The Weekend Reader – May 9ish (The TON Of Reading and Happy Mothers Day Edition)

It has been a couple of weeks… (Feel free to put the emphasis on that sentence wherever you would like…)

Pneumonia. Ick. The less said about it, the better. But I have been itchy to get back to work (at least, I think that is what the itch is) so I will start off niiiiiiiice and sloooooow. With some time on my hands, much reading was done. SO MUCH.

 

Get ready for the random stuff:

 

And the good stuff:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The More Things Change

Another day, another remake/reboot/sequel/prequel gets the green light.

For example, at 10:22 am on November 18th, Variety’s Jon Weisman takes the stance that originals are still outpacing remakes and that work gets remade for stage often, so why not in film and TV? A fairly short, but level insight into the process, cleverly titled In Defense of the Offense of Remakes

… Of course, that balance all comes crashing down just about an hour later, when Variety also exclusively reports that someone somewhere is producing a sequel to It’s A Wonderful Life.

Kaboom.

In fact, a lot of the remakes/reboots/sequels/prequels that people buzz about seem to be things no one has ever asked for. For example, I’ve never heard a single person say “I really think someone should remake Point Break!” Why? Because Point Break is a perfect movie. Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze? Perfect. Bank robbing presidents? Done. Running and jumping and surfing and skydiving? Totally. Nothing anyone could do to it could possibly make it better.*

(*Except maybe Edgar Wright. He made Point Break the slightest shade of different-as-better and called it Hot Fuzz. But, apparently, that’s still not good enough…)

The argument could be made that, when a great filmmaker has an interesting take on existing work, why shouldn’t they take a shot at putting their own stamp on it?

As for the Wonderful Life sequel, there was what appears to be a trailer released for this project (found on The Film Stage) where the voiceover (after the part about it being in 3D) includes this nugget:

“…George Bailey’s grandson is forever changed (when) his Aunt Zuzu comes back as an angel and shows him how much better the world would have been had he never been born…”

Now… now wait just a minute… Is this some dark take on the angel tale? Is someone planning to take the Bailey clan down the dark path the great Frank Capra himself traveled in post-war america? Will probing questions about HUAC shape the narrative? Or will this be an exploration of Capra’s own disillusionment about films and the commercial interests that he rallied against?

Or was that just an error in the voiceover?

Either way, surely there will be more depressing remake/reboot/sequel/prequel again tomorrow. Le sigh.