It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
You know Invasion of the Body Snatchers might make a good remake…
Wait a minute
Quantity vs quality
I would remake a picture whose ending was ruined by the censors at the time, who had it that crime could never pay. Basil Dearden’s 1960 thriller THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052997/
1951 baseball cat comedy Rhubarb.
Remakes, ideally, should be limited to films where the original good idea was executed poorly. Good example would be Michael Mann’s The Keep. Mann’s sensibilities were ill-suited to the story and it’s badly dated (there are no absolutes in life, but Tangerine Dream should NEVER be used in a film set during the Holocaust) but with a decent fx budget, better casting, and a stronger sense of what the material is (and more importantly, what it isn’t) you’d have a decent genre film.
A remake of GUNGA DIN with Ray Winstone, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom and Ben Kingsley.
“the fish that saved pittsburgh”
it will give kobe bryant and shaq a chance to feel old wounds
Ian, no offense, but I don’t think that kind of movie works anymore. Evidence: Four Feathers
BTW: I would love to see a remake of Sidney Lumet’s The Appointment (intriguing idea, but even Lumet thinks he didn’t get it right), and maybe an Americanized version of Louis Malle’s The Thief of Paris.
I want to see an actual adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s “The Birds.” The Hitchcock movie is a masterpiece in its own right, but it doesn’t have much to do with the story beyond the premise, and the story would make for a killer straight-up horror flick.
I think Gunga Din is a great idea! I was so in love with Douglas Fairbanks Jr when I was a kid.
howabout “the manhattan project” but this time the kid can be arab-american
Bippy, I would have Orlando Bloom in the Fairbanks role.
Joe, GUNGA DIN would absolutely work given the right director, someone who can handle action, romance and comedy.
As much as I love the Joseph Losey “Boom!”, it doesn’t make sense since Liz was much too young and Burton was much too old. Remake it as “The Milk Train (Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore)” starring Meryl Streep and Brad Pitt.
I thought of this clever idea to remake Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” set in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Kind of like what Luhrmann did with Romeo + Juliet. But with a jazz and blues soundtrack.
And yes, kids, Sean Penn will play himself.
but can he bring his own boat?
W.R. Mysteries of the Organism starring Shia LaBeouf.
Cocky colonialistss. Faithful native flunkie. Swarthy, bloodthirsty bad guys who want to kill the infidels. Yeah, sure, I can see people lining up around the block to see a new Gunga Din — encouraged, of course, by rave reviews from national critics.
Pshaw! Who cares about national critics! And we can make the bad guys Afghans. They’ll lap that up in Peoria.
I have a pretty radical idea — how about NOTHING.
How about adaptations of plays or novels that had to be bowdlerized to pass the Production Code? CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is an excellent example.
the next thing you know, jeff will tell me that brick’s gay
Ian: This is as close as you’ll get to ever seeing a Gunga Din remake:
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117794755.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0
Hend; I feel the same way about the Manhattan Project, but you do not need to make the kid an Arab-American. The concept of that film alone in this day of age could be played to a lot more severe way. Especially in terms of how the film ends with the secret site being revealled. That alone could be used for some twist and lot not.
Nevertheless; I have always been curious about what direction a Citizen Kane remake would take in this day and age. You could even go as far as to have Kane be responsible for the Iraq war. Which would be pretty trippy.
Yet, if I can have one film remade, that film would be Three Days of the Condor.
How about just turning The Stainless Steel Rat into a good picture?
Even if you got Soderbergh to do that Kane remake, there’s one theater chain it would never play in…
A friend of mine likes to joke that since we have “Body Snatchers” and “Invasion”, the next remake must inevitably be titled “Of The”
Star Wars I, II, and III
Eugenen: “I want to see an actual adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s “The Birds.” The Hitchcock movie is a masterpiece in its own right, but it doesn’t have much to do with the story beyond the premise, and the story would make for a killer straight-up horror flick.”
You’re getting your wish mate, Martin Campbell directs Naomi Watts and — horror!! — Michael Bay produces.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN with Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba.
