Cool News
CBS Corrals Ron Moore’s
WILD WILD WEST Project!!
I am – Hercules!!
“Hawaii Five-0” continues to win its timslot, and I’m guessing this has emboldened CBS to commission longtime “Star Trek” writer-producer Ron Moore to co-write a pilot for a remake of “The Wild Wild West,” another CBS staple launched in the 1960s.
The original “West” combined two elements of “Mad Men”-era zeitgeist – James Bond and the TV western.
“West” was an awesome series. Central character James West was a late 19th century Secret Service agent who investigated out-West uncanny on behalf of U.S. president U.S. Grant. His partner was master-of-disguise Artemis Gordon. The agents employed and encountered all manner of anachronistic technology. I think the kids today call it steam punk. And, as with "Hawaii Five-0," its theme song rocked.
“Men In Black” boys Barry Sonnenfeld and Will Smith created an unworthy big-budget 1999 movie version.
Moore, of course, was behind one of the most creatively successful TV reboots ever, the 21st century version of "Battlestar Galactica."
He also just sold a Coast Guard action-adventure pitch “The McCulloch” to NBC.
Find all of Deadline’s exclusive on the matter here.
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Readers Talkback
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...rough ridah, no you don't want nada.
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I like that movie, fuck the whole human race.
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I love the original, despite it not being nearly as great as Star Trek or Mission Impossible. I find it odd that the only one not remade out of all of those great 60's shows is Star Trek. Hmmmm. I generally dislike the concept of remakes, but this show was by no means great and could have used a better story editor and some acting lessons for Conrad as Martin held the show together. That 90's revival was piss-awful, except for the racist exchanges between Loveless and West.
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I would also hope they keep the wild west theme going with the primitive gadgets and cool baddies. I would guess maybe we would see the very early stages of the Secret Service thrown in amongst the sci-fi goofy bullshit.
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Not the Geeebeeees! weird, weird memories of that ridiculous song
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And be funny about it.
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That was a great television show!
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Nov. 10, 2010, 8:50 p.m. CST
At the end, we learn that what happened in the WEST
by idrinkyourmilkshake
has happened before and will happen again. Season 5 of the W.W.W remake will end with some strange pseudo religous babble and have the 2 characters smoking weed, and sending there trains to burn into the sun.
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How I miss thee. I wish they would mount a remake of that.Sadly, Bruce Campbell(who I still love) may be too old and paunchy...
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I can still "sing" the theme song from memory.<p> Back when there were only 4 channels (ABC, CBS, NBC & Independent) this thing ran every day at around 3pm. I have seen every episode. <p> I remember a dream once where I was alternately Jim West & Dr. Loveless.<p> Movie sucked.
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WW could be an interesting show on TV.
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HAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAH no.<p>Loaded it up on youtube and god damn was it awful. Its certainly not an iconic theme in the vein of Hawaii Five-O where the theme was so much ingrained in the show that they HAD to have it for the new version. This theme could easily be ditched in favor of well... something decent.
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Now someone remake F-Troop please.
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Once you're in, your shit don't die.
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They've never remade 1960s Star Trek? Are you kidding?
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Nope, you aren't the only one. I like it too, and I know a bunch of other people that like it also.
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SPOILER.
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and you'll be fine.
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It's from his mother, Irene. She's says to come on home and stop all this foolishness.
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Simple, iconic. Not the juggernaut theme Hawaii 5-0 was, but still a classic little bit of TV.
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so I think he could make this work, if he gets the tone right... whatever that means. The Western and the Gadget Spy have both evolved a LOT since the original show, how would RDM mix his available ingredients? Will it be all "dark" a la BSG? Or will it be more lighthearted like the original?
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Now that Howard has kicked his annoying ass off of the radio, he's got nothing but time. And his head can explode out of frustration, every time Jim West foils one of his dastardly deeds.
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Please do not ruin the memories of a perfectly good, classic TV show again. WWW was a great, fun show with a classic theme song. The movie was utter shit. Leave it alone.
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Maybe I'm just too young(for once)<p> Isnt everything from the 60's the same?<p> Gunsmoke, Bonanza , Wild Wild West, Wagon Train , Have Gun will Travel, Rawhide , Branded , Peticoat Junction... Hell the only shit that wasnt about Cowboys was fucking Ed Sulivan
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That's my project now. No more Mr. Knife Guy.
