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Walter Hill To Remake WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?
Beaks here...
I do not envy the task ahead of Walter Hill.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the legendary director of THE WARRIORS, SOUTHERN COMFORT and THE LONG RIDERS will pair with the Aldrich Company to revisit the sibling rivalry of Blanche and Baby Jane Hudson in a new version of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?. The initial filmed adaptation of Henry Farrell's novel was directed by the great Robert Aldrich, and is an indisputable classic powered by two memorable performances from Joan Crawford (as poor crippled Blanche) and Bette Davis (as the round-the-bend Baby Jane). There was a very good television remake in 1991 starring Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave, and it's a testament to the greatness of the original that I can barely remember a moment of the Redgraves' take.
I adore Walter Hill, but I don't know how he'll match the demented majesty of Aldrich's film (heightened by Ernest Haller's black-and-white cinematography). Here's what he had to say to The Hollywood Reporter:
“The two equal leads demand great performers – that is a given. The intensity of the gothic storyline makes a reconfiguration of the drama still a potentially searing experience. The idea is to make a modern film without modernizing the period. It needs to resonate the golden age of Hollywood.”
Anything that gets Hill behind the camera is fine by me, but he's got his work cut out for him here. The good news: these are two plum roles for a couple of female movie stars in their fifties. I'd love to see Michelle Pfeiffer take a crack at Baby Jane. Perhaps Debra Winger would make a great Blanche? Lots of intriguing possibilities to consider.
Readers Talkback
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I'd go for Jessica Lange as Jane, and Angelica Huston as Blanche.
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That is gonna be a bit odd, no?
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Sean Young. Wait. She might be TOO crazy.
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....starring kim and kris jenner. you know the studio is looking for some bullshit more along those lines then actually trying to do anything as dark as the original.
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...I thought the same thing. But then I remembered that Adlrich is probably more famous for his macho films(The Dirty Dozen, The Longest Yard etc) than Baby jane. So it's kinda fitting(where's that Extreme Prejudice dvd?), but god, I had hoped that they were moving on to the 80s and 90s remake wise and had hoped that the classics before that era had escaped from the remake factory.
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I miss her.
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July 11, 2012, 6:33 p.m. CST
Love Walter Hill. Don't love this idea though. Give me Streets of Fire 2 dammit!!!
by Hint_of_Smegma
Some films you just can't beat, and yeah the tv version was indeed very good but it's still not a patch on the original. When you have something that good, even making a really good remake and bringing something new to the table just seems kinda pointless. Give me the later adventures of Tom Cody, Walter!!! I mean I've only been waiting 28 years......
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god damn right we need that movie. all movies without a sledgehammer fight in them are lesser films IMO. <p> never understood how Michael Paré never became a bigger star. between streets and Eddie and the cruisers the guy should have been a HUGE star.
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July 11, 2012, 7:09 p.m. CST
Is there a release date for the film Hill did with Stallone?
by Powers Boothe
Walter Hill (48 HRS, Streets of Fire, The Driver, Hard Times, The Warriors, The Long Riders) was a God to me as a teenage film fan. I'm praying the film he recently directed for Stallone isn't a dud.
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I cannot make this stuff up. I think it's on Netflix.
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Always though when they got older that they could pull this off. And just like Crawford and Davis, they've always has a love/hate relationship for one another over the years..
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Would be the perfect casting.
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Pare' still looks like can kick some ass. He's only 53.
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I think that the property is ripe for a remake, and I'm thrilled that they won't modernize it. The TV version was horrible, horrible. Interesting tidbit.....in the classic film, the teenaged neighbor was played by none other than Bette Davis's horrid daughter B.D., currently a whacko "preacher", of sorts.
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Sharon Stone crossed my mind, as well. The script requires scenery chewing, a plus. Another fun note about the classic......Bette Davis was nominated for Best Actress.....Ann Bancroft won for "The Miracle Worker", and had JOAN CRAWFORD accept for her, in her absence. Man, those ladies hated each other.....Crawford was originally in the following "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte", until Davis pushed her out. (Original title: "Whatever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?")
