Remakes...

Let's face it, Remakes will happen, no matter what we want or think.  Now that I have your attention, think about this, the 1959 Oscar winning film "Ben Hur" was a Remake and it wasn't the first remake of that story.  The first was in 1907 made in Hungary followed by the 1925 Silent  Classic starring Francis X. Bushman.

"The Prisoner of Zenda" was remade no less than 6 times from 1913 on. "Little Women", remade 17 times both on the Big Screen  and various TV series.  Hollywood does it all the time and it's not always a bad thing.  Take a look at "Sanford and Son", a remake of Britain's "Steptoe and Son". "Three's Company" was "Man about the House".  I'll bet if you look around you'll find remakes EVERYWHERE!

Remakes are not always a bad thing.  Sometimes the remake is just as good, if not better, than the original. But, a lot of them are a disaster.  Take "Beau Geste" for example. The 1939 classic with Gary Cooper is a remake of a 1926 Spanish silent film and was better by far.  Now, let's go to the 1966 version starring Doug McClure,  it was Ok, but did it really need to be remade at that time?  Speaking of Mr. McClure, He was also in a remake of the 1952 Errol Flynn Swashbuckler, "Against All Flags" and turned it into the semi-comedic film "The King's Pirate" in 1967.

REMAKES HAPPEN, GET OVER IT!!!

Which brings me to the point of this entry...

In 1986 a low budget film called "Highlander" was released to less than critical acclaim, but soon developed a growing cult following that has become immense. It had everything. High Adventure, Historical Flashbacks, Sword Fights and Romance.  It spawned 4 questionable sequels, the last two an attempt to tie the TV series to the original film. They were all Ok, but not what any of us expected or wanted.  Then we heard about a remake.  Almost immediately the crapstorm started.  People beating their breasts, tearing their hair out and screaming WHY,WHY, WHY????  It took a couple of years but we finally heard the a Director had been chosen, Justin Lin of "Fast and Furious" and most recently a writer to tune up the script, Melissa Rosenberg who wrote the scripts for the Twilight films, which despite being universally despised by  any rational Vampire Fan, have made a BUTTLOAD of money for Summit.  I  like to keep an open mind on things and despite my initial misgivings, this all might turn out to be a good thing.  Now we have to wait for casting news...