Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Remakes are funny things. One of the reasons I wanted to start this column was to illustrate the idea that not all remakes are created equal. Some of them don't automatically fill me with dread. The thing that makes me crazy about them right now is just how many there are. It's like an avalanche, and it seems like it's more frequent than ever before.
First up, we've got an announcement that had to have been timed as a reaction to the opening weekend gross of New Line's ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS. The director of that film, Kevin Bray, has signed to direct a remake of the French hit action-comedy TAXI. Check out the original story here!!
20TH Century Fox is going to be developing and releasing the remake. I don't know much about the original, since it's owned by Lions Gate and they've never decided to release them in the United States. They played in the French-speaking regions of Canada, but that's it for North American distribution so far. The best thing that can happen as a result of this news is that the original TAXI and its sequels might be available here finally. Good or bad (and I've heard both), I'd like a chance to see them for myself.
I'm equally unsure how to react to the news that Miramax has hired an Italian director to remake another Italian director's film, since I don't know the film or the filmmakers involved. You can read all about it here!!
I've never seen "Ettore Scola's classic 1974 comedy-drama C'ERAVAMO TANTO AMATI (WE ALL LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH)." And I'm not familiar at all with Gabriele Muccino, the guy they've hired to remake it. According to the article, "the original film spanned 30 years, recounting the stories of three former WWII partisans all in love with the same woman." The new version will take place in New York, starting in the '70s, then showing the way the city changes in the 30 years since. What interested me is that this same director almost remade the French film WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY for Miramax before this before that stalled out in development and got put in turnaround. Remakes are frequently used as a way of easing a foreign director into the American market. For some reason, they're thought of as "easier" to make.
They're not, though. You can do a million things wrong, and when the original film is beloved, it gets even trickier. Take the case of THE IN-LAWS. I love the movie. Many people love the movie. If you can get a laugh out of someone just by saying "Serpentine! Serpentine!" then you know you've just outed another IN-LAWS fan. The chemistry between the stars of that film, Alan Arkin and Peter Falk, is a thing of rare and twisted beauty. The idea of remaking the film seems almost blasphemous. Read the details of the remake here!!
So now we've got Albert Brooks and Michael Douglas taking the place of Alan Arkin and Peter Falk. And Andy Fleming (DICK, THE CRAFT) is directing. And no matter how much I tell myself to just be open-minded, part of me shrinks away from this simply on principal. The first one is so perfect that it seems like they're setting themselves up for unfair comparisons. I never want to dislike anything that Albert Brooks is involved in, and I admit that he's actually pretty inspired as a choice for the role of the dentist who becomes involved in a bizarre comic adventure with the CIA agent father of the boy marrying his daughter. I don't know about Douglas, though, and no matter how much I consider DICK an overlooked bit of comic gold, Fleming doesn't have a track record that makes me invest blind faith in him. I want to read this script and see how clever their take on things is. If it's good, it'll go a long way to soothing my nerves.
Finally, as I mentioned in today's article about Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Warner Bros., Arnold has signed on to star in and produce a remake of WESTWORLD, the 1973 SF film written and directed by Michael "High Concept" Crichton. I'm mystified by this choice. Stumped. How is this different from THE TERMINATOR, except in location? Arnold as a killer robot isn't a step forward or a step back; it's a step sideways.
In the article that ran today on Variety.com, Arnold talks about wanting to be part of this remake since the moment he saw the original. That was before he was in the film business, keep in mind. I think Arnold gets a wee bit hyperbolic, but maybe that's to be expected. Lining up a commercially sound slate has been something Arnold forgot how to do recently, and for the first time in a while, things look promising. I wish he'd skip this one, though, and go straight into CONAN. In this case, the remake doesn't really sound terribly exciting if it sticks to the original too closely. After all, we've seen genetically reproduced T-Rexes running free; just how menacing is a slow-walking gunfighter robot, anyway?
"Moriarty" out.
