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The Reimagining Gang Overruns GUNSMOKE!!
Merrick here...
The Powers That Be are ramping up for a bigscreen adaptation of the mammothly popular, cross-platform Western franchise GUNSMOKE.
The action-adventure will re-imagine Marshal Matt Dillon, the hero of the classic Western, for modern audiences. The story will be set in the same American West as the original but will feature a contemporary look and modern action twists.
[EDIT]
“Gunsmoke,” which holds the title of the longest-running primetime scripted drama (it had been the longest-running primetime series until “The Simpsons” eclipsed it this year), revolves around a number of characters in Dodge City, Kan., at the time of westward expansion.
It focuses principally on three characters: Dillon, the crimefighting leader of Dodge; town physician Galen “Doc” Adams; and Miss Kitty Russell, owner the Long Branch Saloon. The show’s plot lines revolve around dramatic, sometimes gritty, events and a fair share of outlaws and desperadoes.
...describes THIS entry by Steven Zeitchik and Borys Kit over at THR's Risky Business Blog.
Gregory Poirier (NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS and, well, A SOUND OF THUNDER) is currently scripting away .
The original series ran from 1952-1961 on radio (I listen to it all the time, actually); its television iteration aired from 1955-1975. Sirius/XM subscribers can hear GUNSMOKE's radio broadcasts on RadioClassics (118 on Sirius' line-up, not sure what it's is on XM).
Select episodes of the television series are streamable through TV Land's website (HERE), while the entirety of the television series can be found HERE
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I say Shia or Jack Black as Festus :-/
The action-adventure will re-imagine Marshal Matt Dillon, the hero of the classic Western, for modern audiences. The story will be set in the same American West as the original but will feature a contemporary look and modern action twists.
[EDIT]
“Gunsmoke,” which holds the title of the longest-running primetime scripted drama (it had been the longest-running primetime series until “The Simpsons” eclipsed it this year), revolves around a number of characters in Dodge City, Kan., at the time of westward expansion.
It focuses principally on three characters: Dillon, the crimefighting leader of Dodge; town physician Galen “Doc” Adams; and Miss Kitty Russell, owner the Long Branch Saloon. The show’s plot lines revolve around dramatic, sometimes gritty, events and a fair share of outlaws and desperadoes.
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how can this?
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MATT DILLON!!! This is the only reason why a remake or big-screen reimagining should be allowed to move forward.
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im a ninja!
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read "shit".
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Fester was on The Addams Family. Just FYI.
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since i didn't post "FIRST" up there, can you just put me on the list for the NYC screening of District 9 when and if it happens?awesome. thanks.-T
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some dreams die hard.
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..this was never shown on UK television during its original run or during the summer holidays as repeats.Consequently I am in no way suffering from 'childhood-being-raped' syndrome or waving my fist at the sky damming Hollywood's lack of original ideas and I am therefore more than happy to see this venture fall on its arse on its own merit of being scripted by the genius who wrote NT2:BoS and Sound of Thunder
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Did anyone else have to cut a scene for from Gunsmoke as an editing assignment?
That was torture... -
if he was alive
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Hand fun editing the shit out of this in the dark and it was the first time I ever got to edit film with sound. Oh the memories of the squeeky spindles.
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It was like zooming back in time. Also it was fun trying to give it a more modern cut, BUT sound synching was not fun at all. heh.
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I see I'm not the first to mention it, but I probably won't be the last, either.
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I guess to each his own. It just pissed me off that they talked so damn slow... And every attempt at trying to make it modern I saw, looked cheesy as hell.
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HA! I was looking some stuff about The Addams Family and had a Freudian slip I guess. Thanks for the catch!
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$$$$$$$$$.
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Gunsmoke was the shit. I really hope they don't ruin it. Knowing the studio fuck ups they'll cast Channing Tatum as Marshall Dillon and try and skew as young as possible. I wish they'd either leave it the fuck alone or cast a mature ,big intimidating bad ass a Marshal Dillon. I just don't see that many actors that can play the part currently. Lets not forget that the original series started the career of Burt Fucking Reynolds.
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But I guess that's what was so entertaining about it. I think I still have the cut somewhere. It's was a ways back though.
Do they still do that in film school? -
Anytime, brother! I'm here to help. Take care and God bless.
