Fantasy Hollywood: Your Remake

iMax

Although we may not like them, Hollywood has a habit of doing it, so given a $100m budget, which film would you remake & why. Please state Primary actors & Director & any plot changes you might make. Linking to the IMDB of the original where possible.

My own would be "A Matter Of Life & Death" aka "Stairway To Heaven" (Sacrilege, I know).

Obviously this is an American financed movie so the lead becomes an American by default & the location is updated to Iraq.

The David Niven role of Peter Carter would be played by Jake Gyllenhaal. I think he has the gravitas to play the role, he's capable of carrying this part and he also has a huge following.

The Kim Hunter role of June would go to Lisa Faulkner. Although primarily a TV actress, this is fantasy, so I'm making this her breakthrough big screen performance. I'd like to have her in the role as I think she could carry off the class that Kim Hunter brought to the original, while not being the "same character". I also want to reverse the nationality of the leads for reasons mentioned above. She's also the spitting image of my missus so I have a bit of a thing for her.

Dr. Frank Reeves/Judge (name change to Dr. Faria Riya) would be played by Frieda Pinto. A fine actress, I also want to bring some multiculturism into the cast. This is a pivitol role in the film & it requires someone a little bit older, but we're playing for a younger audience.

Finally, The Conductor - this is a tough role to cast, Ideally I'd like to bring in someone a little edgier to the role but capable of carrying a comedic element. For this reason I chose Jeffrey Tambor. A fine comedic actor, but there's something about the timber of his voice that makes you unsure of exactly what he's going to say/do next.

To Direct, ideally I'd like someone known for being able to direct a drama with an element of action, able to hold an audience gripped from one scene to the next, for this I choose Clint Eastwood, who could also play the role of Abraham Farlan.

mike65

If I could reach through space and kill you, I would.

loung lit

I would remake the star wars Prequels. First I would change the whole feel of the movie from a made for the largest demographic possible, to a very dark tale of how some one can seemingly turn evil but is doing it for what he thinks is right and something the audience could agree with. The next of a great many things I would change is make the reveal of the emperor at the START of order 66 and before that make it a guessing game.
Director; if its not possible for me to do it then Ridley Scott or Christopher Nolan (character directors)and not that bloated jack ass. Grate screen writer bad director.
Cinematography: would be more menacing .there’s nothing I could compare it to except if you will entertain the notion of combining the realistic nitty gritty yet realistic look of the first alien movie with the more colourful and fantastical look of Armageddon .
Theres not much I would do to the cast except every star wars fans point of contention Anakin. Maybe Leonardo DeCaprio , Heath Ledger or Matt Damon when they were that age. You know what I mean. someone who could convey what I thought should have been a very complex character and should have dominated the screen.
Just a fraction of what I would do. The way things go in Hollywood who knows they might remake the whole thing some day.

tman

If I had the power, I'd stop the ****ers from remaking, rebooting and re-anythinging a film ever again!
I'm sick to ****ing death of this ****!!!!

Total Recall remake? Bladerunner sequel???? THE THING REMAKE??!?!?!?!?!?
Just leave my fond memories alone you bastards!

Phony Scott

tman wrote: »

THE THING REMAKE??!?!?!?!?!?

I have very fond memories of the 1982 REMAKE of The Thing. :P

If I had to do a remake, it would have to be something which never worked previously. In this case I re-adapt a childhood favourite which never quite worked out, namely the tv show The Tripods.

I believe a film adaptation is in the works with Alex Proyas to direct and I'd be very happy with him taking on the film. I love Dark City, The Crow and even thought The Knowing was fairly dismissed by nearly everyone. The less said about his interpretation of I-robot (shudder) the better.

Who to cast as the three children in the film? Well the process would be the same as Harry Potter, so unknowns would be the order of the day. It would also be nice to see one of the main three characters as a girl. The book is firmly a male dominated piece, but times have changed drastically since it was written in 1968 and I'm sure the author would accept that. Also it would be nice to see a proper international cast. I have no issues with the main character of Will being English and Beanpole staying French, but Henry would have to be different, maybe German.

