Remake Watch 2010: Week 5

It's hard not to think about Mannequin and not also think about Weekend at Bernie's, because they're both such stupid premises from the 1980's starring Andrew McCarthy (Also, the Mannequin logo is pink, usually with a blue background behind it, and Bernie's shirt is pink and his jacket is blue. Shut up). I guess the people who own the rights to Mannequin and Weekend at Bernie's agree, because now the epic McCarthy-Jonathan Silverman comedy milestone -- a film so good and so ingrained into the cultural landscape that they gave it away with pizzas -- is also headed back to theaters in an all-new, still-stupid incarnation.

It's funny -- I watched both Weekend at Bernie's films back to back a year or two ago, and I can't really remember a thing about them, other than the fact that Terry Kiser plays a damn good dead man, and that I would rather be watching Catherine Mary Stewart in a better movie, like Night of the Comet. Night of the Comet is a classic, and believe me, Hollywood, by the time you try to remake that (because it's inevitable), I'll do more than make pizza jokes. Unless, of course, we get a good special edition DVD of the original. Then I'll just grumble about it a lot, and probably see it when nobody is looking. Anyway, the point I'm making is, Terry Kiser is still alive, so he should play Bernie again. That'd really be better than all the Andrew McCarthy cameos in the world.

Also, apparently they're rebooting some superhero movie. But I can't find any information about it.

In case you're wondering, I used the Weekend at Bernie's II poster because the tagline is phenomenal. It's so lazy. It's one of those things that really is so bad, it's funny. And then it's bad again.

[via Moviehole]

Remake Watch 2010:
3 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.

Remake Watch 2010: Week 2

Alright, so last year, I started trying to do Remake Watch and ultimately failed, because I wrote Boxoffice.com news updates for a few months and really lost the time that I would have been spending on the blog. Now, I'm back, and not only do I have more free time to do it in, I have a better system: weekly updates.

In the second week of 2010, Moviehole ran two exclusives, concerning new versions of Mannequin and F/X. As usual, I wonder why the studios even bother. First of all, I don't know how anyone can live with the shame of having greenlit Mannequin once, but doing it again is even dumber, since we have concrete evidence -- the films themselves -- that neither Mannequin or its sequel were a good idea. Secondly, the name-brand recognition factor of the movies, which I thought was the reason studios churned out remakes in the first place, keeps getting lower and lower as Hollywood literally runs out of 1980's movies to rehash. I mean, how many people have even heard of F/X, much less seen it? It's true, some guys have all the luck.

Moviehole also mentions that MGM and Darren Aronofsky are having a conflict over whether the RoboCop remake should be in 3D. I like 3D, but it seems totally unnecessary for RoboCop, and MGM really needs to shut up and listen. Hey, guys, there's a reason you're going out of business. Stop arguing with the guy who could make the next Batman Begins-slash-Casino Royale-style reboot.

Remake Watch 2010:
2 film remakes in development
0 film remakes released in theaters
0 film remakes released direct-to-DVD
0 reboots announced
0 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.