill Man became an instant pop-culture phenomenon, spawning two sequels (1955’s Revenge of the Creature and 1056’s The Creature Walks Among Us) and the character was even featured prominently in Billy Wilder’s classic sex comedy The Seven Year Itch, starring Marilyn Monroe.
Spoiler TV
With Spider-Man 4 stalled over at Sony for the last month, it seemed obvious that one of two things was going to happen: either Raimi was going to compromise and work with whatever villain Sony mandated, or, he was going to walk and Sony would find someone new.
Again, why is this a problem?
The new chapter in the Spider-Man franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.
Let Me In, the American produced remake of the Swedish horror film Let The Right One In, will be released on October 1st, 2010, announced production company Overture Films Wednesday.
From promising beginnings (enter an excellent cast, and a promising director, Hollywood’s biggest make-up legend), to shattering disasters (exit a promising director), to mad shuffling (enter Joe Johnston, how happy is Baker with the final product? and HOW many editors are cutting the picture?), The Wolfman – still due for release on February 12 – has already seen it all.
Variety is reporting that Carl Rinsch, director of February’s forthcoming remake of George Romero’s The Crazies, is in talks with Universal to direct the studios’ long gestating remake of the 1954 classic Creature from the Black Lagoon.
