108 replies to this topic

[Johnny Henning]

12 Monkeys was a major reinvisioning of La Jete, for sure. More inspired by than based on.

I can't really think of many movies I'd like to see remade. SUPERMAN IV mentioned above, is one. I'd like to see someone tackle Jodorowsky's adaptation of DUNE (with an early scenario by Dan O'bannon). Jodorowsky's description of it made it sound significantly different from the story the novel told.

I think the best remake of a bad original was the recent RISE OF THE APES which, ostensibly, was a remake of CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.

One of my favorite movies from the 80's was CRITTERS, which, like GREMLINS, turned insipidly cute characters into clever, evil killing machines. I think GREMLINS or CRITTERS could be made better today, but, then again, it'll probably be a Michael Bay mentality behind their reboots combined with committee mentality.

What I particularly likes about Critters were the two alien bounty hunters with their face changing tech and bazooka-strength side-arms as they tore through a small town to capture the most dangerous animals in the galaxy (something like Stitch in Lilo and Stitch). I think they were more sequel worthy than the Critters of the title, actually.

I always liked the show SLIDERS, but I'd really rework the basic concept if I was using it for a film or new series. Instead of being trapped in a different alternate reality every week, I'd probably turn it into something more like a noir crime drama with a subculture of reality hoppers smuggling exotic goods and technology from reality to reality because they've mapped the timing and location of portals as they open up between parallels (think of a more serious take on the TIME BANDITS idea).

Start with a detective, Nate Aris, being called to a homicide where he discovers to his shock that it's his dead body they found in a seedy hotel room. The autopsy reveals that it's not an exact copy of who he is. Instead, it's almost like a twin brother. He has prison tattoos, a lot of scars from multiple fights or assaults and a strange red bar code on his lower back.

It also turns out he's a suicide. The gunshot that killed him was self-inflicted.

The investigation is at a dead end from the beginning. There are no leads. The hotel clerk never saw the guy check in, the room was locked and the only key was still at the front desk. Unless this guy climbed twelve floors like Spider-Man and came in through the window, then he just appeared there by magic. Also, it turns out the suicide didn't happen there. He was dumped there, somehow, but the hotel's security cameras don't show anyone going in or leaving who could've been involved.

Then Detective Nate gets abducted. He's knocked unconscious and wakes up cuffed in a chair in house with hardly any furniture. Men with masks offer Nate a deal. They just want him to "pretend to be himself for a few days." Before they have a chance to explain what they mean, Nate makes a break for it. Outside, he uses his own key to get out of the cuffs and then calls his partner, Don, at the station. However, Don doesn't recognize his voice and when he tells him who he is, he has no idea what he's talking about. Don's partner is a woman and she's in the station with him.

Nate heads home and nearly gets shot by the people living there. People who apparently have lived there a long time. As he leaves, you see someone is watching Nate. He gets on his smart-phone and makes a call. Before he can go to the station and see Don in person, the masked men set upon him, only this time, one of them takes off his mask. It's his brother Tony - who died during a bank robbery gone bad nearly fifteen years ago.

Turns out Nate is in an alternate reality where instead of becoming a cop, in this life he joined his brother as a criminal. They both went to work for "sliders" - alternate reality smugglers. The alter Nate, however, couldn't handle the life and finally killed himself. This left Tony in a bad spot because Nate was about to accept a very profitably shipment of goods from another much more advanced reality. The contact over there, known only as Mr. Zen, only trusted the old Nate to do the deal, so they dropped Slider Nate's body into a hotel room in a backwater parallel and now they need Detective Nate to take his place.

After he gets over the shock, Nate naturally asks why in the hell would they expect him to say "yes" to such a crazy idea? Tony simply tells him he can walk away if he wants, but he also points out that he has no way to get back to his world - his reality - unless they take him back. Really, what choice does he have?

So, Tony sets about turning this new Nate into a slider and a criminal, and teaching Nate about the person he was in this reality and the choices he made that eventually led him to suicide. Even though they are on the opposite sides of the law, this Nate can see how his counterpart became who he did, and he can also see that his own life is on the same downward trajectory.

Of course, Tony's real intention is to double-cross their contact, kill "Mr Zen" and this "not my real brother" Cop Nate, and take the goods without paying - Sliders pay with raw goods platinum, diamonds, gold - and Tony doesn't even have the money. He has really good fakes, though.

However, Tony's basic mistake is that even though he doesn't really think of Nate as his "real" brother, at the same time he doesn't realize this new Nate is far smarter, more self-reliant and resourceful than his real little brother ever could be.

[Dave Wallace]

Surprised that The Fugitive hasn't been mentioned yet. That's one of the best examples I can think of when it comes to making a modern success out of an old concept.

Although come to think of it, that film isn't exactly modern, is it? Maybe it's due another remake soon. (And no, I don't count US Marshals, which managed to be both a sequel and a remake - a bit like Evil Dead 2!)

[Johnny Henning]

And... don't forget THE HULK was based more on the original Fugitive TV show than it was on the comic book.