I’d like to see a few films remade, I wouldn’t mind a SOYLENT GREEN remake (they’d have to think of a different plot twist) maybe with Ian McKellan in the Edgar G. Robinson role and Bruce Willis in the Chuck Heston role. It’s a futuristic thriller, has action, has Global warming elements, has euthanasia, could be updated and work both with the Al Gore and Martin Campbell crowd.
A couple of Vincent Price flicks you could remake (both were excellent though): WITCHFINDER GENERAL (about a persecutor of witches) and THEATRE OF BLOOD (hammy Shakespearean actor eliminates critics).
There was this overlooked spy thriller I enjoyed in the 80s with John Savage ..THE AMATEUR, about a CIA agent tracking down terrorists who murdered his wife.
Some Westerns also would be great: THE REVENGERS (William Holden and Ernest Borgnine starred), the Burt Lancaster flick VALDEZ IS COMING, maybe ULZANA’S RAID.
A horror-disaster flick in the 70s was THE MEDUSA TOUCH with Richard Burton who played a man who could ‘will’ disasters – update it to the 9-11 world, has potential.
I’d love to see a remake of the James Coburn flick THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST, pleny of sardonic possibilities in this day and age.
What is the ‘Martin Campbell crowd’?
Just the action crowd (didn’t wanna say Michael Bay…too polarizing)
the year before the first Pirates came out I saw Captain Blood and I thought to myself, wow, this story could be so damn intense and incredible if it became a remake. British doctor is framed and sent to the Carribbean where he is sold into slavery, falls in love with the plantation owner’s daughter, escapes, becomes a pirate captain and eventually brings down the plantation and gets the girl. The 30s version is fairly haphazard until it becomes a pirate movie about 60% in, so there’s a lot that can be improved, though I don’t know if you can improve on Flynn and his chemistry with DiHavilland. The material and title have such potential but the classic version is just so tame and glossy, too bad it couldn’t have been made three or four years earlier before the production code hammer came down.
But since you can’t cast Depp in the role who could play Blood?
I’m surprised nobody in Hollywood – what with the trend of remaking horror flicks – has thought to remake Children of the Corn.
a) the original actually isn’t that good so it could be easily improved, and
b) it’d have the whole “rebooting” the franchise thing going for it ala Texas and Halloween.
Sure, the Corn movies aren’t on the same pop culture level as those flicks but, I mean, if The Hitcher can get remade then sure a dodgy Linda Hamilton/scary kid preacher movie can.
Also, why Hollywood hasn’t remade Harry, He’s Here to Help boggles my mind. Not that I particularly want a remake of that, but it seems like a given, quite frankly.
“I’m surprised nobody in Hollywood – what with the trend of remaking horror flicks – has thought to remake Children of the Corn. ”
They made lots of sequels to that so that kinda tarnished the franchise.
How about CHRISTINE?
As I said in the other thread, I’d want Wolfgang Petersen to remake his own Neverending Story with today’s effects.
Gunga Din was remade, fairly well actually. It was called Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
I think a Revenge of the Nerds remake could work….
I think a Revenge of the Nerds remake could work….
I’m pretty sure they started shooting a Revenge of the Nerds remake and pulled the plug halfway through.
I’d remake Lost Horizon. The tone would be hard to pull off though. Just not as a musical again.
A Suddenly remake would be interesting to see these days. Cheap to make too.
Lost Horizon would be tough – I think it would need to be a period pic or heavily stylized, because nobody would believe in a Shangri-La existing in central Asia in today’s world.
“They made lots of sequels to that so that kinda tarnished the franchise.”
Halloween, Friday the 13th (which is getting a reboot), Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Omen…
the list goes on and on.
“Lost Horizon would be tough – I think it would need to be a period pic or heavily stylized, because nobody would believe in a Shangri-La existing in central Asia in today’s world.”
The Star Trek people used that LOST HORIZONS premise for the terrible STAR TREK INSURRECTION – I don’t know what the hell they were thinking.
Ladyhawke. Great idea, great setting. Most innapprorpiate soundtrack ever,\.
“Gunga Din was remade, fairly well actually. It was called Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”
Took the post right outta my mouth.
there was a “revenge of the nerds” update and it did get shut down. script was bad