Hiatus

I'm off for a couple weeks' vacation, during which I probably won't have a chance to post. I'll leave you with something a bit lengthier to tide you over: thoughts on 2007's The Hills Have Eyes 2: a sequel to a remake, but not, as one might have thought, a remake of a sequel.

See you in September!

Plastic Straw Dogs

Rod Lurie's an interesting guy. He's been a soldier, an investigative reporter, a critic, and the usual batch of filmmaker credits: producer, writer, director, all of these verging on political activist with films like Deterrence, the almost-great but deeply flawed The Contender, and the upcoming first-amendment thriller (one of my favorite subgenres) Nothing But The Truth.

He also seems like a fairly intelligent man. That said, his decision to remake Sam Peckinpah's 1971 arguable classic (I'm in the "yes" camp) Straw Dogs seem a little iffy. Like Last House on the Left, it's a grim, violent movie still capable of shocking today, and as such, not particularly in need of updating or revisiting. More puzzling are Lurie's comments on the movie, which he calls lazy, lesser Peckinpah, calling the movie "slow" and its themes "murky."

The pace and murk are both absolutely crucial to the meaning of Straw Dogs. I'm not going to go into a specific change Lurie speaks about, because it spoils a crucial moment of the film, but if you've already seen Straw Dogs, you can read about it here. Suffice it to say Lurie's cited change (he's writing it himself) indicates that he either misunderstands Peckinpah's gist or disagrees so strongly that he can't bring himself to maintain it - but then why remake Straw Dogs? Revenge actioners seem to be the order of the day (at my last theatrical jaunt, the Death Sentence preview was immediately followed by the preview for The Brave One); surely, enterprising writers will have sufficient scripts flooding the market in the next couple of months (who has the remake rights to Thriller?). Lurie could have his pick. Straw Dogs can be called a lot of harsh things - Joshua Clover calls it "fucked up" in his opening paragraph, and this is in a strong defense of the piece - but it's the murkiness of the themes that makes it worthwhile.

Pod People

Today sees the release of The Invasion, the fourth major film iteration of Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers.

The Invasion started as The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, like the 1956 and 1978 versions. It was shortened to The Invasion, changed to The Visiting to avoid confusion with the William Fichtner-starring TV show called Invasion (also about aliens replacing humans through an organic process), then back to The Invasion when the TV series was cancelled.

The title process has been the least of the film's problems. The original cut by Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall), was deemed unacceptable by the studio, and the Wachowski brothers were brought in to do rewriting; their Matrix and V For Vendetta cohort James McTeigue was brought in for uncredited reshooting.

I recently had occasion (Donald Sutherland's birthday) to briefly mention the 1956 and 1978 versions - let's not neglect Abel Ferrara's 1993 Body Snatchers, an interesting military-based production which may not hold up to the superlative '56 and '78 films, but remains underrated and surprisingly competent for a second remake of a classic.

A brief mention as well to The Asylum's recent DVD issue of Invasion of the Pod People, one of their signature cash-in releases. The fact the movie's been on DVD for three weeks and is still awaiting its fifth vote to qualify for IMDb rating can't be a good sign.

Return to Escape

There are other topics to get to, but as always, John Carpenter remakes tend to get first priority.

The first real news on the Escape From New York remake was breaking just before this blog began. Following the mammoth success of 300, Gerard Butler had been named to star as Snake Plissken in the remake. This news came much to the chagrin of Kurt Russell, who bemoaned anyone but him getting the part, let alone a non-American actor like the Scottish Butler. Later, Russell softened his stance, wishing the remake success.

New development: Len Wiseman is in talks to direct. Wiseman is fresh off the fourth part in the Die Hard series, which I believe is entitled Keep On Rockin' In The Die Hard, or Die Hard 4.0 in Europe. The Die Hard installment is Wiseman's seventh credited film (third as director, having started in the props department), and his first that doesn't feature a monster or alien. Chronologically: Stargate (did he meet Kurt Russell?), Independence Day, Men in Black, Godzilla, and his two directorial efforts, the very poor Underworld and Underworld: Evolution.

Script is by Ken Nolan and apparently combines the basic plot of the 1981 film with some prequel/reboot origin story built in. Nolan's only produced film screenplay is Black Hawk Down, although he's also working on an adaptation of Whitley Streiber's novel The Grays for Sam Raimi.

