Thursday, February 11, 2010

Remake Watch 2010: Week 7

Universal is mounting a remake of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. I don't really know anything about The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. I bet it gets named to Best in Texas or something dumb, though, thus completely defeating the fact that it's a remake of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (from a marketing standpoint, anyway). (Source: Cinematical, really, since the original Variety story is behind a paid wall)

There has also been movement on the remakes of the live-action Akira (The Hughes Brothers have been tapped to direct), The Black Hole (director Kosinski suggests it will have more hard science), A Star is Born (Russell Crowe will play the lead), Vacation ("Freaks and Geeks" star John Francis Daley is co-writing with Jonathan Goldstein -- although it may actually be more of a sequel than a reboot), and probably some others I've forgotten about, but they don't add to the 2010 total because they were all announced previously. (Sources: Vulture; MTV; The LA Times; and Variety via ComingSoon)

There was also movement on the Escape From New York remake, but the news was awesome: before they could glean the rights, New Line had to sign a contract with John Carpenter, stipulating that "Plissken must always be called 'Snake'", that the character "must wear an eyepatch", and, best of all, "must always be a bad-ass". John Carpenter is the best person ever. (Source: Vulture)

Remake Watch 2010:
4 film remakes in development
0 film remakes released in theaters
0 film remakes released direct-to-DVD
1 film reboot in development
0 film reboots released in theaters
0 TV remakes announced
0 tv remakes released

A "reboot" is defined by Remake Watch as a new attempt at a film series with new actors playing old characters (thus, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Race to Witch Mountain are excluded). Sequels to remakes (The Pink Panther 2, Halloween II) are ignored.