[Editor’s Note: Please join me in giving a warm welcome to new columnist Rob Thompson! Rob will be bringing his unique geeky outlook to Pop Culture Zoo on a regular basis. You can subscribe to this column right now to know when new columns get published. Take it away Rob!]
THE REBOOT GENERATION
No, I’m not talking about the quirky Canadian CGI adventure series of the same name, but that series had a lot of what we are lacking today. Originality. This is something of a dying trait in the big ol’ land of Hollywood. A best loved classic, is brought up to the modern day with a new cast and sometimes new values.
Recently we have been being bombarded with news items that contain one word that can make the world groan; ‘Reboot’. “…in talks for rebooting..” “…on course for a reboot…” “…looking at rebooting the franchise…”
I’m quite against the reboot scenario where re-making a film is for no good reason other than to shoehorn whoever is popular into the cast and to update the story to a modern setting. But, I enjoyed the Dawn of the Dead remake, but I just wish they would have lied and called it something like “Zombie Mall Panic” so I can stop feeling like a damn hypocrite. It was good for what it was and not even an touch on the original, it was just a good zombie movie, I’m a sucker for that I’ll have you know. Along with Will Smith’s The Karate Kid, the re-imagining of the 1984 classic of the same name. This was enjoyable because it had the same ‘family values’ as the original with the underdog tale really shining through. I didn’t expect to like it, he was at least 6-7 years younger and it was obvious it was marketed to a younger audience than the original.
Will Smith also plans to remake Annie. His daughter Willow will be playing the title role. Jay-Z will be in toe for production and Big Willy rumoured to be cast as the fat-cat with a heart, Mr Warbucks.
As you well know, reboots don’t just come in the form of a feature film with an updated cast. They have long sought out our golden oldies and invaded our television sets, to name a recent arrival, V. That had a massive launch campaign and it seems to be picking up the pace fairly well. With a not too slow story to boot.
Last year we were treated to a reboot of 1980s alien-based miniseries V starring Elizabeth Mitchell from Lost. This year saw the stateside debut of a Hawaii Five-0 remake starring Daniel Dae Kim from Lost and this summer it was reported that a retooled version of The Rockford Files was also close to signing Josh Holloway from Lost in the James Garner role. That’s not to mention 2008’s short-lived Knight Rider revival and 2009’s equally brief Melrose Place reboot – both of which were notable for their complete failure to cast anyone from Lost.
I found a massive list of movies from March 2010, that were in varying stages of production at the time of writing. Some already released. Scrolling through this list, I’m reminded how much better movies were in the 80s. We are just rolling over the last 30 years of content, and if we are not careful, we won’t have anything to reboot but the reboots. Which is kind of already starting to happen… Namely Superman, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. Oh help! HELP!
There are a couple of these that I want to see just to see how far they change them up and if they end up being as the fans predict, better left.
I’m a little uneasy with the reboot of Battle Royale, it is very violent and I can’t help but think half of the violence will be ripped out of this for fear of the dreaded R Rating. Word on the film-vine is that this will be releasing sometime 2011, but with little or no details on actual castings or writers, this might be a victory for the cult fan base.
Not happy with the reboot of Drop Dead Fred with Russell Brand’s involvement. Yeah bite me. Doesn’t need to be remade and bad choice casting Brand. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind Brand. Pet Sematary seems like an odd choice for a reboot, and this has seen its share of problems, with not getting off the ground since 2006. Reportedly, the writer for 1408, Matthew Greenberg, will be resurrecting this script. It might stay buried, because it’s now showing up as a 2012 release.
But with such a long varied list, there has to be something that is going to get the inner geek all excited. So as above, not all reboots are abominations. Hopefully these won’t get lost down the back of the cinema seat, with the old popcorn.
And up comes Childs Play, Arthur, Flash Gordon, F/X. Please don’t mess these up! There is bound to be the turkeys and the box office winners. We’ll see as the year rolls on. But I’ll stick by my loose thought of putting the money into original projects rather than waving that safety net around.
What film would you reboot or erase and send to the bowels of filmdom? Tweet me at @iRobotZombie