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Your ideas for reboots, remakes or revivals


Guest El Chalupacabra
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I'm guessing he's searching for more of the feel of the classic single episode, highly formulaic mystery shows that revolve around the detective like Murder, She Wrote, Hart to Hart, and Scooby Doo. Less long-form storytelling that you'll get even with the closest modern versions such as Monk.

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So, I would like to open this discussion up and ask what ideas you have for either a series or movie that you think should be rebooted, and how you would like it to be done. I will begin with a few ideas I have:

 

Phantasm

If you are not familiar with this, basically you have some pretty cool concepts: unlikely heroes like an ex-ice cream vendor who drives a hemicuda, a creepy undertaker from another dimension who is building an army of the undead to take over the world, and especially chrome spheres of gory death. There have been 4 movies, since the first one in 1979 with almost a decade in between each sequel. This is a franchise that is definitely a cult classic that has a small following. I am a fan of the first 2 movies especially, with the other three having some good scenes but overall pretty terrible. What I like about the first two (Phantasm 1 especially), is that very late 70s feel, that I have a nostalgia for. I think this franchise could be rebooted into a great series on HBO or AMC. After seeing a couple episodes of Stranger Things, it occurred to me that Phantasm could be done in a way that is a call back to that late 70s/early 80s vibe, as well as have a story arc that spans an entire season, beginning with a mystery that the teen characters and Reggie begin to solve, much in the way Stranger Things does.

 

Logan's Run

Another product of the 1970s, that saw both a movie and short lived TV show. Arguably, I think this film was as much an influence on the original Blade Runner, as Electric Sheep was. The basic premise of the film (and series) is in a distant, dystopian future, humanity lives in dome cities where resources are scarce. By age 30, people are required to commit ritualistic suicide, called Carousel. However, those who do not commit suicide in the "Carousel" and leave the dome city are called runners. To dispatch these runners, Sandmen are sent after them to execute these runners. The titular Sandman character, Logan, is about to turn 30 himself, and is sent after a young woman who is on the run, and whom convinces Logan to join her on her quest to escape death, and the dome city. The closes we have seen to a remake ( rip off is more like it) is Michael Bay's 2005 film, The Island, which was pretty terrible. I think the basic premise of this franchise could work as a series, again by HBO or AMC.

 

2001: A Space Odyssey

There is no denying that this film is one of the most influential films in both sci fi and film history in general. However, it is very slow and plodding in some parts. I think that such a movie could be remade into a series, and updated with better pacing. Season one could draw on the entire movie as inspiration and loose adaptationfor the overall arc of season 1, with new elements added, namely depicting HAL slowly going "insane," if that is the right word. Season 2's arc could loosely adapt 2010. This would especially work if HBO did it, in the same way they did Westworld.

 

So, what do you think of these ideas? Would they work, or not so much? What are your ideas for a reboot or revival?

Phantasm: Eh, I don't know. The film is so connected to the culture of the 70s, that I feel a remake would go the way of the bastardized Rob Zombie Halloween: all style (upside down/Zombie trash culture style) and none of the heart which made the original a film event.

 

Logan's Run: Although I remain a big fan of the 1976 movie, I also read the novel, and would prefer any new LR film take all of its inspiration from that book. As influential as the film was, the '67 novel is the (obvious) greater exploration--and more of anything attempted by the movie. For such a revered sci-fi novel, its a surprise that a properly faithful adaptation has not been produced yet.

 

2001: Wha--?? Here's a couple of baseball bats. You and Tank beat each other into a deep sleep (thank you, Logan's Run) until you come to your senses about remaking that gem of gems!

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I don't think you can touch Kubrick, nor should anyone try. That move is untouchable as far as I am concerned. But a different approach, adapting more from the book and without trying to out-Kubrick Kubrick, it's still a compelling story that arguable has been ripped off, but never fully satisfying many times.

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The Ox Bow Incident: Which is about out of town cowboys who get accused of stealing cattle. The mob mentality takes over and the men are hung based on flimsy evidence only to find out they were innocent. Set it modern times with a terror attack and the some local Muslims are accussed of it.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

 

 

 

So, I would like to open this discussion up and ask what ideas you have for either a series or movie that you think should be rebooted, and how you would like it to be done. I will begin with a few ideas I have:

 

Phantasm

If you are not familiar with this, basically you have some pretty cool concepts: unlikely heroes like an ex-ice cream vendor who drives a hemicuda, a creepy undertaker from another dimension who is building an army of the undead to take over the world, and especially chrome spheres of gory death. There have been 4 movies, since the first one in 1979 with almost a decade in between each sequel. This is a franchise that is definitely a cult classic that has a small following. I am a fan of the first 2 movies especially, with the other three having some good scenes but overall pretty terrible. What I like about the first two (Phantasm 1 especially), is that very late 70s feel, that I have a nostalgia for. I think this franchise could be rebooted into a great series on HBO or AMC. After seeing a couple episodes of Stranger Things, it occurred to me that Phantasm could be done in a way that is a call back to that late 70s/early 80s vibe, as well as have a story arc that spans an entire season, beginning with a mystery that the teen characters and Reggie begin to solve, much in the way Stranger Things does.