After this, I don't know, I'd need to think about it a bit more, but there are huge issues to resolve with this film, namely the over familiarity of the story to The War of The Worlds and Lord of The Rings, but I'll come up with something...

DrumSteve

Phony Scott wrote: »

I have very fond memories of the 1982 REMAKE of The Thing. :P

If I had to do a remake, it would have to be something which never worked previously. In this case I re-adapt a childhood favourite which never quite worked out, namely the tv show The Tripods.

I believe a film adaptation is in the works with Alex Proyas to direct and I'd be very happy with him taking on the film. I love Dark City, The Crow and even thought The Knowing was fairly dismissed by nearly everyone. The less said about his interpretation of I-robot (shudder) the better.

Who to cast as the three children in the film? Well the process would be the same as Harry Potter, so unknowns would be the order of the day. It would also be nice to see one of the main three characters as a girl. The book is firmly a male dominated piece, but times have changed drastically since it was written in 1968 and I'm sure the author would accept that. Also it would be nice to see a proper international cast. I have no issues with the main character of Will being English and Beanpole staying French, but Henry would have to be different, maybe German.

After this, I don't know, I'd need to think about it a bit more, but there are huge issues to resolve with this film, namely the over familiarity of the story to The War of The Worlds and Lord of The Rings, but I'll come up with something...

I took some grim satifactin laughing while Nicolas Cage cried while his career died at the end of that film.

They just robbed the ending from that play that Joey did in Friends where went home to his alien planet.

Surly

I'd let I Am Legend finally get the film adaptation it deserves.

It's a great book, I don't see the reason why people need to mess with it so much when putting it up on screen.

Aronofsky would be perfect to direct, Viggo Mortensen in the lead, Jennifer Lawrence as the girl, and get that mutt who played Punchy in Rocky Balboa as the dog.

pixelburp

tman wrote: »

[...]
Total Recall remake? Bladerunner sequel???? THE THING REMAKE??!?!?!?!?!?
Just leave my fond memories alone you bastards!

I hate being the pedant, but the new Thing movie is actually a prequel, not a remake. It still constitutes a cynical mining of nostalgia, but to be fair they're being quite canny about it (charting the events of the Norwegian Base from the first film)

bnt

If a film has any kind of following in its original form, I'd be very loath to remake it.

So, I wonder what would happen if someone tried to remake King Frat? I saw this film at a young age - a much-too-young age, since it was X-rated, and I was about 10! As you can imagine, I didn't understand 90% of what I was watching - the fart jokes and not much else - and when I remembered it years later, I wasn't sure whether it really existed or whether it was some weird teenage dream I'd had.



Anyone got the Farrelly Brothers' number?

mrgardener

Surly wrote: »

I'd let I Am Legend finally get the film adaptation it deserves.

It's a great book, I don't see the reason why people need to mess with it so much when putting it up on screen.

Aronofsky would be perfect to direct, Viggo Mortensen in the lead, Jennifer Lawrence as the girl, and get that mutt who played Punchy in Rocky Balboa as the dog.

Stole the show!

Hank_Jones

21 (aka Bringing Down the House) as it was meant to be in the book.

With a group of geeky Asian kids, as opposed to the white cast that they got in to do it.

Was a really fantastic book, can't believe how badly they made it look on screen.

Also, Mannequin. :pac:

krudler

tman wrote: »

If I had the power, I'd stop the ****ers from remaking, rebooting and re-anythinging a film ever again!
I'm sick to ****ing death of this ****!!!!

Total Recall remake? Bladerunner sequel???? THE THING REMAKE??!?!?!?!?!?
Just leave my fond memories alone you bastards!

The Thing is a remake itself :pac: so is The Fly, so theres nothing wrong with a remake if its done well.

I agree about the Star Wars prequels. Start when Anakin is in his 20's and already training to be a jedi. and have him already conflicted about the dark side, not just decide to turn in the space of one conversation like in ROTS. And sets, actual sets like in the original, with cgi touch ups, not all green or blue screens like in the current ones. One of the biggest problems with the prequels is how clinical they all look, the actors look utterly bored in most of the scenes and they have nothing to work with aside from godawful dialogue.