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Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the conceit of this show based around the easily to recycle sets, western wear, etc. that was readily available at the time? <p> And while we're at it, why hasn't anyone decried that Ron will make this DARK. ;-) <p> I just don't see how this can come off in this day and age. <p> Frankly, I have pretty no opinion of the WWW movie, as I have pretty much forgotten it.
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Ron Moore is dead to me. http://tinyurl.com/ksq7kc
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was brilliant satire<p>time is sure different when one is a child...i thought that show was on forever...only to find out later that it ran a whole 2 seasons
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Hands down the best TV western ever. Another great one, coincidentally starring Timothy Olyphant as well, is Justified on FX, which will return for its second season in February or March. Perhaps not a "real" western, since it is in modern times and in Kentucky, but to me, it's one of the best western series I've ever seen. Dunno about Yet Another Remake for Wild Wild West. There was a wonderful light tone to the show that not even the reunion TV movies exactly captured. I'll give it a shot if it gets to series, but I can see this one flaming out quickly.
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Well, I'm a badass Cowboy livin' in the Cowboy days. Wiggy, wiggy, scratch, yo, yo, bang, bang. Me and Artemus Clyde frog go save Salma Hayek from the big metal spider. A wiggy wig wig wiggy wiggy wig Fresh cowboy from the west side Wiggy wiggy scratch yo yo bang bang Me and Artemus Clyde frog go save Salma frog polly prissy pants Go down to, well... rumpletumpskin
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one small step at a time, until by the 30th century, people think the Wild West had iPads and cellphones, and Japanese whalers landed on the moon.....
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transmogrified into a melange of out and out douche chill. Call it Weird West, instead, like Weird War II.
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a tv producer trapped in the past forced to produce tv series he knows that have already existed. Do you think I could get Ron Moore to produce?
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just didn't bring STAR TREK back to tv instead of making the movie. I'd also vote for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE to return to tv as well instead of another "Cruise-tastic" movie.
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So in other words Ron Moore was watching Canadian TV when working on BSG and took notes? *cough*The Guard*cough* Jeez, at least he could've copied something Canadian that didn't suck. Like 'Seeing Things'.
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With Peter Graves, Jackie Chiles, and DooL's Tony Dimera in Martin Landau's role.
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I was trying to tell my wife what a great show this is and we got some DVD's from the library -- one episode featured the Japanese ambassador who was a white actor basically saying Ching-chong ding dong asuski suk suk -- hilarious and horrible at the same time
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I tried to like it.. I REALLY did.. but there were so many stupid continuity errors and gaffs I just can't. <p> Sadly, there are some really funny moments, but the amateur editing and and cinematography just kill it. <p> However, I'd watch a RdM remake. Should be fun.
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Nov. 11, 2010, 9:20 a.m. CST
Let me guess... It's be like the old one... BUT DARKER!
by Yotz Von Frelnik
Isn't that the formula for everything the last decade or so? We're going to remake this [moive/TV series, whatever], and it'll be a bold retelling, exactly like the original... but DARKERRRR!
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half-nude ass.FACT.
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Someone above mentioned the phrase. I'm sure you're referring to something contemporary that I know nothing about, but it put me in the mind of an amazing DC comic series from the seventies with the same name. Does anyone remember this? It absolutely creeped the shit out of me. Very disturbing - the horrors of war compounded by some hardcore supernatural nastiness. Great art (Joe Kubert, maybe??) Anyway, since we're talking about anachronistic premises infused with cross-genre fantasy stuff (WWW was a great show, btw) Weird War would make an awesome anthology series. I mean, this comic was freaky. I have a couple of issues stored away somewhere (it probably only ran for two issues - ha, ha!)
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It could actually be done fairly easily - just go back to the basic concept, crossing James Bond with westerns. If they go darker, it would just be crossing the Daniel Craig version over instead of the Sean Connery version over. Some darkness might actually not be that bad - when they did the TV movies (especially the second one, with Johnathan Winters and the "hulks") they went too far the other way.
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In Firefly but TV let that fade away. Now they want to make Wild Wild West? First this should be on CW so the show can be slightly corny and have cool villains. If it's on CBS they'll just have them figuring out Wild West navy crimes. CBS is destroying television on a daily basis and people in the mid west are letting it happen. Don't watch their brain drain television!