 

Logan's Run

Another product of the 1970s, that saw both a movie and short lived TV show. Arguably, I think this film was as much an influence on the original Blade Runner, as Electric Sheep was. The basic premise of the film (and series) is in a distant, dystopian future, humanity lives in dome cities where resources are scarce. By age 30, people are required to commit ritualistic suicide, called Carousel. However, those who do not commit suicide in the "Carousel" and leave the dome city are called runners. To dispatch these runners, Sandmen are sent after them to execute these runners. The titular Sandman character, Logan, is about to turn 30 himself, and is sent after a young woman who is on the run, and whom convinces Logan to join her on her quest to escape death, and the dome city. The closes we have seen to a remake ( rip off is more like it) is Michael Bay's 2005 film, The Island, which was pretty terrible. I think the basic premise of this franchise could work as a series, again by HBO or AMC.

 

2001: A Space Odyssey

There is no denying that this film is one of the most influential films in both sci fi and film history in general. However, it is very slow and plodding in some parts. I think that such a movie could be remade into a series, and updated with better pacing. Season one could draw on the entire movie as inspiration and loose adaptationfor the overall arc of season 1, with new elements added, namely depicting HAL slowly going "insane," if that is the right word. Season 2's arc could loosely adapt 2010. This would especially work if HBO did it, in the same way they did Westworld.

 

So, what do you think of these ideas? Would they work, or not so much? What are your ideas for a reboot or revival?

Phantasm: Eh, I don't know. The film is so connected to the culture of the 70s, that I feel a remake would go the way of the bastardized Rob Zombie Halloween: all style (upside down/Zombie trash culture style) and none of the heart which made the original a film event.

 

Logan's Run: Although I remain a big fan of the 1976 movie, I also read the novel, and would prefer any new LR film take all of its inspiration from that book. As influential as the film was, the '67 novel is the (obvious) greater exploration--and more of anything attempted by the movie. For such a revered sci-fi novel, its a surprise that a properly faithful adaptation has not been produced yet.

 

2001: Wha--?? Here's a couple of baseball bats. You and Tank beat each other into a deep sleep (thank you, Logan's Run) until you come to your senses about remaking that gem of gems!

 

To be sure, this is a wish list of mine. But when it comes to Phantasm, I, too, am cynical in that I agree that more likely an attempt to capture the 1970s feel would turn out like you are saying. But when I see a show like Stranger Things, and how it captures the look and feel of 1980s films, I think capturing the 1970s feel, and original Phantasm's vibe is possible.

 

Adapting the novel Logan's Run, at least for the first episode (or season), would be a great idea.

 

Finally, as Tank alludes to, I am not saying remake Kurbick. I am saying remake the premise. No one should remake a Kubrick film and try to do it the same way Kurick did. Keep the plot elements, at least loosely, but do it in a modernistic way. If HBO can take the excellent, but definitely DATED film like Westworld ( a Crichton movie, which would not surprise me if it was some influence on Terminator) and remake that into a series, and do it very well, then surely 2001 could use the same treatment.

 

 

The Ox Bow Incident: Which is about out of town cowboys who get accused of stealing cattle. The mob mentality takes over and the men are hung based on flimsy evidence only to find out they were innocent. Set it modern times with a terror attack and the some local Muslims are accussed of it.

That basic Oxbow Incident of mob mentality premise seems to pop up quite a bit. The Crucible too, for that matter. And I believe there was a 24 episode approaching that premise with a terror attack and innocent Muslims were scape goats for violence, too.

 

If someone wanted to remake Ox Bow Incident, then keep the original premise as a 19th century Western setting.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

That is not to say I am shooting down your idea. Just pointing out the fact that the part of the story you want to keep from Oxbow Incident, is a pretty common theme, and isn't unique to the story. But I think it would be interesting to see a remake of Oxbow Incident just for the sake modernizing it, and keeping it in he collective memory, because it does have an important message to tell.

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That is not to say I am shooting down your idea. Just pointing out the fact that the part of the story you want to keep from Oxbow Incident, is a pretty common theme, and isn't unique to the story. But I think it would be interesting to see a remake of Oxbow Incident just for the sake modernizing it, and keeping it in he collective memory, because it does have an important message to tell.

Well, you are right now that I think of it. The idea of mob mentality is not unique to that movie. My thought process would be to try to keep it sort of inside that one town. Like some Muslims show up, shortly after there is an attack, which is part of attacks all over the nation so that communication between that town and the outside is shut off. The people blame the newly shown up Muslims.

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I mentioned a Cannonball Run revival a few years ago. My thought was to use the Connvention Circuit as a backdrop, with the celebrities being bored with their marketing commitments so one of them proposes a race from one convention to the another, from New York to San Deigo.

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