Paramount decided to release a second trailer pretty quickly, selling the original movie with a new coat of paint instead of laying on the drama, as though it was some other movie they made. Next Up: The same trailer with the damned song… what people actually want from this remake.
And the REAL Footloose…
I have to say… the cutting of the music is terrible… not a very sophisticated trailer… but I would still go see that movie… more so than the new one…
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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
I didn’t see the first trailer but yea, I’d agree, it’s like this new one was specifically designed for people who had seen the original, not starting from scratch. On the flip side, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say Paramount is up to their old tricks of showing WAAAAAAY too much of the movie in the trailer. Even if I hadn’t seen the original, I’d think I just saw the whole movie. The trailer for the ’84 pic showed a lot but the shots were cut shorter so you couldn’t put them in context.
The only thing more hilarious than that new trailer and movie (in a bad way) is Craig Brewer twittering aloud why so many people are giving him and it a hard time. Did we really need a new FOOTLOOSE? With real threats to our day to day freedoms I hardly think dancing in public is fodder for a movie. Then again, it’s just trifling enough to be a huge hit.
Now go forth and make millions you crazy dancing kids!
When I watched the first trailer on the Apple site, I turned to my wife, and imitating Patricia Arquette in True Romance when she’s getting the shit beat out of her by James Gandolfini, pointed at it and said, “Ha ha ha…! You look ridiculous!”
Try it sometime…it’s cathartic.
Not David Bordwell,
I tried it, just like you said. I said it to my wife: ““Ha ha ha…! You look ridiculous!” It was then she started beating me upside the head with a large salmon.
Sorry, Pope…
I forgot to warn about the side effects.
Use only as directed (IT the trailer… not HER the wife…) 😉
My aunt was in one of the cars for that scene down the highway.
It’s weird how many exact shot copies there are in the remake from the original. But I don’t see Quaid being intimidating as Lithgow.
That music was horrible. But at least it distracted me from the trailer itself. For the few split seconds I was paying attention……. Well, there was Randy Quaid…. I suppose if I can’t say anything nice, I’ll just stick with Randy Quaid.
The first trailer for the new version struck me as a response to testing where kids didn’t get the idea that an America town could ban dancing.
The second one gets back to saying, “Fuck the ridiculous premise (which was pretty silly back in the day as well)… let’s PARTY! (But we’re still trying to keep the song a tease because if we put it on a trailer and people mock it, me might be screwed.)”
@Krillian, totally agree! Of course I was only a kid when the first one came out but Lithgow just seemed like someone neither teens nor adults would cross. Maybe Quaid can work himself into a lather but the scarier guys are the ones you hope never get there.
I think Dennis Quaid is excellent casting, actually – the dude can be intimidating, just not in a bizarro-DiPalma way like Lithgow could. I will say that the casting in remakes such as these is getting pretty good. It’s pretty much spot-on for Fright Night: Colin Farrell is a FANTASTIC choice to take on the Chris Sarandon role and is there is a more perfect choice to play the nerdy/creepy best friends than Christopher Mintz-Plase???
But back to the original trailer for the original movie: I could be wrong, but is that voice-over done by Kevin Bacon?? How bizarre if it was, especially since he had to be in his early ’20’s and likely did not have a deep enough voice to do trailers!
@Triple Option, Quaid has played too many “everyman” characters over the years. The dad is Soul Surfer, The Rookie, the Express, American Dreamz even the good old quarterback in Any Given Sunday… Too many feel good type characters to have the same kind of menace brought by Lithgow.
Oh, and meant Dennis. They look so much alike, I get them confused!! Haha.
If Lithgow can still be scary after six years of playing the goofball alien on THIRD ROCK, then I think Quaid deserves at least a wait-and-see.
You are not allowed to comment about the range of Dennis Quaid if you have not seen Flesh & Bone.
That is all.
@Not David Bordwell: Oh yeah… Had forgotten about that one. Maybe it’s because it’s nearly 20 years old and he’s been playing some variation on his Rookie “every man” character ever since.
Loved Flesh and Bone, Ryan’s best performance by a mile and a wonderfully tight role for Quaid. One of the two 90’s thrillers I am always recommending to people, (A Simple Plan being the other). While he has probably been invaluable to the Potter franchise, I am always sad that Kloves never directed again after the strong hand he showed with Baker Boys and Flesh and Bone.
I know she’s only 23 IRL, but Julianne Hough looks like the oldest, most weathered and unconvincing high school student I have ever seen, and that includes Cory Monteith. She and Doug Hutchinson’s “child bride” look like they should be doing Coffee Talk with Linda Richman.