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Nov. 11, 2010, 11:07 a.m. CST
Okay, when do they revamp Petticoat Junction...
by HarryKnowlesNonExistentInceptionReview
...and Green Acres. Please tell me so I know when to get my 45 out of it's lockbox and pull and Elvis on all my TVs.
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Nov. 11, 2010, 11:36 a.m. CST
Just don't kill Jim West by having him fall off his horse...
by matineer
... or something in the final show. Sorry, had to say it.
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yeah i have read them they are cool and suitable for a tvseries ala Twilight Zone etc.there is also another Weird Tales series set in the Wild West and i think DC has started now a new Weird War Tales series.
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Shit- just keep it coming. She should have also played Angela Martin in the Rockford reboot. Hell, I think they should remake every show ever made with her in ther original male role. In fact if they ever reboot BSG again, she should play Adama
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Zulu and Herb Jefferson Jr are getting drunk and pissed
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sees Zulu and Jefferson and says "Shit- they're remaking a show with Grace Park in my role".
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Nov. 11, 2010, 12:01 p.m. CST
If James West is Black and Loveless ain't a midget...
by TheGhostWhoLurks
I REFUSE to watch it! I've got no patience for PC whitewashing of history that would suggest that a Black man would be the top secret agent in the U.S. in the 1870s, beating up White men and bedding White women in the Wild West, without a lynch mob constantly on his back. Kind of hard to be "secret" when you stand out like a sore thumb like that.<p>That's one of the main reasons Will Smith's film was a failure. The basic premise was completely unbelievable — and insulting — on it's face, and simply went downhill from there.<p>And, yes, I KNOW there were Black cowboys back then. But make no mistake... they were treated just like any other Black person in the late 1800s and were never allowed to forget their "place" in society.
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...plus CGI as U.S. Grant?
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Nov. 11, 2010, 12:50 p.m. CST
"late 19th century Secret Service agent who investigated out-Wes
by HapaPapa72
Hunh?
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Was a little peek at Salma's ass. Pre-Fridha, of course.
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"And, yes, I KNOW there were Black cowboys back then. But make no mistake... they were treated just like any other Black person in the late 1800s and were never allowed to forget their "place" in society." "...I had enough a what ain't right."...see what I did there?
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I just looked it up, and it actually lasted for 12 years in the original run! That means the drugstore in the little town I grew up in must not have continued stocking it, or I would have a lot more issues. I remember this one cover with a giant skeleton snatching bi-planes out of the sky.
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Please don't muck it up. This should be a direct reinterpretation of the original show only, with no Sonenfeld influence. West's Civil War experience, athleticism, and marksman skills should all be intact. And no stunt casting!!! We need a square jawed, two-fisted cowboy type for West and an experienced, versatile thespian for Gordon--and yes, bring back the Blue suit! If they go back to formula like the new Star Trek film, this will do well, anything else wil fail and fail big.
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is 17years old or under. Guaranteed. If you were born after 1990, chances are you just won't get it.
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We need more positive minority roles going forward, but no use lying about the past. It made for an extremely awkward and ridiculous film, all though that was the least of that movie's problems.
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Yes, I know MI returned to tv once before. It was back in '88, & while it wasn't as good as the original, it still kicked some ass...and don't forget V's Jane Badler in season 2!
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Sending it out for coverage. <p> Expecting green light.
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Every city has its own Steampunk scene so don't generalize. Some are douchy, yes (looking firmly at you, Mr. Falksen, and your goddamned MTV appearance!) That said, couldn't agree more. This is Weird West... not really Steampunk.
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The B&W episodes are by far the best....
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Has to. Otherwise, it's RACIST!!one!<P>Actually, he was great in the Blade TV show.
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You won't sucker me in again, you bastard!
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I watched WWW every day after school for years. (Yep, I am that old) I had every episode memorized. I cannot bear the thought that Artemis Gordon will now be a hot chick who wears bikinis all the time, Jim West has washboard abs, and Dr Loveless will be played by Terry Crews. Please... NO!
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Herc forgets that series run was entirely on SyFy. It doesn't take much to be successful on that channel!
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http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/151327/artemis-clyde-frog
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kind of gives me the vibe of being an updated "Brisco County"/ I sometimes wish we could get a brisco sequel. With Bruce playing the overweight, comic relief sidekick. Maybe get the guys from Psych on the project
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The movie sucked. It was beyond stupid. The series rocked! I am looking forward to Moore's take on it.
