Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

How are these for bad ideas?

  • A serial rapist wins the lottery and uses his fortune to hilariously taunt his victims.

  • Old women are recruited by an international conspiracy of embroiderers to create the perfect embroidery pattern.

  • A young boy becomes fascinated by the motion in a mud puddle.

  • A teenage girl, yearning to escape from her very strict parents, learns that everything she really needs is right at home.

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

I wouldn't greenlight any of those based on those lines alone, but it's possible that the right director with the right team could pull those off.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

That last one needs a little something.   Wait, I got it - talking animals!

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

The first one is rather close to the later Saw movies. The second is Wanted, loom and all. The third is my biopic, and the fourth is my sister's.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

You people. You and Tim Burton....

facepalm

HOLDEN! Why is there no : facepalm : image?!

EDIT: Whoa. Sweet.
pimp

Last edited by Zarban (2011-09-22 17:10:37)

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

Metropolis.

I just think it would be neat.

Hey, look at these tracks! I think I'll put this thread onto them.

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Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

There's a couple interesting things about remakes of old. One, they were often done when technology changed, as once there was sound nobody was going to watch the silent Ben Hur. Two, they were also done because nobody was ever going to see the original again. Pre-TV, let alone home video, you could make a living just redoing the same film every decade and nobody would notice. Third... they often wouldn't tell you it was a remake! Would someone go to your awesome new version of Biodome? No. But, if you call it something else and give the original writers a "based on a story by" credit, your movie will probably get a fair airing.

As for what should be remade... The Longest Day, and probably A Bridge Too Far despite my affection for that film. Go back to the books, keep the historical accuracy and see what you can do with them.

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

Thought for Teague: Avatar.

Go.

ZangrethorDigital.ca

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

Huh?

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

Avatar is essentially the epitome of what you're describing. A reinvisioning of a classic story (Pocahontas) as something new.

Explain yourself.

ZangrethorDigital.ca

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

What am I explaining?

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

You're going after a straw man here, maul. If you listen to a shortly pre-AVATAR commentary -- I believe it was GHOSTBUSTERS 2 -- we all go on record as not caring a whit that AVATAR even from the trailers looked like POCAHONTAS with blue kitties. In fact, we defended it specifically on the grounds that there's nothing wrong with retelling a classic story in a new way. That's not the problem any of us have with AVATAR, the problem is that it's superficial and dull once you look past the eye candy.

Just because he likes the idea of a remake/retelling doesn't mean that he has to like every movie that does it. You're trying to nail him on an inconsistency in his position that doesn't exist.

EDIT: Also, Zarban, the first idea you mention could make a fine dark comedy/social satire a la AMERICAN PSYCHO. It wouldn't work as a wacky, lighthearted romp, but my whole point is that the success of an idea hinges on execution.

The other three are undeveloped, is all. The old ladies have to make the perfect embroidery pattern... in order to...? Figure out a decent ending to that sentence and you've got a solid movie (or don't, and you've got WANTED). Swap "plastic bag" for "mud puddle" and you're on your way to developing AMERICAN BEAUTY. Swap "monotonous rural life" for "strict parents" and you've got the broad strokes of WIZARD OF OZ.

Or were you doing that on purpose?

Last edited by Dorkman (2011-09-22 07:43:22)

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Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

Idiocracy

and call it Futurama.

Last edited by otero (2011-09-22 09:48:59)

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

Dorkman wrote:

Also, Zarban...

Sure, change the bad ideas into good ideas, and you can make a good movie. So what? Why not start with a good idea?

"Robot Pinocchio" is a crummy and worn-out idea. Layer it with relatable themes and meaning, lavish special effects, directorial talent, and good acting, and you could make a good movie. So what? It's still a bad idea.

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

Zarban wrote:

HOLDEN! Why is there no : facepalm : image?!


Wow, I kinda dropped the ball there.

facepalm

"Most people don't even know what sysadmins do, but trust me, if they all took a lunch break at the same time they wouldn't make it to the deli before you ran out of bullets protecting your canned goods from roving bands of mutants."

-- http://stilldrinking.org/programming-sucks

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

How is 'Robot Pinnochio' a crummy and worn-out idea? The Pinnochio story is a charming tale and robotics are an obvious modern twist on the formula - where else has it been done aside from AI that makes the concept worn out?

You could make compelling stories from all of those ideas, or at least using these ideas in combination with other ideas.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

Every robot story is either Pinocchio or RUR.

EDIT: Here are a few Pinocchios...

  • Data from ST:TNG

  • Bicentennial Man

  • Johnny 5 from Short Circuit

  • Edward Scissorhands

  • Surrogates (of course)

Last edited by Zarban (2011-09-22 17:36:46)

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

I would love a story where man creates an artificial life, and instead of being a Pinnocchio, or a soulless machine who judges man as obsolete, he's just kind of a dick.  Not evil, but not fun to be around and kind of a douchebag.  Stays over longer than the party and doesn't bring chips or beer, never volunteers to drive, hooks up with stupid chicks that he brings over and then gets in an argument at your place.

Man's greatest achievement......is sort of fussy and insufferable.

Eddie Doty

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44

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

I think it was Harlan Ellison who said that he once heard a Hollywood exec suggest remaking The Wiz...with white people.

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

I just realized how many bad remakes we could prevent if somehow we could get Harlan to work on the scripts without a deadline...

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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46

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

You mean, like he's been working on The Last Dangerous Visions without a deadline for about 40 years now?

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

I think that was kinda his point.

ZangrethorDigital.ca

Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

We can get 3D Realms to work on the tie-in games.

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Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

Eddie wrote:

I would love a story where man creates an artificial life, and instead of being a Pinnocchio, or a soulless machine who judges man as obsolete, he's just kind of a dick.  Not evil, but not fun to be around and kind of a douchebag.  Stays over longer than the party and doesn't bring chips or beer, never volunteers to drive, hooks up with stupid chicks that he brings over and then gets in an argument at your place.

Man's greatest achievement......is sort of fussy and insufferable.

I think you've basically just described Bender from Futurama, and Gay Robot (at least the original incarnation on the Adam Sandler album). smile

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Re: Movies that SHOULD be remade/rebooted

Bender brings the party.

Eddie Doty

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