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When will the Bonanza reimagining come to light. Have Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrel, and Vince Vaughn be the Cartwright boys while Christopher Walken will be the new Daddy Cartwright.
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In that the four lead characters were, a retarded man, a drunken doctor, a prostitute, and the sheriff who is sleeping with the prostitute.
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In that the four lead characters were, a retarded man, a drunken doctor, a prostitute, and the sheriff who is sleeping with the prostitute.
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They did. It was called Ponderosa, a short-lived prequel show with Daniel Hugh Kelly in the Ben Cartwright role. In this version Ben was already widowered thrice, had the kids, and they just moved to the property to build the ranch. By the way if they really remake it you have to have Ethan Suplee as Hoss.
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Yeah that's true. That was about 8 years ago I did that. So who knows if they are still doing it...
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...since nobody's childhood is being raped. At least, nobody who isn't currently in a nursing home.
On the other hand, surely there are way better classics of the Western genre that would make for a better remake.
Like, I can imagine a KICK-ASS modern version of The Great Train Robbery play out in my imagination.
Imagine. "The Great Train Robbery: A Michael Bay Film" -
He's tall and he's got some 'cowboy' swagger in him!
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Won't top the awesomeness that was 3:10 to Yuma (new version).
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Holy hell, what pansy boy can pull that role off today? Fillion maybe, but even he's a bit polished.
Oh the Dr doesn't count, was never on US prime time and, lets face it, the UK hardly had TV back then :) -
I think Gunsmoke stands alone in television history for that reason. I'm sure when the time comes, the same will be said of Law & Order, but that doesn't count either because of the rotating cast and self contained episodes.
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Will Smith plays Marshall Dillon, Salma plays the prostitute, and Kevin plays the retarded man. Hey it worked the first time.
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Means it will suck
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You know, the one with Rutger Hauer as the great grandson of Steve McQueen's character?
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every good film executive knows that remakes of old TV shows aren't successful if they aren't recreated as comedies.
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They're raping my father's childhood!
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I'm going with Ron Perlman as Marshall D. And unfortunately, I believe the plucky comic relief will refer to him as "Marshall D" at some point. Who is the equivalent of Peggy Lipton ten years ago today? That's who I'd roll out for Miss Kitty. I rather hope this idea dies before it is birthed on this irony scorched Earth.
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So, it's 20 something pretty people in black spandax? The thing that made GUNSMOKE work was that, for its time, it was the first gritty, dirty and realistic western. THERE IS NO CONTEMPORARY LOOK TO THE LATE 1800's. The attire WAS contemporary for it's time. Stop being so ass fucking retarded, Hollywood. Just shut up-you people make far too much money to be this much of a bunch of dumb asses. The more period, the more realistic you make GUNSMOKE, the better it will be. If you go all 'Contemporary' with it, expect it to bomp. Witness the love for DEADWOOD. I'm sure that was'nt 'modern' enough for ya, but if I want to spend 2 hours in the old west, I dont wanna be reminded of some puke of the month who spends 8 hours a day with his personal trainer. I want to be transported BACK in time and not be reminded of some Hollywood Tool.
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Chris Noth as Marshall Dillon, John Malkovich as Chester, Dennis Farina as Doc, and Cynthia Ettinger as Miss Kitty. And Burt Reynolds HAS to have a cameo.
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Who gives a shit about this? And by the way, what happened to that Dickblood character? He get his own website or some such?
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I happen to be one of the gunfighters at the Boot Hill and Front Street Museum in Dodge. Though I was born almost half a decade after Gunsmoke went off the air, I get a chance to meet tourists from all over the world who grew up on the Gunsmoke TV show and who come here looking to relive the ledgend. They litterally eat up our cowboy/Western heritage. Dodge City is a real place with real people who love and respect this show in our history and culture. Ive gotten the chance to meet a handful of the stars of the old show over the last few years including James Arness' wife, and can count Buck Taylor as a personal acquaintance. Please give this project to someone with respect for the source material or at least the people who live their lives IN AND AROUND the REAL source material.
I wont be sold on this project till Buck Taylor is involved in some capacity -
Going back to the original black and white episodes. It dealt wit hall kinds of unheard of for tv stuff like racism, rape and child labor abuse. They should keep that realistic old west tone. No catch phrases and "aw heeelll nooo" please. Viggo Mortenson as Marshal Dillon.