Escape From New York spawned a 1996 sequel, Escape From L.A., which was widely disregarded - but which screened at the L.A. Film Festival earlier this year under the "Los Angeles Destroys Itself" series, and was cited (at least by one enthusiastic program guide copywriter) as "ripe for rediscovery and appreciation."

Carpenter had interest in shooting a third flick, Escape From Earth, but it never materialized. Escape From L.A. had cleared only about half its $50 million budget domestically, topping out at just over $40 mil worldwide. An Escape From L.A. remake seems unlikely (the plot too similar to New York), so if the New York remake does well, perhaps the Earth project could reappear as the remake's sequel.

Post-Rider

Speaking of the worse-than-you-thought-possible Ghost Rider (never a particularly good idea), a sequel is at the script stage. The $110 million flick opened with $52m and went on to clear a little over its budget at the U.S. box office, and almost twice that worldwide. DVDs topped the charts for a couple weeks and have sold well.

Writer/director Mark Steven Johnson, after three consecutive superhero movies (Daredevil and spinoff Elektra) and his work as executive producer and writer on the upcoming comic adaptation Preacher (in development for a one-issue-per-episode series format on HBO for some time now after a proposed film version fell through), has said in interviews that he may be done with comics for now (cue rejoicing in comic shops).

Ghost Rider 2 is set for 2009.

Cheesy Riders

With Wild Hogs due out today on DVD, a bit of related info.

Right around the time Wild Hogs hit theaters to big bucks, Disney greenlit Old Dogs. It's not related, but reteaming Travolta with director Walt Becker for a similarly named flick about middle-aged antics, it's also not surprising that it pops up in the same discussions.

On the sequel side, Wild Hogs 2 is in the works as well. John Travolta has been hemming and hawing over it in interviews, so we'll see how the casting works out. Expect Travolta to falter, the studio to realize William H. Macy, Martin Lawrence, and Tim Allen might drop out if they see Travolta gone, and offer them all a sizeable sum. I'm assuming none of them died in the end of the first one?

Wild Hogs was at the center of a Hollywood scuffle early this summer. After the unsurprisingly panned Norbit and Ghost Rider made good dough, Wild Hogs repeated the trick, causing a minor imbroglio, with critics on one side and studio execs and directors on the other. For instance, an interview Brian Robbins (director of Norbit, producer of Wild Hogs, probably watched Ghost Rider) gave to the Hollywood Reporter, giving up on making movies for hard-to-please critics and defending the intelligence and taste of the American public, who flocked to all three flicks. Similarly, in a widely circulated editorial, Variety head honcho Peter Bart politely suggested that critics "should consider a sabbatical until September" and leave populist fare alone. By God, if Peter Bart doesn't think I should see Wild Hogs, I won't see Wild Hogs!

re: RE

Further Resident Evil sequel news, less filmic but more controversial. Capcom's recent release of an extended HD trailer for Resident Evil 5 (video game, not movie) has raised some eyebrows with footage of a white protagonist killing African villagers. Seen through the framework of the Resident Evil story, it's a new location to kill zombies (or infected humans, as the series moves away from its roots in traditional shamblers, inspired by the recent filmic developments in speedy zombie technologies); for people who have less context, the imagery is problematic.

Rather than foment the vicious name-calling and repetition of the same few points that has plagued the feedback sections of others who write on this topic (much better two-way conversations could have resulted by the substitution of "insensitive" for "racist," leading to inquisitions about why it's insensitive rather than knee-jerk defense, accusations that those who cry racism are racist, etc.), we'll just provide a basic recap for those who aren't following along. Comments are always welcome, but several hundred (par for the course on several of the blogs taking a stand) is a little heavy. Calm discussion encouraged.

The basics:
-Extended trailer released at E3.
-Casual conversation on various gaming forums raises topic.
-Village Voice publishes article. Hundreds of comments, mostly negative.
-Very brief, poorly explained post at Black Looks; after a hundred or so comments (some rational, many nasty ad hominem attacks), author claims post was "a bit tongue in cheek."
-Story picked up on Digg and elsewhere, spread widely.

The hubbub has died down for now. We'll have to wait and see if it rears its head as the game nears release, which won't be until sometime in 2009.


