Filmism.net Dispatch June 30, 2008
In the funniest remake news I've heard all year, some bozo is redoing the banned exploitation classic I Spit On Your Grave .
The original was an exercise in endurance the likes of which you've seldom seen on a TV screen (as few of us saw it in a movie theatre), and I'd be fascinated to see what a studio or producer with their eye on the bottom line can make of a story critics will slice and dice mercilessly simply because of its subject matter.
Also pretty trippy is the forthcoming Smurfs live action/animated movie, as exciting to a kid with my childhood as the recent Fraggle Rock announcement.
Marvel Comics have proven themselves cheapskates by holding out on signing Jon Favreau for the Iron Man sequel, apparently scared he'll ask more than they want to pay.
With the release date announced when the original had barely hit the streets, they're running out of time to get the principals locked away, and Favreau has gone on record to say he doesn't know if they can produce the flick by the promised 2010 date.
In more Favreau news, and the other most exciting remake news in ages, the Iron Man man is redoing Robocop ! There were so many facets to Paul Verhoeven's 1987 faux-action movie, I'm afraid boneheaded Hollywood suits and writers pitching for 13 year olds will only retain the action and not the scathing political and social comment, but many of the films more cerebral fans will be living in hope.
We've also said goodbye to two giants in recent weeks. One is George Carlin, who seemed on the surface like a gross-out stand-up comic but was actually very switched on about social issues.
The other was the man for whom some of the most fantastic (in the objective sense of the word) movies of the last three decades wouldn't have happened. Stan Winston created the Terminator, the Jurassic Park animatronic models and a host of other iconic film characters and changed movies forever as surely as Lucas, Spielberg or Scorsese.
The original was an exercise in endurance the likes of which you've seldom seen on a TV screen (as few of us saw it in a movie theatre), and I'd be fascinated to see what a studio or producer with their eye on the bottom line can make of a story critics will slice and dice mercilessly simply because of its subject matter.
Also pretty trippy is the forthcoming Smurfs live action/animated movie, as exciting to a kid with my childhood as the recent Fraggle Rock announcement.
Marvel Comics have proven themselves cheapskates by holding out on signing Jon Favreau for the Iron Man sequel, apparently scared he'll ask more than they want to pay.
With the release date announced when the original had barely hit the streets, they're running out of time to get the principals locked away, and Favreau has gone on record to say he doesn't know if they can produce the flick by the promised 2010 date.
In more Favreau news, and the other most exciting remake news in ages, the Iron Man man is redoing Robocop ! There were so many facets to Paul Verhoeven's 1987 faux-action movie, I'm afraid boneheaded Hollywood suits and writers pitching for 13 year olds will only retain the action and not the scathing political and social comment, but many of the films more cerebral fans will be living in hope.
We've also said goodbye to two giants in recent weeks. One is George Carlin, who seemed on the surface like a gross-out stand-up comic but was actually very switched on about social issues.
The other was the man for whom some of the most fantastic (in the objective sense of the word) movies of the last three decades wouldn't have happened. Stan Winston created the Terminator, the Jurassic Park animatronic models and a host of other iconic film characters and changed movies forever as surely as Lucas, Spielberg or Scorsese.