I’d like to think of myself as a movie buff. I, for the most part, think when it comes to movies I know my stuff – taste in movies in a different thing. It’s really easy to see when Hollywood starts a trend – movies of the same genre will start popping up from nowhere.
Comic books are going through a Hollywood trend now. However, there is also another trend that Hollywood is going through.
Hollywood likes taking old movies and/or TV shows and remaking (or sometimes, as Hollywood puts it, “rejuvenating” or “reinventing”) them so generations of today can see updated versions of the movies. Personally I think this is a crying shame.
I hate the idea of remakes. Why take something that was good and classic and remake it? I see no point. I try to look at it as though Hollywood is trying to update the movie for a newer generation with new themes. But when I think about it, I think “Wow, that’s stupid.” Again there is no point.
There is no need to update The Honeymooners, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Starsky and Hutch or Dallas. These are classic movies and/or TV shows that don’t need an update. Why was Starsky and Hutch a comedy? To me, Hollywood doing a remake is dull, boring and lacks a sense of direction and originality.
In a USA Today article, Andy Seiler wrote, “Hollywood loves to remake hits so old or obscure that the target audience … doesn’t know about them.” This is true with many remakes that are coming out. I never knew what The Poseidon Adventure was until my mother told me, I also didn’t know Flight of the Phoenix was a remake.
Hollywood likes to get unknown or fairly old movies so young audiences will never know that the they are remakes. Movies like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dallas, Amityville Horror and Miami Vice are movies/TV shows we know are being remade for younger generations that are coming up on the horizon.
Another trend is taking foreign films and “Americanizing” them. The Ring, The Grudge, and the upcoming Dark Water and The Eye were all foreign films before they were “Americanized”.
Remaking movies proves only one thing – Hollywood is lacking in originality. How original is it to take someone else’s idea, rewrite it and then call it yours?
In Hollywood it’s remaking – everywhere else it’s called plagiarism. It’s an unoriginal idea to take something and remake it. This is one of the reasons I decided not to become a screen writer for Hollywood. How fun is it to take someone’s idea when you have millions of your own?
Hollywood is very iffy when it comes to having original ideas. There is a reason why there is a separation between the big studios and the independent ones.
Remaking movies is a cheap way to get a movie out there for an audience that doesn’t know its history, as far as movies go.
Not many people are going to remember The Honeymooners, War of the Worlds or Bewitched.
How many people will remember Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka? In a couple years, I bet more people will remember Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.
Hollywood doesn’t want to move forward with originality, but replays ideas over and over again. For Hollywood, this is a safe move – it’s also dull, boring, and shows upcoming screenwriters that whatever idea they have, scratch it.
Originality has now become a rare gem in Hollywood. There was a reason Garden State did so well.
Look on the bright side – at least they won’t remake real classics such as Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, Star Wars and Psycho.
Oops, one down…

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