WHY IS HOLLYWOOD SO HOOKED ON REMAKES?
A long list of Eighties movies are being revamped
BIG HAIR, bigger shoulders and cellphones the size of a breeze block – who’d want to to turn the clock back a couple of generations?
Hollywood, that’s who. The film industry is suddenly obsessed with remaking the classics that enthralled our parents and grandparents.
Guy Ritchie’s movie version of the 1960s hit TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., starring Henry Cavill as superspy Napoleon Solo, is out now, and just about every box-office smash of the 1980s, whether thriller, chiller or comedy, is ripe for revisiting.
This year has already seen the release of Mad Max: Fury Road and Terminator: Genisys, both spin-offs from archetypal Eighties blockbusters.
And there’s much more to come. Chris Columbus, who wrote the original Gremlins movie and, three decades on, is directing its reinvention, believes he has identified what makes remakes so successful: “They touch into that emotional connection we have with our past.”
In other words, we loved these films once and we’re ready to love them all over again.
One of the most important factors is a guest appearance by an original star. A remake feels almost like a rip-off without the stamp of approval an elderly A-lister can bring. Witness the excitement earlier this year when Harrison Ford as Han Solo and sidekick Chewbacca turned up in the trailer for the reboot of 1977’s Star Wars.
But it’s the Eighties and early Nineties that exert maximum fascination – partly because the teen audiences of that era generally have teenagers of their own now, making these films into family events.
The irony is that 30 years ago, nobody with any self-respect made sequels or remakes… or paid to see them.
But in the past decade, 90 percent of the most popular films have been based on earlier movies, comic books or novels. It seems no one in Hollywood now has an original notion in their heads.
Good job there are so many great ideas to be plundered from the past. – Daily Mail