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July 11, 2012, 7:40 p.m. CST
@powers boothe, the Stallone film "Bullet to the Head" has a new release date of Feb. 1, 2013.
by IronEagle74
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July 11, 2012, 7:42 p.m. CST
This could be one fuckin amazing comeback for lots of great ones:
by eloy
Debra Winger, Holly Hunter, Michelle Pfeifer, Angelica Houston, Jessica Lange, Beverly D'angelo, Sigourney Weaver, Jamie Lee Curtis. Alas, the studio didn´t let Hill cast an all-black Warriors gang and now it´ll force him to go with "washed-out former stars" Catherine Zeta Jones and Charlize Theron
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July 11, 2012, 7:49 p.m. CST
Interesting. Wish Walter Hill would've done just one rewrite pass of the Prometheus script...
by Squinty CGI Flynn
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It was a hybrid of "Baby Jane" and "Hush, Hush..."
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I could see that.....
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Meryl Streep and Glenn Close. But which one for which role?
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It's called Road To Hell. It's not made by Walter Hill though, but it is made by Albert Pyun. I'm not sure if they officially can call it a sequel due to rights issues, but it is clearly meant to be. It's not at all what I would think a Streets of Fire sequel would look like. Not really interested in it myself, but it does exist.
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What a stupid idea!
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...so why bother? WEHTBB is a classic in every sense of the word and Bette Davis's performance is one for the ages. Blasphemy, i say.
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I've probably watched it thirty times :)
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July 11, 2012, 8:23 p.m. CST
I recently read that Hill turned down the chance to direct the 1979 Alien
by Powers Boothe
Hill's first and only science fiction film was titled Supernova. The studio wasn't happy with it so Hill took his name off of it and Frances Ford Coppola was brought in to recut it.
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At least that's a movie that can be improved upon.
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People, remakes have been around since the silent era. Stop your bitching.
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Sorry. In their prime, they were giants. Today, ugh...
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Weren't the Gramercy Riffs an all black gang?
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The members of The Warriors in Sol Yurick's 1965 novel were all black. The gang's members were black, white and hispanic in the 1979 film version.
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July 11, 2012, 9:46 p.m. CST
The studio weren't comfortable with The Warriors being an all black gang for the film version
by Powers Boothe
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. . . didn't realize he was only talking about the Warriors' gang. Thought he meant in the entire movie . . .
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July 11, 2012, 10:49 p.m. CST
In the book version they're calling the Coney Island Dominators
by Powers Boothe
I think I recall reading that Sol wasn't too happy with the changes made to his story for the film version. His book is far more brutal and sociopolitical.
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July 11, 2012, 11:37 p.m. CST
So annoying that this site doesn't have an EDIT feature. Excuse my earlier typo :)
by Powers Boothe
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July 12, 2012, 12:38 a.m. CST
Magicmikassa - Pyun's fanfic excressance is NOT a sequel.
by Hint_of_Smegma
He wants it to be. He even conned two of the actors from SoF to be in it. But it is such a bad bit of filmmaking, so unintentionally disrespectful to SoF that it simply can't be considered a genuine sequel. It's horrifying that it exists at all.
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The guys awesome still and a later life Tom Cody story has tina of potential. Just wish Hill would get back to it and bring us the two sequels he originally wanted to.
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July 12, 2012, 1:30 a.m. CST
It's 2012 and you're still using words like "crippled" in that context, Beaks?
by beamish13
What the hell is wrong with you?
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one of his very best films, the nuclear anxiety/political thriller TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING starring Burt Lancaster has been restored and is going to get an official DVD/Blu release soon.
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CUZ THIS SHIT IS GONNA SUCK ASS SO GIVE ME SOMETHING TO LOOK AT FOR 2 HOURS
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Book it. Done.
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Baby Jane, now, that´s a perfect movie. Aldrich was badass.
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In both roles... !
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July 12, 2012, 8:29 a.m. CST
Come on folks, the PSYCHO remake was awesome right? Right?
by chifforobe
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July 12, 2012, 11:47 a.m. CST
I always have thought of "Southern Comfort" as a horror film anyway.
by ChaunceyGardiner
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I've never seen any version way before my time. So I really don't have an opinion on it. But you know this is Meryl Streep oscar bait all over it.
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Did that even make it to VHS?
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