Claud's View: Remakes

In the last couple of weeks I have read about certain remakes of movies in the works. A Karate Kid remake is already in production with Jayden Smith and Jackie Chan. Blasphemy! I am not big on remakes of films unless they were films that were released before my time, so over 30+ years old. I would prefer revisions; take the basic concept of an original, update it and twist it around a bit. The thing that troubles me the most about these upcoming remakes is that they were done well the first time. Why mess with a good thing? The three that have me concerned at the moment are the possible remakes of Teen Wolf, Conan the Barbarian, and An American Werewolf in London. WHY HOLLYWOOD, WHY?

I understand why they want to revisit Teen Wolf and AAWIL, they want to cash in on the success of the Twilight books and films, plus they figure if vampires are making a comeback why not werewolves. I know most people in my generation have a special place in their cinematic hearts for Teen Wolf; I know myself and my family most definitely do. Side note: I didn't ever watch Teen Wolf Too because that looked really bad, please forgive me Jason Bateman! If none of you have started your love affair with Jason Bateman, please start watching/netflixing Arrested Development reruns stat and any film in which he stars as something other than a teen werewolf). Michael J. Fox was awesome as Scott, a young teen balancing his high school existence as a human basketball outcast and a werewolf who is the Kobe of the game. Gripping stuff. And who could forget the cheese ball soundtrack or the school dance where Scott leads the student body in a dance along, since of course the wolf persona allows him not just to excel at basketball but it also makes him an amazing dancer. I personally would be saddened if Hollywood disregarded such a classic.

As for An American Werewolf in London, they have already tried to recapture the magic of the first film with the sequel An American Werewolf in Paris, which was badly received by the critics and audiences. The original is the first horror movie that I can remember watching. It was released in 1981, I was 6 years old but to be fair I think my dad waited until the movie was released on VHS to let me watch it (we will get to my dad's censorship in a later blog :)) Even at a young age I remember thinking how amazing the effects were. Rick Baker (a renowned make-up effects artist for those of you who didn't know) was introduced to my cinephile psyche through this film and I have been a fan of his work ever since. They should leave this movie alone and maybe consider a spec script I am working on called A Mexican Chupacabra in Sinaloa. It would be subtitled in spanglish and filmed on location in Pericos.

Finally--Conan the Barbarian. I was 7 years old when this was released. My dad and Uncle Richard took me to the movies for a double feature of Conan and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (Again, dad's censorship, blog for another time). Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Ah-nuld if you will, came into my life with that movie and I have been a loyal fan of his films since then. Can you imagine anyone else in that role? Who can pray to Crom like Ah-nuld can? Lest we forget, this movie also gave us James Earl Jones sporting a serious wig and turning into a giant snake. What other actor is as prestigious enough to fill JEJ's role and also not let the character come off as campy? No one that's who.

I may be letting my emotional ties to these films cloud my judgment but I know I will not watch these remakes if they do end up getting made. What about you readers, how do you feel about remakes?