And, of course, despite supposedly being based on a real event, the original Fugitive was based on which famous classic novel?


Anyone? Anyone?

[Dave Wallace]

Was it Sense and Sensibility?

[Johnny Henning]

Close. Very close. Think of almost exactly the same story, but in France.

[craggy]

Les Sense Avec Sensibility?

[Johnny Henning]

Unbelievably close!














But no. That's not it.

However, one word and many of the letters are shared by both titles.

[Chris D]

The Stranger, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables, Madam Bovary!

And that's all the French books I know. And some might not even be French!

[Johnny Henning]

What? No Thérèse Raquin? No À la recherche du temps perdu?

You are sorta correct in the same way a shotgun doesn't have to be accurate.




Speaking of Therese Raquin, many believe it inspired THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and DOUBLE INDEMNITY, but this was definitely based on the classic French novel:

[Dave Wallace]

Claire Danes looks like a tiny alien head growing out of Uma Thurman's shoulder.

Which reminds me of another series of remakes...



I liked the original book, never heard the radio series, but loved the TV show. The more recent film I could take or leave.

[Chris D]

French literature is not a strong suit of mine, I admit. I've read almost none. Not even most of the ones I listed above.

[steveuk]

<SNIP>

I always liked the show SLIDERS, but I'd really rework the basic concept if I was using it for a film or new series. Instead of being trapped in a different alternate reality every week, I'd probably turn it into something more like a noir crime drama with a subculture of reality hoppers smuggling exotic goods and technology from reality to reality because they've mapped the timing and location of portals as they open up between parallels (think of a more serious take on the TIME BANDITS idea).

<SNIP>

That's far enough from 'Sliders' to be entirely its own thing.

The longer outline shares ideas with 'Time Bandits', but also 'The One' and other scifi stories that have gone before. Really its unique enough to stand on its own two feet.

[Johnny Henning]

True - certainly the tone would be much darker... on the other hand, the show was actually pretty dark at times. The Kromaggs were particularly interesting. If someone were to actually redo the show, I think an alternate reality jumping version of Doctor Who would be the best direction.

[The Lorcan Nagle]

A Fistful of Dollars (it's my understanding that it's a remake of Yojimbo, but I haven't actually seen that one)

Yojimbo's pretty awesome. There's another remake of the story, the 90's Bruce Willis gangster flick Last Man Standing. It and A Fistful of Dollars ar pretty blatant remakes (replace Edo period village with frontier town, and Samurai with cowboy/gangster)

[Johnny Henning]

Yojimbo was originally based on either the novel RED HARVEST or THE GLASS KEY by Dashiell Hammet. When LAST MAN STANDING got made, they got into a little trouble since a Samurai movie and Western were set far enough from the source novel to make a difference, but LAST MAN STANDING was essentially the same story as RED HARVEST.

MILLER'S CROSSING certainly took elements from Hammet's novels as well. The title of the Coen's movie Blood Simple comes from a line of dialog in the novel Red Harvest too.

[steveuk]

True - certainly the tone would be much darker... on the other hand, the show was actually pretty dark at times. The Kromaggs were particularly interesting. If someone were to actually redo the show, I think an alternate reality jumping version of Doctor Who would be the best direction.

I agree, but the thing that is "Sliders' is the whole "We're Lost!!!" aspect. I know that's something 'Doctor Who' plays with at times, but it's not central.

[Johnny Henning]

Around the same time, George RR Martin did a pilot for a proposed TV series that was very similar to SLIDERS but never got picked up.

DOORWAYS

I suppose the major difference is that the parallel realities in Doorways were significantly different. Like alien worlds instead of various alternatives to our own world.

[David Meadows]

Les Sense Avec Sensibility?

The Stranger, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables, Madam Bovary!

And that's all the French books I know.

That's all the French books there are!

The Fugitive was based in Les Miserables? Seriously?

I don't see any similarities. Well, apart from them both having a fugitive and a pursuing policeman. Which is the basis of about ten billion crime novels.

[Johnny Henning]

It's the basis of crime novels after Les Miserables. The novel brought the theme to modern literature. The basic conceit shared by both stories though is that Jean Valjean and Richard Kimble are good men who perform heroic acts while being fugitives from justice and that the men pursuing each of them are single-minded in their quest despite seeing the good resulting from the fugitives' actions. According to the writers, the similarity between the names Lt. Gerard and Inspector Javert was intentional.

You can find plenty of stories about an innocent man on the run, but the idea of a fugitive who feels morally bound to right wrongs even though it risks revealing him to the authorities and a pursuer who relentlessly goes after him despite the good he does pretty much starts with Les Miserables. The Fugitive certainly popularized it though leading to, naturally, THE HULK.

http://www.museum.tv...ode=fugitivethe

The writer, Roy Huggins, claimed the series was actually inspired by Les Miserables rather than the famous Sam Sheppard murder case that everyone thought it was based on.

[craggy]

all roads lead to Hulk.