@cadavra: Lithgow was in Footloose a good dozen years before 3rd Rock. I think it was some of his earlier work that made him going against type in 3rd Rock such a hoot. Not like he hadn’t done any comedy but it quite a different turn from the expected.
@film fanatic: The screen capture alone from this trailer makes her look 36! I was like “Hey, who’s this?!” but then see she’s playing one of the teens and I was like awww, bummer! At least I don’t have to check myself in for therapy but yeah if she went to hs w/me I’d steer clear of her cuz I’d say she was a narc.
I know it’s just a silly vestige of growing up when movie stars had ‘movie star’ names, but I still can’t get used to idea that the star of a big studio movie could be named Kenny Wormald.
1.) Love the Wahlberg accent that Wormald kid’s trying to pull off.
2.) Poor Andie MacDowell.
3.) Ditto on Julianne’s age. She looks divorced.
4.) This is the latest in an increasing succession of trailers that has inspired derisive laughter and outright WTF revolt upon the part of every audience I’ve seen it with. All this rehashed Branded Content is really eroding people’s respect for the medium of film. And we wonder why people wander in late and refuse to turn off their phones.
“The screen capture alone from this trailer makes her look 36! I was like “Hey, who’s this?!” but then see she’s playing one of the teens and I was like awww, bummer! At least I don’t have to check myself in for therapy but yeah if she went to hs w/me I’d steer clear of her cuz I’d say she was a narc.”
If you took that capture to any random audience member and asked them, “Hey, this is from a movie set in high school, so who do you think this actress is playing?”, 999 out of 1000 would say, “well obviously she’s the cool English teacher that rides to work on a Harley and drinks with the fake ID kids at the local dive bar”.
UN-RETIRE for this pressing issue:
HOUGH POWER. LOOOK AT HER.
You guys are NUTS.
Re-retire.
if there’s a remake of FOOTLOOSE then there may as well be a remake of Faat Times at Ridgemont High
this remake was made for the glee crowd and not the super old people who remember the first one . .. this needs some
cast members from twilight movie …RT score of 35% or less
probably no dp/30’s but could have at least one good actor who can act who might get a dp/30 in the future ..
I don’t think I could handle a remake of FAST TIMES. It would be too much for me, as I think that movie is a slice of perfection as is.
I have to say that the new FOOTLOOSE trailers totally work for me. I’m a big fan of both HUSTLE AND FLOW and BLACK SNAKE MOAN, and I can certainly see from the trailers that it’s the same filmmaker. This isn’t a director for hire effort, apparently. The premise is hard to buy now, but I think if you let it work as metaphor it could be something. I think this looks like this year’s KARATE KID in that it’s a remake of an 80s icon that, while not needed, has a lot more gravitas than expected and works great on its own.
Plus, Julianne Hough.
the thing about ‘footloose’ – the one from the dark ages (1984) watched by befuddled ancients, most of whom have died off – is that modern MUSIC was also banned, not just dancing, which added a crucial dimension to the stifling puritanical stranglehold over the small town and the reaction of the kids suffocating there. music is primal, gotta have it. in this one it appears it’s just dancing the kids aren’t allowed, which seems rather silly.
the true story of how of the making of footloose:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX1Nh6c80wo
Did you know the original title was “The Boy Who Danced Away Oppression”?
Lithgow’s defining performance for me is now as the Trinity Killer on Dexter.
Exactly. My point was that Lithgow has gone back to dramatic roles and the memory of Dick Solomon hasn’t affected this.
“(But we’re still trying to keep the song a tease because if we put it on a trailer and people mock it, me might be screwed.)””
Pay Cee Lo to record Footloose. Put his version in the trailer. Problem solved.
Are they trying to pass off the song Sour Cherry by The Kills as some kind of remix of the song Footloose?
“UN-RETIRE for this pressing issue:
HOUGH POWER. LOOOK AT HER.”
I know…she looks like a MILF in that screen cap.
Flesh and Bone had one of the all-time great ad taglines: “Evil is patient.” It also showcased one of James Caan’s all-time scariest performances.
“Flesh and Bone had one of the all-time great ad taglines: “Evil is patient.” It also showcased one of James Caan’s all-time scariest performances.”
It was also probably the last time some people liked Gwyneth Paltrow before they HATED Gwyneth Paltrow.
One of the hardest things about enjoying Flesh and Bone is how good Paltrow is as the jaded grifter, and at such a tender age. It makes one wish Gwynny had done more character-actor noir work, instead of going the lead actress route.
Now that I have caught up with PAUL, did anyone else see an homage to Flesh and Bone there? It had me wondering if they cast Blythe Danner after Meg Ryan turned down the Girl from the Farmhouse role.