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of herself. Bless her.
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Who else cut that scene from gunsmoke in film school?
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Aug 05, 2009 2:55:11 PM CDT
I remember an episode where some dude got bit in the face
by lanemyersclassic
by a rattlesnake. It was pretty cool! Good F/X!
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Would you say that to Tom Petty?
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It would be edgy.
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Unless they screw it up (Hollywood usually manages to do so with westerns). I wouldn't mind seeing Patrick Warburton as Matt Dillon. Fillion would make a good Newly, and Gary Sinise would make a good Doc.
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i watched gunsmoke with my father everyday for like a year (about 5 years ago) i liked it a lot. i don't really see the need for a remake. yet at the same time it would be cool to see new blood in the long dead series. hell i just like westerns a lot. but if they go campy or too contemporary. it's the old west hollywood there is nothing contemporary about it.
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With Clive Owen as Paladin. Sweet.
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was shit to me straight up racist the sucker was simple and plain. "Mutha fuck him and John Wayne" lol. Flavor FLAV!!!
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So, you guys have a burger called Cowboy/Western Heritage?
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I'm running out of old Ranolph Scott flicks to catch up on.
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(removes hat)
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Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
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The radio show was described as "the thinking man's western" in contrast to the all-action/adventure serials like Wild Bill Hickock. So, if this movie is supposed to add "modern action" I think they should try and adapt a different property. Gunsmoke (the radio show) was more about character, story, moral quandries, hard life. Y'know, thinking stuff.
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fresh from Hollywood's easy bake oven..Please,please leave Gunsmoke alone and let it stand as a testament to a time when movies and TV series were written by grown-ups who knew something of life and the world,for the love of Pete.
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on matt dillon ... lebouf as festus ... gregory harris as doc (just because)... Nina Hartley as Miss Kitty.
You can catch the old Wm Conrad Gunsmoke on iTunes too. -
... to the modern west sort of like No Country for Old Men? (Which, yeah, was set in the 1970's... just bear with me, here!) If so, what a sucktastic idea. Oh... and I nominate MAtt Dillon for the role of Matt Dillon! (But, current Hollywood being what it is, we'll probably end up with his li'l bro, Kevin...)
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... too fucked-up of an idea NOT to work!
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... the later episodes from the 70's where Matt Dillon was relegated to being sort of a deus ex machina character who only showed up in the last five minutes to clean up any untidy dangling plotlines. Seriously, as a kid I thought this was the Festus & Doc show and Marshall Dillon was thecelebrity guest recurring character.
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For the entire radio run (BRILLIANT, by the way) and much of the TV run, Matt's sidekick was Chester, played on TV by Dennis Weaver. I like Festus, but he was later.
Anyway, After listening to the radio shows, I can no longer imagine anyone but WILLIAM FUCKING CONRAD as the big ol' bad ass Marshall Dillon. Manliest man ever - not just tough, but real. -
---Jeff Fahey. Put a smile on his face and some whiskey in his belly and you know he'll be drawlin' out 'Marshall DIlloooooooon' reall well.
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Agree with Odkin- I liked the TV series, but Bill Conrad's Matt Dillon was a Major Bad Ass That You Did Not Want to F With. (well maybe Kitty did..)
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He still looks like a gunslinger.
Eric is on "The Young and the Restless."
I don't watch "The Young and the Restless."
I don't. Stop saying that I do. -
People will talk about the rich old man who's buried three wives. But it isn't until the sudden disappearance of Adam that Little Joe and Hoss pay it any mind.
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Michael Shannon
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really has no place in Gunsmoke. Gunsmoke was really like the In the Heat of the Night of westerns. Meaning this will suck the big sweaty cheesed up ballsack of Rush Limbaugh.
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...original creative ideas left?
These pricks need a good swift kick, in the coit. -
shouldn't they have done it 20-25 years ago? The whole point of re-imagining these things for the soulless movie execs is that you inherit a fan base. Where's the fan base for this? I'm 35 and I barely remember it. It certainly wasn't a big part of my childhood. Are 50-80 year olds really going to see this? I realize everyone wants to use any franchise or brand name that they have rights to and pimp it for all it's worth but I just don't see this having any value despite Gunsmoke's incredibly long run.
