Footloose?

[bara]

Dear Hollywood,

What the hell. It was bad enough you managed to mangle some old time classics. Now you are remaking bad movies? Have you truly run out of material? Go to a local Barnes and Noble or a library!

Within the numerous shelves within you will find a cornucopia of wonderful tales that could, with the correct director/producer combo make excellent movies. New ideas and characters abound. Stories as far as the eye can see!

Why if you are feeling saucy you can even make educational movies.

But no. First you dredged up my beloved innocent childhood and you made mockeries of my once beloved cartoons, now you are even remaking movies that only get watched when people have insomnia and the batteries have died in the remote. What next? Toxic Avenger reboots.

Im sorry Holloywood. But I must end this. Its not you really, its me. You see, I have standards. I know. Its asking a lot, so I will no longer ask this of you. Instead I will end our relationship. No more dinner and a movies. Its over. I have lost all faith in you.

Barainga

[AdminAssistant]

People have to vote with their wallets. Footloose is getting re-made because the 80's are what's in right now. Dance-themed tv shows are very popular. It'll make many buckets of money regardless of how good it is.

I'm no cinema expert, but Hollywood has never been very original. There are always a few writers and directors cranking out original material, but the majority of the stuff is ripped off books, plays, fairy tales, other movies, etc. It's not even just Hollywood. Look at the shit going on Broadway right now. Film adaptations and jukebox musicals*. But it makes money. They aren't risking lives to do Spiderman Turn Off the Dark because it's good. They do it because it's a giant Disney advertisement in the middle of Times Square. Because they can sell a gajillion copies of the terrible soundtrack (by Bono and Edge). Because people flock to it to see how terrible it is.

I don't like it either, but I also don't see it changing any time soon. Happily, it's almost Oscar season.

* A musical based on popular songs, i.e. Mamma Mia!, Rock of Ages, American Idiot

[Sarah Valentine]

Me and my friends are gonna just do the same thing that we did when the remake of Karate Kid came out, go to Blockbuster and rent the original. If they try to remake Grease I'm gonna shoot myself.

[Andara Bledin]

I brought this up in the Not a Remake thread a couple months back.

If you check the IMDb page on it and read the comments, it appears that the remake has a lot more depth and character development than the original ever tried for.

^-.-^

[Rebel]

The remake craze is mainly due to the audience.

I work in the industry (as a lowly minion), and it's widely known that the majority of audiences don't like new ideas, they instead like the familiar. Every popular film right now is either a remake or based on something popular (comic books, music, popular stories). New writers are even openly told to never try writing something original if they want to be noticed. Write what the producers (and audience) already know.

Hell, right now my work is finishing off a Romeo and Juliet type movie, then we're moving on to a popular show from my childhood.
That sort of stuff already has a strong audience, so they're certain to do well.

Original stories are generally the market for independent films, or even YouTube (very good median for any up and coming film makers and actors).

That being said, I have no interest in the Footloose remake. If I wanted to see powerful and slutty dancing with a loose story line about rebellion and coming of age, I would just watch a 'Step Up' movie. And I have absolutely no desire to do that.

[Gravekeeper]

Hollywood reflects the audience, which reflects the times.

Remakes work because of nostaligia. Times are currently shitty and people are fondly remembering the "good old days" because said shit went down. Their choices in entertainment reflect that. People want either nostaligia ( Remakes ) or spectacle escapism ( Superheroes, Avatar, etc ). Before that, when shit was in the process of going down and the year 2000 was still on the radar, it was all about disaster and apocolypse movies. ( Look how many times Hollywood ended the world between 2000-2009 >.> ).

[Bright Star]

Me and my friends are gonna just do the same thing that we did when the remake of Karate Kid came out, go to Blockbuster and rent the original. If they try to remake Grease I'm gonna shoot myself.

They did try to re-make Grease. "Grease 2" was released in 1982 & it was a big dud.

[telecom_goddess]

Say whatever you like about the original Footloose but it's a classic now and does NOT TO BE REMADE! And the people who don't like original ides? really? Have people sunk THAT low now?

I love original ideas and plots. I guess I'm part of a very small minority.

[bara]

Take Avatar... really not an original idea in the whole movie. It had a good presentation at least.

Of course thats really all James Cameron is capable of I think. At least he makes something look good.

Ill still never forgive him for Titanic though. The 'theme' for my senior prom... "My Hear Will Go On'.

blech.

[Andara Bledin]

There are no original ideas. There are only so many ways to put a story together and they were all plotted out thousands of years ago. For all that we've advanced, we're still people and we still have all of the same base desires we've always had; we just fulfill them in different ways.

All that we've got at this point is presentation, style, and craft.

I don't care if the story is a rework. It's inevitable that it will be, the only real question is how close.

In this case, they're taking the presentation of the previous iteration, giving it a ton of polish it never got the first time around, and giving the characters a bit more life. Whether it does well or not, therefore, depends almost entirely on the style and craft of those involved.

^-.-^

[insertNameHere]

There are so many remakes I find it hard to keep track anymore. the newest being straw dogs, my brother couldn't figure out when he got back from the movie how I was able to tell him what happened without seeing it.... sorry I saw the one made 40years ago because my mom was pissed my dad bought it as it was banned in the UK.... so I had to see what the fuss was and was shocked to see that in America we have much worse movies granted for its time it probably was bad.

I seem to regularly check "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_remakes_A-M" because I am shocked to learn stuff that sounds original really isn't, But sometimes it is nice to see what someone else can do with the story. A lot like a cover song, if you stick to the roots and want to do it well it can show while still adding yourself

[Nyoibo]

I hearn an interview with the main actorhe's played the role before in the musical and has been a big fan of the original movie and the musical, that plus Kevin Bacon giving the director his blessing makes me think it's going to be a fairly faithful adaption/remake.