READ MORE ABOUT IT

Blackface Goes HD - another criticism, changes argument numerous times, lacks a cohesive point.
Just Plain Loco - blackface in other games, unrelated but timely as race-in-games becomes a discussable topic. Also, unlike above post, seems to know what "blackface" actually means.
Internet 1, Civility 0 - moment of lucidity in favor of those trying to note an issue objectively. Responds to the LocoRoco post directly above, but applies to RE5 discussion as well.
The Resident Evil 5 Racism Issue - a calm, reasonable look from a legal perspective.
That Notorious “Resident Evil 5″ Trailer And The People I Met In Africa - non-reactionary, personal explanation of the problem, much more useful for starting conversation.

2 Feast 2 Furious

Clu Gulager's kid, John, had moderate success with his directorial debut Feast, a low-budget (just over $3 million) but slick splatterfest hatched out of the Project Greenlight TV series. The movie's an odd creature, plagued by some bad clichés and 180% too much sped-up strobe in anything resembling an action sequence, but still fairly entertaining, and not without a few legitimately surprising and daring moments (which in a monsters-attack-sequestered-humans-overnight flick is worthy of at least a little admiration).

Co-writer Marcus Dunstan mentioned to Fangoria magazine The Weinstein Company's interest in commissioning Gulager & co. for second and third installments of Feast. As with the first, it'd likely be released by TWC subdivision Dimension. Late in 2006, The Weinstein Company signed a four-year contract to supply DVD rentals exclusively to Blockbuster (if you've driven past a Blockbuster and wondered why there was an eight foot poster for Bobby in the window, this partnership is the reason, and not anybody's misguided faith in Bobby).

It's a strange arrangement, given Blockbuster's squeamishness and the Feast makers' obvious intent to push the envelope - but then, Blockbuster seems to have no problem with extreme violence, as long as it's stickered UNRATED and not NC-17. With theatrical release unlikely - the first film, even with a season-long TV presence worth of visibility, barely hit theaters - it looks like Netflix users will have to illegally download these.

Stir occasionally

This Sunday, the Sci Fi network will premiere Stir of Echoes 2: The Homecoming, under the Sci Fi Original Movie banner. Formerly known as Stir of Echoes: The Dead Speak, the flick stars Rob Lowe as a returning Iraq vet with visions of the dead. It has no evident direct connection to the 1999 thriller starring Kevin Bacon and Illeana Douglas, written and directed by the perennially uneven David Koepp. The first was moderately successful, taking in about $21 million on a $12m investment, but hit theaters about a month after The Sixth Sense, which was still doing gangbuster business well into the five-week mark, drawing off much of Stir's would-be revenue.

Writer/director on the sequel is Ernie Barbarash, whose sequel work includes screenplays on Cube²: Hypercube and Cube Zero (the third installment, which one would be forgiven for expecting to be called Cube³ - they went with Cube squared but not cubed?), and a director credit on the latter.

Stir of Echoes 2 does not appear to be based on a Richard Matheson novel.

Resurrection edition

The Resident Evil series has been pretty ambitious about its DVD special features. The first DVD release ("Special Edition") was solid enough, with five featurettes and commentary from Paul W.S. Anderson, producer Jeremy Bolt, and leads Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez - but the later "Deluxe Edition" added a visual effects commentary, a good half dozen more featurettes, an alternate ending, preview of RE 2 from Fangoria, etc.

The DVD treatment of the sequel, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, is worthy of the Criterion Collection. Three separate commentary tracks (filmmakers, cast, and writer/producer), previews, twenty deleted scenes, cast outtakes, a six-part making-of feature, a poster gallery of fan-submitted designs, and featurettes on special effects, the emergence of female action stars in film, and my favorite, Corporate Malfeasance: a featurette "on the real world similarities to the Umbrella Corporation."

As efforts are ramped up for the September 21 theatrical release of Resident Evil: Extinction (a restricted red-band trailer has just hit, complete with various types of head-busting), Screen Gems will release a 2-disc RE package on September 4th, Resident Evil: Resurrected Edition. There's already a set of the first two films, but there are always new special features to pack in.

The new edition will sacrifice some of the features of the earlier editions, so real fans will have to keep the old ones and still buy the new one. Specifically, the new set will feature a photo gallery, a new preview of RE 3 (and a voucher for a ticket), and various featurettes, including an Undead Boot Camp segment, Diary of an Apocalypse, a Memory Retension Division feature, and a Zombie Dog P.O.V. test - Murnau would be proud!

