As I've noted grumpily many times, I'm not much for sequels or franchises. On and freaking on. Off hand the only sequel I can think of that was possibly good as the original was the second Invasion of The Body Snatchers. In that case Phil Kaufman was bright enough to use his film as a commentary on the decade it was being filmed in. Witty and wise as a social document. (Jeff Goldblum reading Velikovsky in the mud bath; Leonard Nimoy as the pop prince shrink inveighing everybody to be a sociopath like him.) And making it one of the finest suspense films of its time.
But as we all know, the world doesn't seem to give much of a damn about what Ed Gorman of Cedar Rapids, Ioway thinks about anything. It goes right on rubbing its greasy hand in Ed's face. (Enough of the third person; it's getting weird.)
To wit from Variety today:
New Line sets up new 'Nightmare'
Freddy Krueger returns to theaters
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form have been set by New Line to re-launch Freddy Krueger, the iconic psycho who haunts the subconscious dreams of teenagers and kills them in their sleep.
The trio will create a new franchise based on "A Nightmare Before Elm Street," the 1984 Wes Craven film.
Originally played by Robert Englund, Krueger haunted nine films and two TV series, and was New Line's most lucrative franchise until "The Lord of the Rings."
The deal comes as Bay, Fuller and Form ready for an April start for "Friday the 13th," a New Line re-launch of another iconic baddie, Jason Voorhees. "Cloverfield" star Odette Yustman has just been set to star, and Marcus Nispel will direct a script by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift ("Freddy Vs. Jason").
(more)
Platinum Dunes is busy. At Rogue Pictures, the producers are prepping an untitled David Goyer-directed exorcism thriller, and a "Near Dark" remake that will be directed by Samuel Bayer. Bay, Fuller and Form are also developing a Universal remake of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds," with Martin Campbell directing Naomi Watts.
Ed here:
Holy shit, Batman. They really DON'T care what I think, do they?
I recently read a James Reasoner story in which a movie reviewer for a small-town newspaper complains, "They're all sequels and remakes!"
ReplyDeleteI checked the publication year: 1980.
The only other sequel I can recall that approached the original was Godfather II. And. of course, they didn't have the good sense to stop there either.
ReplyDeleteEd,
ReplyDeleteI take from your comment that you DO like remakes, but not sequels and franchises.
RJR
Wy can they remake movies but we can't rewrite books?
ReplyDeleteWell, Cap'n, Greg Benford and some others do rewrite their books (leaving aside those folks who write the same book over and over). And then there's the difference between making four different adaptations of a good novel, THE BODY SNATCHERS, and relaunching a piece of offal franchise like NIGHTMARE ON BORE YAWN. As for sequels which are better...arguably BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN...even more arguably DRACULA'S DAUGHTER (it helps that the Browning version [koff] of DRACULA really does kinda suck, despite Lugosi emoting for the ages, and the armadillos)...DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN...the second Burton-directed Batman film...BEFORE SUNSET...this kind of thing tends to happen from time to time.
ReplyDelete