Sad Professor

I really think the Star Wars prequels were built on a fundamentally flawed concept: that a good man would turn bad and then turn good again. I mean, Lucas basically hand waved why Vader turned back at the end of Jedi and then had the nerve to show him standing alongside Obi-Wan and Yoda in Jedi heaven as if everything he did was forgiven.

I don't think any amount of remaking would have fixed what was a mistake in first place. When I first saw Empire I always assumed that Anakin was a pretty bad dude to begin with and that Obi-Wan just bald-face lied to Luke in the first film. Even if he was once good, once he turned that should have been it for him.

As for a film that I would remake. Well, I've got a potentially controversial one: Scarface, the 1983 version. That would make it a remake of a remake. I love Stone's script, but I hate the way De Palma directed it. I think he totally f**ked up one of the finest scripts of the decade. The film needed to be made by someone who used real locations instead of all the fake looking sets, rear projection and crappy 1950s cinematography. And it needed to be shot in Miami, not what is obviously Los Angeles. Friedkin, Mann or even Stone himself would have done a better job with it.

ziedth

Actually a good idea for a thread:

Star wars I-III even though has been mentioned I would also pick. I'd have some major changes:

Have Anakin a teenager when introduced but a total badass.

I would have never killed off Darth Maul in Episode I I'd have him replace
Christopher Lee and just have him kick this **** out of everyone twice and then Anakin make a fool of him in Sith showing how hard he had become.

Like was mentioned I'd change the whole feel of the first two to more like Sith.

Goes without saying but all slapstick humor and Jar Jar would be gone.

I didn't like how he turned at all, inthibk it should have been a gradual thing throughout the trilogy that you'd barely notice.

That's it really. Second choice would be I am legend.

Playboy

DrumSteve wrote: »

I took some grim satifactin laughing while Nicolas Cage cried while his career died at the end of that film.

Didnt he play Bad Lieutenant for Herzog after that movie and it was once of his best ever performances?

Playboy

The remake thing has been argued on here so many times. I have no problem with them myself .. its not like the original movie is tainted or cant be watched because its remade. There has been plenty of good remakes over the years. Sometimes classic movies can be improved on today with technology etc. If you dont want to see it then just dont watch it... I fail to see how its a problem for people.

Personally I'd be interested in seeing Suspiria remade with maybe David Michôd directing.

jaykhunter

Playboy wrote: »

its not like the original movie is tainted or cant be watched because its remade. [...] If you dont want to see it then just dont watch it... I fail to see how its a problem for people.

I couldn't agree more. Your childhood memories are still intact. As Mr. Plinkett put it "George Lucas didn't ruin my childhood, f**king polio did!" :pac:
If anything it promotes awareness of the original movie, like I never would've watched Ringu if it wasn't for the exceptional 2002 US remake.

As for a film that could do with a remake...
I really like Dial M for Murder. I think that could be redone very well. Especially if Chris Nolan did it. I love that guy. I couldn't agree more with a proper interpretation of I Am Legend. Fantastic premise, weak execution in all of the films. I would like another Predator film but with the cast of the Expendables. 80s Action Icons unite! I think there's a new Jurassic Park coming out, that'd be pretty cool. They'd better use high quality massive animatronics

I wouldn't bother remaking the Star Wars Prequels, I'd rather they just made new films. Even if they could be remade much better (except for the 3rd, I really love that film)

DrumSteve

I'd like to see the Money Pit remade...

The original was a fantastic film but I'd like to see a modern version of it.

the whole year inn

DrumSteve wrote: »

I'd like to see the Money Pit remade...

The original was a fantastic film but I'd like to see a modern version of it.

Nice,who would play Tom Hanks?

What about BIG?

L31mr0d

I think Hollywood should remake "Primer". Have Dwayne Johnson as Aaron and, maybe Stallone as Abe.

In the remake they could also sort out the mess of time travel that was in this film, and do it scientifically correct.

Also, that actor that had to keep wearing an ear piece? It was really distracting. Hopefully they could remove that in the remake.