Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Problems of Upcoming Sequels and Remakes

Sequels

Yesterday I mentioned that the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides, will be about Captain Jack Sparrow's quest for the Fountain of Youth. It's (undoubtedly very loosely) based on the novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers.

It could mean that in the WW4C, Captain Jack Sparrow is immortal. Or it might not. We won't really know until the movie comes out. However, as far as the WW4C is concerned, I'm not going to guess and end up being wrong. I know that the day I write, "Captain Jack Sparrow became immortal when he found the Fountain of Youth," will be the day that the script gets leaked and they end the movie by blowing it up and Jack having to chase down the Holy Grail or something in his quest for immortality.

Remakes

Disney, like all movie studios, likes to remake their old movies. I've seen that they're developing remakes of, among other things, Bedknobs & Broomsticks and Swiss Family Robinson. They did a remake of The Shaggy Dog, but with an adult Tim Allen instead of a teenage Tommy Kirk, and instead of a cursed ring, it's caused by genetic engineering and a magical dog, or something.

Honestly, I kind of dread watching the new Shaggy Dog, because I have heard absolutely nothing good about it. However, like Race to Witch Mountain, I'll probably be including it because it's a different story than the original. Whereas, by contrast, the Robin Williams movie Flubber is by all appearances just a new adaptation of The Absent-Minded Professor, so I'm giving it a pass.

2 comments:

  1. The big difference in the Robin Williams remake of "Flubber," is that the material appears to be self-aware on some level, with a mischievous sense of play. Personally I prefer the Fred MacMurray movies, m'self.

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  2. Here is a way to reconcile the 1959 version of the SHAGGY DOG, and the 2006 version: The Borgias got their hands on some of the hairs of the Tibetan Temple Dog, and used them in the creation of the ring.

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