I was trawling the big Movie Studios websites (Warners, Dreamworks, Fox etc) to discover the latest greenlit films and casting news when I discovered something that has annoyed me somewhat.
Currently in development at the moment at the big studios, not including production companies like Lions Gate who have made about eight Saw movies, just counting the big studios there are about sixty sequels and over twenty remakes or reboot's in development alone.
There is even more in current production and post which leaves me wondering, has Hollywood ran out of originality? When I was younger some of the movies which are getting sequels or remakes would have made me smile but as a 28 year old some of them are a bit puzzling.
For instance do we really need a sequel to Super Troopers or Rounders.? Or a remake of Fright Night or Child's Play? Here's some of the others that are greenlit some good some bad.
SEQUELS
Ghostbuster 3, Underworld 4, Wolverine 2, Bad Boys 3, Wildhogs 2, Hancock 2, Zoolander 2, Terminator 5, Die Hard 5, Scary Movie 5, Hairspray 2, Jumper 2, Enchanted 2, Hangover 2, Iron-man 3, High School Musical 4, Cloverfield 2, Beverly Hills Cop 4, Zombieland 2, Austin Powers 4, I Robot 2, Independence Day 2 & 3, Monster Inc 2, Evil Dead 4 (this I don't mind), Jeepers Creepers 3, Hobbit part 1 & 2, Star Trek 2, Bond 23(possibly), Alien (prequel), Kick Ass 2, Kill Bill 3, Sin City 2 & 3 and so on.
REMAKES/ REBOOTS
Spiderman, Child's Play, Fright Night, Judge Dredd, Hellraiser, Dune, Footloose, Robocop, Superman, Escape from New York, Knight Rider, Airwolf, Logan's Run, Death Wish, Westworld, The Birds, The Warriors, Near Dark, the Dirty Dozen and so on.
Is it just me or a lot of these titles from the eighties and late seventies? And a lot of sequels to Will Smith movies? Look I loved a lot of these titles first time round but some of them were of their time and won't fit in to the modern era of Cinema.
Thanking you
The Housebound Writer
wow, like over half of them leave me going, really? you want another one of that?
ReplyDeleteWhat a terrific post! I totally agree with the overhashing of already superhashed movies that were born over a generation ago! Honestly, my 70 year old mother said, 'Goodness, they must be scraping the barrel to have to redo Nightmare on Elm Street' because she remembered it when it first came out. Seriously!
ReplyDeleteAgain, great post and I hope to go read some more really soon!
Can they make a Kill Bill 3, can they really, I thought Bill had been killed. Needless to say If they want Carradine they're either going to have to hold a séance or pull some staggering CG.
ReplyDeleteLol..good call on the Kill Bill sequel. I mean really.
ReplyDeleteI have a peeve about that as well. Look at the trend. "The Mummy" (yay!). Then "The Mummy Returns" (sequel). Then "The Scorpian King" (prequel). Then "The Mummy 3" <--whatever the title was (the sequel to the sequel). Then "The rise of the Warrior" <-- or w/e (the prequel to the prequel).
Bear with me...
Now we have "Underworld" (yay!). Then "Underworld Revolution" (sequel). Then "Rise of the Lycans" (prequel).
Anyone see a pattern here??
Though I'd love to see Hollywood come out with something original again, I've loved a couple of (fairly) recent reworkings, most notably Tim Burton's reimagining of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
ReplyDeleteEven a frame by frame rehashing of a couple of the listed films would be amazing with enhanced computerized effects (I'm thinking specifically "RoboCop" and "The Birds.")
I *did* really enjoy Tim Burton's C&C Factory. If people are willing to give a film appropriate effort, remakes and sequels/prequels can be quite excellent.
ReplyDeleteIt's not true, of course, but there is a conviction in corporate boardrooms that the best predictor of future performance is past performance.
ReplyDeleteA lot of those old titles weren't very good films. But they made money. Making money is the prime directive.