Atrocities Committed in Hollywood.

[benb]

You're spot on there @Cunobelin, the remake of Assault on Precinct 13 bordered on criminal. There are rumours that another Carpenter piece of magic, Escape from New York, is going to be remade. I sincerely hope not.

The project is currently in limbo, but I'd be surprised if it stays dead for long. One to avoid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_New_York#Remake

 

[benb]

That theme tune still sends shivers down my spine by the way. It is truly splendid. Most of Carpenter's tunes are. Dude's a sadly underrated genius.

I think the music and the "sting" in Predator is one of the best examples of that kind of thing ever.

 

[MontyVeda]

Another potential atrocity is on its way.... Fargo; the TV series! Based on the Coen Brothers classic crime thriller from 1996

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26512220

I guess we'll just have to wait and see

 

[AndyRM]

Another potential atrocity is on its way.... Fargo; the TV series! Based on the Coen Brothers classic crime thriller from 1996

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26512220

I guess we'll just have to wait and see

Since they're producers on it, I'd like to think they'll keep a fairly tight reign over proceedings. They've done some right sh!te in recent years though so I could be wrong.

 

[MontyVeda]

Since they're producers on it, I'd like to think they'll keep a fairly tight reign over proceedings. They've done some right sh!te in recent years though so I could be wrong.

tell me about it.... after watching Fargo, Oh Brother, The Man Who Wasn't There and Big Labowski, I felt they could do no wrong. After hunting down their older films and eagerly anticipating their new ones, I've found nothing but 'average', 'below average' and 'utter sh!te'. Guess they just had a couple of glory years.

 

[benb]

The Big Lebowski is sublime. As near a perfect example of cinema you couldn't hope to find.

 

[AndyRM]

tell me about it.... after watching Fargo, Oh Brother, The Man Who Wasn't There and Big Labowski, I felt they could do no wrong. After hunting down their older films and eagerly anticipating their new ones, I've found nothing but 'average', 'below average' and 'utter sh!te'. Guess they just had a couple of glory years.

I'd add in Blood Simple and True Grit as well, but I know what you mean.

I could watch The Big Lebowski and nothing else for the rest of my life.

 

[andyfraser]

Here are my ramblings based on what's been mentioned so far.

No one's mentioned The Fly yet. The original is watchable but Cronenberg's remake is excellent.

On the subject of Evil Dead II being a remake of The Evil Dead, from IMDb:
Often considered to be a remake of The Evil Dead (1981); however, this is not accurate. The rights to show scenes from the original could not be obtained to re-cap what happened, so the beginning was remade to explain how Ash got to the cabin, etc. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092991/trivia?item=tr0723113

The Thing from 2011 was a prequel rather than a remake of Carpenter's 1982 The Thing.

I quite like the term "reboot". I use it to mean a film based on an existing franchise with no connection to the originals and with a mostly new story. I use "remake" to mean a retelling of an existing story.

 

[AndyRM]

The Thing from 2011 was a prequel rather than a remake of Carpenter's 1982 The Thing.

Yeah I've seen that said, but after I watched it the ending (which is Carpenters beginning) seemed like a member of the team had pointed out they were supposed to be making a prequel.

Probably not quite an atrocity, as the modern versions are hardly classics, but redoing Spider-Man without Toby MacGuire seemed like a pointlessly expensive exercise.

 

[benb]

Probably not quite an atrocity, as the modern versions are hardly classics, but redoing Spider-Man without Toby MacGuire seemed like a pointlessly expensive exercise.

Any who thought it was a good idea to cast Andy Murray as Spidey?

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

That's got be photoshopped... Andy Murray is smiling...

 

[andyfraser]

Yeah I've seen that said, but after I watched it the ending (which is Carpenters beginning) seemed like a member of the team had pointed out they were supposed to be making a prequel.

I think the problem with The Thing (2011) was they took the basic idea of what happened to the Norwegians but gave themselves a checklist of things that had to be in it from The Thing (1982) to keep the fans happy. That never seems to work.

 

[AndyRM]

I think the problem with The Thing (2011) was they took the basic idea of what happened to the Norwegians but gave themselves a checklist of things that had to be in it from The Thing (1982) to keep the fans happy. That never seems to work.

Agreed, although I quite like a subtle nod to an original. There were a couple of really neat ones in Evil Dead.

 

[andyfraser]

Agreed, although I quite like a subtle nod to an original. There were a couple of really neat ones in Evil Dead.

There were. There were a couple in the new Robocop too. I actually liked the new Robocop. It was a nice idea, different enough from the original that I could enjoy both. The ending was far worse though and overall the original is better but then I'm old enough to remember seeing it when it first came out. Some of my younger colleagues hate the original saying it looks old.

 

[MontyVeda]

...

No one's mentioned The Fly yet. The original is watchable but Cronenberg's remake is excellent.

....

Whilst Cronenburg's Fly has a very healthy SFX budget, it looses out to the original because they dropped this bit...