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Is the Honeymooners reimagining with Cedric the Entertainer. I know the Honeymooners had name recognition, but why make it? OH, and for all you posers talking about cutting Gunsmoke scenes in film school. Congratulations on how far it's gotten you! The forums on AICN!
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As a result I've seen what a freakin' *incredible* show Gunsmoke was...and Maverick as well. But a retool? With a comtemporary look???BWA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!Not a chance...
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But Gunsmoke shits on any yuppie re-boot. Re-boot my ass. Aintitcool "reporters"- the past should be remembered not relived.
Stop shoving this crap down the real fans throats. -
Aug 06, 2009 8:21:24 AM CDT
I met Eric Braeden and he shit when I said I had seen
by lanemyersclassic
Colossus: The Forbin Project. This was in 1989 and there were no VHS copies of it. He said he was very proud of that movie, as it was well ahead of its time. Nice Guy. Austin 4 Seasons Hotel - went by his real name Hans Gudegast.
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in Colossu: the Forbin Project, but also Escape from the Planet of the Apes? Yeah, he plays Victor in Y&R. No, I don't watch it. You can't help but go through the grocery line and absorb info from Soap Opera Digest by osmosis. It's the same way I know all sorts of Seinfeld crap, but have only seen one episode. Oh yeah, John and Kate Plus Eight also. I've never watched that dreck, but you can't help not know them now, like I really care about them.
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...but he was in Rat Patrol, under his real name of Hans Gudegast. Rat Patrol....ah childhood. Many young memories of seeing those 50 caliber machine guns cuttin' down the Nazis.Oh, and he was Bob Crane's brother-in-law. Not that it's particularly relevant, but an interesting bit of trivia nonetheless.
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Actually, Festus always called him Matthew...with a long drawl, like mathYUUUUUU. Chester called him Mister Dillon, and Quint just called him Matt (or Marshall).But hey, talk about somebody not to mess with...Arness' Dillon kicked ass. 6ft-6 and a *wicked* backhand. Man, Dillon backhanded the shit outta some bad guys.
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Aug 06, 2009 9:56:28 AM CDT
But what's *really* interesting about Gunsmoke...
by damned if i can login
...relates to a few statistics.The show ran for 617 episodes. And one of the regular Dillon lines was: "We got some buryin' to do!" And this was in damn near every episode. There are probably something like 1000+ rotting, unembalmed corpses in shallow graves scattered around the Dodge City region. Good lord, what would that do to the water table???And another one. Dillon got shot in arm, shoulder, leg etc...*regularly*. Hey, even if it only happened in one of every three episodes, it would mean he got shot more than 200 times. Pretty much qualifies him for gangsta status...way more than the guys claiming it now. And Dillon didn't own a single piece'a bling...
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Arness didn't hog the screen.
Maybe he was lazy. But it allowed guest stars to make big impressions. "Gunsmoke" got a lot of good actors to guest-star.
In series now, the regular cast demand maximum screen time. Their agents are counting the minutes they get on screen.
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You should read Harlan Ellison's book on The City at the Edge of Forever. He was taking *so* long writing and rewriting the script so it could be filmed within the constraints of their $100/ep budget, that Shatner visited him at home to "speed the process". First, Ellison has a hilarious anecdote about the Shat wiping out on his Harley in the driveway. But then Shat limps inside and proceeds to read the script...carefully. And then he re-read it...even more carefully.And then Ellison says he realized what the Shat was doing...he was counting his lines as compared to Nimoy!
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I did read a book once ;) about the Marx brothers in which it was said that Groucho used to deceive Chico by showing him how many lines Chico got in the script--except Groucho got the good lines and Chico just got to smile.
There was a story recently about actor Knight leaving "Grey's Anatomy" because he only got something like 48 scenes in nine episodes while Sandra Oh got 114. Some numbers like that.
They're all actors, so I guess that's part of the gig. -
Richard Boone as Paladin was freaking great.
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...about my post above stating Dillon was shot like 200 times. Think about this...most of the time the projectile is not removed, I believe. I looked up some facts about the Colt .45, and a couple of different websites places the weight of the projectile at 255 grains, which translates into roughly .58 ounces. Multiply that number by 200, and ya get around 7.3 pounds of lead! With more than 7lbs of lead Dillon could be used as a maraca...
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