Thursday, December 04, 2008

Romancing The Remake

Ugh! Two more 80's flicks are going the remake route says The Hollywood Reporter.

The first is romantic adventure comedy classic "Romancing the Stone".

The studio suits have hired Eagle Eye 's Dan McDermott to write a script for a remake of the 1984 Robert Zemeckis film.

A lovelorn romance novelist (Kathleen Turner) travels to Colombia to rescue her kidnapped sister. Becoming lost in the jungle, she's saved by a soldier of fortune (Michael Douglas). The unlikely duo set out to save the sister together while avoiding the private army of the country's murderous secret police chief. Mudslides, treacherous ravines, crashed planes, drug lords, alligators, the kidnapper's inept brother (Danny DeVito), and an emerald are all thrown in for good measure,

At first glance the film was seen as a Raiders of the Lost Ark clone, but became a smash hit (spawning an inferior sequel The Jewel of the Nile) thanks solid comedic moments, location shooting, and the excellent chemistry and performances that launched Turner's career and put Michael Douglas into romantic lead territory.

Another unnecessary remake in my opinion--The chemistry of the 3 leads is gonna be tough to match for the update.



Meanwhile,John Carpenter's 1988 cult flick "They Live " is being updated as well.

The original sci-fi satire followed a construction worker (Roddy Piper) who discovers that his sunglasses let him see aliens walking among us out controlling humanity.

It has a brutal (but fun) one-on-one fight scene between Piper and Keith David that goes on for five-and-a-half minutes.

Carpenter will serve as one of the executive producers.

Just about all of Carpenter's films have been--or will be remade at some point...At least he's overseeing this one

The deal also includes rights to two other Carpenter cult films - "Village of the Damned" and Prince of Darkness.

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