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I'm in Seattle, where subcultures come to co-opted by dorks and douchebags.
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subcultures are turned into cosplay and fetish.
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Yeah, it's absolutely carelessness to label all stories set in the mid-1800's to the early Edwardian with skiffy or fantasy element as "steampunk."
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has obviously ripped off James Cawley, of Star Trek New Voyages. He's been working on Wild Wild West for a year. Cawley has a record of rediscovering great properties, developing new episodes true to the original series, then being outgunned by "geniuses" who want to reimagine the originals. Thanks, Ron. So, how are you going to screw up WWW?
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I like James Cawley and all, but seriously, you think his fanfic takes the place of an actual licensed and authorized production? That they cant do it if he's done a fan version? I don't think he'd agree with you, either.
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Brass and steam does not Steampunk make. I suspect that Steampunk is merely a fashionable term for anything superficially retro-Verne.
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...I'd like to hear a really good definition of the genre. I admit it's a catchy word.
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WILD WILD WEST!
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These weren't boys. They were men. And they were work partners and friends. Jim was just muscle, he was smart. And Artie wasn't just smart and a gadget inventor of sorts; he could handle his guns and hold his own in fight. And yeah, the disguises. Plus Loveless and some other villains, too. This is what Moore should work with as the core of the new series. Don't make one male, one female or anything like that. Manwhile, think on this. Had George Clooney, back in 1999, been cast as James West and Kevin Kline told to play Artie as less of a clown/con man, Warners would have had a new franchise. Oh, yeah, a better story would've done wonders, too. The original had some camp moment, but overall, well, the first season in black and white was western noir/sci-fi. And the other seasons all had stand-out moments, even the goofy stuff, like Loveless as Robin Hood with Indians or better yet, the one where he brought people into paintings. That was cool and imaginative. Ron Moore - make this work. I introduced my son to the original a few years ago and now it's very cross generational. Okay, done now.
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It wasn't just recycled sets and western wear ( as someone said ). This show was imaginative. Does anyone remember " The Night Of The Flying Pie Plate? A victorian flying saucer! One of my very favorite episodes. And keep your hands off of my melbon!
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and have a totally ludicrous last season that builds to an unsatisfying climax? Or will Ron Moore find a new realm that this can work? Because Wild Wild West was great at taking itself juuuuust seriously enough while still having fun, and the movie shit all over it, and a new version deserves to be true to the original.
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Tiny nitpick, but ... "To corral" something, the way you use it in this context, means to put a stop to it. Oh well, I'm just glad this is not what happened. I was pretty excited to read about Wild Wild West possibly coming back.
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or is this sarcasm? <BR>Steampunk is anything that incorporates ideas, beliefs, societal norms, architecture and design from the early industrial age applied to the present, or more commonly, the future. <BR><BR>Why is this so popular? When steam engines ( more specifically steam trains ) were invented, there was an elegance and beauty to everything that no longer exists in society. Look at Grand Central Station, or any one of hundreds of locomotive designs, cars, even luggage racks at the time. They were all amazing blends of function and form, that have never been reproduced in human society. especially now that we have gotten so good at production of materials and creating things so efficiently, designed to be disposable. <BR><BR>There's a certain naiveté in that world, the same imagination that created the sometimes hilarious views of the future we saw revisited in the 50's and 60's. Yet there was a genuine quality to the Steam past because it was real. <BR><BR> That's the way I see it anyway.
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Will we have gender reversal in the series or has that been played out?
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And I'm nostalgic for it as well. I'm just not sure where this "punk" thing is coming from, when "retro" or "neo" would do. "Punk" implies all this extra William Gibson stuff.
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if you go to TrekMovie, you'll see Cawley very much agrees with me.
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"20. James Cawley - November 11, 2010 It will be just another reboot, with only a slight resemblance to the original. In order for this to appeal to a new modern audience they will completely re work it…. sigh." http://trekmovie.com/2010/11/11/ron-moore-to-remake-the-wild-wild-west-for-cbs/
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how does any of that contradict what I said? Cawley's long-awaited, long-delayed fanfic film doesn't give him 'official' rights to anything, and the existence of a (now surely long dead) official studio remake doesn't mean he cant do one in the style of the original like he's done quite well with phase II. How's this for a long delayed reply? (and also, have to throw in "if that's even Cawley").
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