Friday, August 19, 2005

Does Hollywood Have Any Original Ideas Left ??

That is a question that has to be going through many movie-goers heads recently with the constant crop off movie remakes and the dozens of more announced for the future. I just don't understand, that with the hundreds, maybe thousands of writers and screenwriters in the studios employ, that no one can come up with a original idea. Don't get me wrong, there are some good new movies hitting, like Red Eye from Wes Craven, Michael Bay's kinda sci-fi The Island and others. But the bulk seem to be remakes. So far we have seen remakes of Willie Wonka, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, War Of The Worlds,Longest Yard, Amityville Horror and more. Yes some are good (Massacre was a good remake) and some do give us a completely different view of the film (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and War Of The Worlds gave us a view closer to the book), but others are just plain bad (Amityville Horror was just that, a horror). Now studios are remaking just about everything they can get the rights to including some of our childhood favorites. Some of the upcoming remakes include The Posiden Adventure, The Wicker Man, The Omen, The Fog,The Hitcher (who could out-creep Rutger Haur),When A Stranger Calls,The Hills Have Eyes,Invasion Of The Body Snatchers(this will be about remake # 6),Superman(this one I will be looking forward to),Logans Run and I am sure there are many more on this list. Then there are the 80s tv and cartoons that they want to butcher. So far they have announced project involving The Smurfs,Voltron,The Transformers(with Spielberg on-board) and even hints of another shot at Speed Racer and the A-Team. I mean what's next,,,H.R. Puffnstuff the Movie or Charles In Charge:The Return. American studios are also grabbing the rights to overseas movies in the attempt to make them over into US hits. So far the fruit from these labors have bee satisfing with The Ring,The Grudge and Dark Water. But how long will this last. The Japanese market has some off the most inventive and original movies in production today, and some I would really hate to see Americanized. I have no problem with the adaptation of books or the use of comic characters, at least they are still creating something new even though the source is published material. Like the upcoming DaVinci Code movie, that is a book adaptation but really hasn't been done before. So come on Hollywood, there has to be new ideas out there. Maybe it's time to vear away from all those high-paid screenwriters sitting around and gathering paychecks for using other peoples work and start looking to the small guy out there whose creative mind has not been tapped yet. The are some amazing independent writers and directors out there who if given the chance could give the industry the jump start it needs. So lets give them a chance, because I really don't want to have to see The Courtship Of Eddies' Father II : The Revenge.

3 comments:

ClashingCymbals said...

How bout a movie based on Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."

Glyn (Zaphod) Evans said...

It really isn't looking like it is it. The number of remakes (and BAD too) is increasing, and fresh plots are hard to come by.

Rosemary said...

I remember when it seemed like every block or two had a bowling alley on it. They were making money, so more and more were built.

POOF!

The bubble burst, and now there are all these empty buildings all over the place, and very few have been changed into any other kind of business.

Movies, and movie theaters, are doing the same thing, it seems to me. They've found a "formula" that works, and they're killing it with quantity, not quality.

BA~~82