ENDLESS LOVE FOR THE ’80S
Filmmakers who grew up in the decade are now remaking its movies
Dust off your DeLorean. Like Michael J. Fox in “Back to the Future,” moviegoers will feel like they’ve traveled back in time this week. That’s because no fewer than three remakes of ’80s movies will debut: “RoboCop,” opening Wednesday, and “Endless Love” and “About Last Night,” both arriving Friday.
Also in the works are a big-screen adaptation of “The Equalizer,” set to open Sept. 26, with Denzel Washington in the role made famous on TV by Edward Woodward, and reboots of ’80s favorites like “The Terminator,” “Poltergeist,” “Mad Max” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” arriving this year and next.
If it wasn’t already clear that Hollywood is infatuated with the 1980s, the movie industry is zooming back to the future at 88 miles per hour.
“The executives who are green-lighting projects now are the children of the ’80s and so they’re going to have the nostalgic love for the movies from their youth,” explains original MTV VJ Martha Quinn.
But Quinn is quick to add that the ’80s were also a period of unique pop culture creativity. From big hair and big shoulder pads to big ideas, “the creative expression went to 11, to quote ‘Spinal Tap,’ ” she says.
In the case of Sony’s 2.0 version of “RoboCop,” director José Padilha says we’re living in an era in which the world has finally caught up to 1987 original’s themes.
“That idea of automated machines being used for law enforcement or war has now become real,” says Padilha. “I thought [1987 version director Paul] Verhoeven’s original idea is actually close to happening, so it’s kind of timely to do a remake of ‘RobocCop.’”
Joel Kinnaman stars as the titular police officer. It’s the not-too-far-off year 2028 and he struggles to hold on to his humanity when he’s rebuilt into a cyborg crime-fighter by conglomerate OmniCorp after being critically injured in an attack. This time, RoboCop comes packing shiny CGI special effects instead of the stopmotion animation technique of its predecessor, played by Peter Weller.
“It’s going to happen, man — if you open up the paper, you read about drones every day,” says the 46-year-old Padilha, who first watched the original on VHS in his native Brazil, shortly after its release. “I mean, Amazon wants to deliver a package with a drone and it’s already an issue.”
“Endless Love,” a remake e of the 1981 teen romance that starred Brooke Shields, doesn’t benefit from upgrades in moviemaking g technology like “RoboCop.” But Universal Studios is betting that there’s something timeless in the tale of the privileged but innocent Jade’s (Gabriella Wilde) forbidden love affair with a boy from the wrong side of the tracks (Alex Pettyfer).
“Whether people know the title ‘Endless Love’ or not, you can’t just rely on the older moviegoers looking for that nostalgia factor,” says Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Rentrak. “You’re going to have to look for some crossover with younger audience members that have never heard of the [1981] movie.
“But you can’t pick a better weekend for a movie called ‘Endless Love’ for the uninitiated than Valentine’s Day weekend.”
The 2014 edition of “About Last Night” bears more of fa a resemblance to the original David Mamet play (“Sexual Perversity in Chicago”) than its 1986 predecessor, which starred Rob Lowe and Demi Moore.
But this time around, producer William Packer and director Steve Pink have updated the story for 21st century audiences with a black cast that includes Kevin Hart, Regina Hall, Michael Ealy and Joy Bryant. The filmmakers aspired to bring smart romantic comedy to the smartphone generation.
“The only reason you should sho attempt to ‘remake’ a film that is an iconic piece of oof American Am film is that you’re y going to retell it in a new, n fresh, contemporary way,” w says Packer, 39, who proudly p calls himself a child of o the ’80s.
“I think if you’re not going to do that, then why waste time?” ti
For better or worse, the decade c of glam metal, hairspray and perms has become comfort food for both filmmakers and fans.
“Ten years from now, it’ll be ’90s movies,” says Packer. “Do I find it as interesting? No. But some filmmaker in their 20s would feel differently.”
esacks@nydailynews.com