Director David Fincher at work on the set of the film Benjamin Button. Photo: Copyright 2007 Matthobbs.com | FlickrCC.
I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever see an original movie in theaters again in my lifetime. Nearly everything is a copy of a copy. I’m not talking about the idea that “everything is rehashed” and “there are no more original thoughts”; instead, new movies apparently must pass the tests of either being an adaptation of a book or a remake of a successful classic film.
With the exception of some notable Pixar movies, Inception, and Gravity, I cannot recall anything I’ve seen in the past five years that was both a new release and an original work that didn’t meet the adaptation or remake demands I mentioned earlier. A recent post of 93 movie remakes at Den of Geek shows that the situation appears to be escalating as it reaches beyond the slurry of comic-based films and into classic animation such as Akira.
Everything from Disney favorites such as Beauty and the Beast to the hilarious The Naked Gun are up for some form of remake. Even Kurosawa’s classic The Seven Samurai is up for consideration. These are films best left alone to bask in their respective glory, yet it appears there is a strong push for exactly the opposite.
Even the terrible picks in the bunch—I’m looking at you all, Short Circuit (1 and 2) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen—should be left alone. I certainly don’t want to see updates of those films, but on principle, given anyone’s rating out of four stars, I will always pick for the creation of one film for the ages.
The inspiration for these works is enough to let live. The concepts in Gravity, about being lost in life, translated well to being literally lost in space. That was enough. It didn’t take a direct copy of Apollo 13 to make it happen.
Unfortunately, studios apparently leave directors with little choice about what they expect to sell big at the box office. I don’t know if the public truly wants to see all of these remakes, but that is what they will receive.
I’ll continue to vote with my presence and support the small cast of originals in the bunch while cherishing the classics in their original forms.
