Some great news coming out of Hollywood today as a slew of new reboots have been announced. Some are planned to begin production in the next month. To be honest I can’t be happier to hear of all of these reboots.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
According to The Hollywood Reporter, J.J. Abrams has shown a considerable amount of interest in rebooting the Marty McFly trilogy. Abrams said, “As a 19-year old kid I wanted nothing more than to travel back in time. I wanted so badly to be Marty.”
When asked where he saw the new trilogy going Abrams replied, “I’m hoping to make it a little darker. Marty’s parents would be very abusive towards Marty and Marty’s only friend and confidant is Doc Brown who is insane. Not comically insane like in the original but tragically insane, much like Nikola Tesla in his last days. Marty will travel back in time to find out what happened in his parents lives that made them become the monsters they are today. Deep down he loves them and wants them to love him too. I think this will add new insight into the mind of Marty.”
I don’t know about you guys but that sounds brilliant. I think we can all trust J.J. Abrams to create a great alternate world for our beloved characters. Production is set to begin next April.
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
This one surprised me more than any of the others. Apparently Oprah Winfrey is currently adapting the Precious script to follow a white girl growing up in Southern Arkansas. The film is going to essentially be the same but instead of the regional slang of 1987 Harlem, characters will speak in an Arkansas dialect. So FIRE will become FAR.
So far novelist Sapphire has not agreed to the changes. As she still maintains the character rights to the book it is likely the title character will adopt a new name. Some have floated the idea of calling her Diamond in recognition of the diamond mines of Arkansas and because a diamond is in fact precious, the subtext of the name will not be lost.
Variety asked Oprah about the new direction of the film, “I’m a global phenomenon throughout the world. Not just in African-American households but also in white America. The issues that Precious faced and triumphed over are issues that also affect the white community. So I felt it was important to create a white character like Precious.”
Variety then asked her why they decided to make it a musical.
“Well country music is so important to the people of Arkansas that I don’t feel as if the film would be able to capture the attention of an Arkansas audience without some country twang. Plus musicals make everything so hopeful. And in the end Precious is about hope.”
If Oprah’s involved. I’m there. Production is set to begin next month. Nikki Blonsky from Hairspray is in negotiations to star.
PAN’S LABYRINTH
Tom Cruise has purchased the international rights to the film. Much like he did with the remakes of Open Your Eyes and the upcoming Time Crimes, Cruise is taking another amazing Spanish film and subjecting it to the Hollywood movie factory. So far there have been very few leaks about the nature of the script. We do know that he plans to hold off production until 2017 when Suri is 11. He hopes to make Pan’s Labyrinth her first feature film. He is also in negotiations with his wife to cast her as the mother and himself as Captain Vidal.
THE LION KING
Fresh off James Cameron’s successful reboot of Pocahontas , remade into Avatar , all Disney cartoons are up for a reboot. Cameron has apparently set his eyes on Simba and his friends. Cameron is known for his special effects advancements but for The Lion King remake he’s actually created a patent pending screenwriting algorithm. Cameron explained it best in the latest issue of Filmmaker Magazine.
“I waste so much time creating a story that it often gets in the way of my special effects. So what this new software does is write the script for me. Essentially I’ve had interns scan every script ever written into a program. I then broke down each script into acts and then sequences. I then input the box office receipts for each film, adjusted for inflation of course. I choose a script already uploaded. In this case The Lion King and then I simply press the REBOOT button and the program will compare the script to other scripts based on their box office success. First off every rebooted script will take place in the future. The program will choose the most successful character names. It will then choose specific scenes from other films and piece them all together into a new script. The only thing that remains the same throughout the process is the character arc.
“So Simba has become Rocky. The Lion King is now King of Pandora. It’s groundbreaking stuff. Six months from now the program will be perfected and I’ll never have to write another script.”
Wow, sounds amazing. Cameron continues to inspire with his love of technology.
