Hollywood let me vent my anger!!!

[lucindamcnary]

I have wondered the same thing many times. I am a voracious reader and of course there are so many books out there that would make wonderful movies or TV shows but year after year we see the same thing repeated and repeated. That is one of the reasons I started writing my own stories and then making my own movies. I was BORED! Maybe they don't know how else to make movies but make remakes of old movies. Who knows. Theaters, when we do go, seem really empty.

But the independent filmmakers are out here and posting on the internet and I see a lot of good movies that are original and new. So if Hollywood doesn't catch on, I don't really care that much. I am not looking for a job. I just want to keep making movies and get people to watch and enjoy them.

 

[Haz]

Well considering the Director of Rocky and Karate Kid is one and the same (John G. Avildsen), I'd say the similarities are pretty clear, while it wouldn't "technically" be a remake.

It looks like the guy hit it big with Rocky, but the next 10 years has only a few projects, one of which being about some teacher who dates a student in a strip club called "Heaven"... so I guess he figured a return to form(ula) would fix his career... and it did, wahoo.

2 Karate Kid sequels later he did Rocky V in 90.... hmmm...

But sequels are a different story altogether- if a character has more life in him/her than in the movie, sure, throw a sequel up there.

Remakes, it depends. I don't mind remakes when they're GOOD. I mean, technically if anyone makes a book into a film, they are REMAKING the story. Hell, if you turn a SCREENPLAY into a movie, you're REMAKING it.

If you gave the exact same script to 10 different directors, chances are you'll get 10 completely different projects... don't' believe me? Check out last years IndieTalk Script to Screen Challenge... Nick and I made a script that was made by 3 different groups, and it's amazing to see where everybody differed on what points, etc.... the only thing separating those 3 movies from becoming labeled "remakes" is that they were made at the same time.

So really, a remake should be either called "an update" or a "reinterpretation". If it's an update, obviously someone thought "hey, i love this story, but it doesn't really apply to modern society" and then they go and 'remake' the story to tell it with modern devices to a modern audience. If it's a reinterpretation, it's someone out there going "holy moly that story really inspires me, but man, if I had done it, I would have done this, that, this, that and thus" and then doing it.

So I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, but if the original turns out "worse" than the original, it's really up to the perspective of the eye of the beholder. I never saw the 1960's movie of the "Andromeda Strain", but I have seen the recent TV movie and I can tell you, it's alright until it falls apart in the last 10 minutes of the film... but if I had seen the original, I probably would have hated it at the 20 minute mark.

Either way, I think the motive of "why" something is remade is important. If it's for money, then PAH, I could care less... but Will Smith remaking the karate kid with his son seems like a more noble reason than money, so whatever...

Great post, this is very much how I feel. Some remakes are often considered superior to the original, The Wizard of Oz, The Fly, etc

Remakes can be a waste of space, but I try not to let it affect the legacy the original film left. Regardless, I dread hearing about future remakes of films such as Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycat Kill Kill and Herzog's Fitzcarraldo which I feel don't need anyone elses hand affecting them.

 

[Ron Wall]

I saw a trailer for the upcoming remake of Friday The 13th last Friday. It looks terrible, and I probably won't be seeing it, because I know the "big twist". That was the best part of the movie, finding out who the killer actually was, and now? I know.

I think if they do remake Karate Kid, I'll see it, if only to see how well Will Smith's son can act. I still haven't seen The Pursuit of Happiness, but Karate Kid was (and still is) one of my favorite movies from my childhood.

 

[AdamWoods]

The problem is the industry. There is money involved. They know that The Dukes of Hazzard will sell X amount of tickets, and don't want to take a risk on something original.

 

[spinner]

The problem is the industry. There is money involved. They know that The Dukes of Hazzard will sell X amount of tickets, and don't want to take a risk on something original.

...which is all the reasoning necessary for there to be an independent film movement


-- spinner

 

[knightly]

The problem is that it costs money to make films. If you can make that go away, there will be no need for the studios to expect them to make money back ... investors and shareholders (the people who provide the money to make the films in the first place) expect ROI (Return On Investment).. so studios provide that.

In the 30's and 40's, the studios cranked out a new movie every week... lots of formulaic movies then too. Nothing has changed.