Most interesting, however, is a "bridging scene" to connect parts 2 and 3 of the series. Though early reports had claimed it would be newly shot footage, it's been revealed that it'll consist of clips from the first two films, albeit with newly recorded voiceover (in character) by Milla Jovovich. Could it be the first example of canonical material recorded for a DVD special feature? Rebuttals welcomed.

That would be... just fine.

Darkman was released to theaters on August 24, 1990. I know because I was there. Two months later, I set out in full Darkman regalia to gather candy from neighborhood houses.

Sam Raimi made movies with style then (up to and including 1995). Darkman features a fine new monster-hero, played with tortured gusto by Liam Neeson, who'd been working steadily and well since I had last seen him in Krull, but wouldn't hit star status for a few more years with 1993's Schindler's List (one could make a case for 1992's Husbands and Wives). As the heavy, Robert G. Durant, a creepy turn by Larry Drake, the guy who'd won Emmy awards the previous two years for playing a developmentally disabled office assistant on L.A. Law. Playing against type worked for Drake, and he immediately landed the lead in Dr. Giggles, as well as cementing his Durant role in future installments.

Additionally to Darkman's credit: excellent special effects, real comic-book style, a great Phantom of the Opera sensibility, and a machine gun leg, a good decade and a half before Robert Rodriguez digitized one onto Rose McGowan's shapely stump.

In 1992, a TV pilot was shot, with Christopher Bowen in the lead and Larry Drake back as Durant. It was never aired, but Darkman's fair success was enough to keep the franchise going.

Today we get a DVD mini-box release of all three Darkman films. Liam Neeson was too big by 1994 to have anything to do with a direct-to-video Darkman sequel, so Arnold Vosloo took over the Peyton Westlake role. Larry Drake reprised his role as advertised: Darkman II: The Return of Durant. Finally, Vosloo returned to face off with Jeff Fahey in Darkman III: Die, Darkman, Die.

Darkman spawned a Nintendo game, action figure, novelization series, and comic books, including one in which he crossed over with another Raimi franchise: Darkman Vs. Army of Darkness. Sam Raimi sure made films with style in 1992.

puts

Cravin' more remake news? Check out thes one: a redo of 1991's fairly liked People Under the Stairs (directed by Craven from his own script), due 2008. The current title is Wes Craven Presents People Under the Stairs, which sounds like a hedge; Craven is listed as director on Shocker ('09), but only as executive producer on People Under the Stairs. The producer? According to IMDb, 16-year-old Dakota Thomas, also on board for the Shocker remake. Sean S. Cunningham is signed up as co-producer.

Now he's really mad!

Like John Carpenter, Wes Craven will have his entire catalog remade when all is said and done. Last House on the Left isn't the only one currently in the works: Midnight Pictures is working on a 2009 release for Shocker: No More Mr. Nice Guy. Craven's silly but entertaining 1989 Shocker featured a homicidal TV repairman whose death in the electric chair sparks a murderous rampage, as he returns for vengeance through electric current and the power of television.

While the subtitle makes it sound like a sequel, the original Shocker used the subtitle in some releases, and as a tagline in print advertising. Don't be surprised if the new film drops the subtitle well before the release date.

Craven is planning to direct. In negotiations for the lead role of Horace Pinker: Kane Hodder, who has parlayed a series of cameos (based on his Jason Voorhees fame, as directors increasingly stock their horror films with in-jokes to curry fan[boy] favor) into meatier roles. It's not a bad match: both have mediocre bands named after them.

The role was originated by the surprisingly age-resistant Mitch Pileggi, only four years older than Hodder. Maybe Hodder will drop out and Pileggi will have a chance to reprise the part...

It's only a remake...it's only a remake

In August of 2006 , Rogue Pictures closed a deal to remake The Last House on the Left, Wes Craven's dirty, vicious, and excellent 1972 debut feature. A low-budget shocker, Last House was a hit in theaters and a mainstay of video-nasty rental for years. Though it has had no official sequel or remake, its success inspired a raft of copycats. "Last House" has become genre shorthand, at first for gritty exploitation, then eventually for any film purporting to shock. Many are flicks from Italian genre heavyweights reclassified for American release. A primer:

1972: Mario Bava's seminal Bay of Blood re-released in U.S. as Last House on the Left, Part II
1977: Last House on Dead End Street, Roger Michael Watkins
1977: Hitchhike (U.S. video title Hitchhike: Last House on the Left) Pasquale Festa Campanile, stars Last House on the Left's chief heavy (and soundtrack composer/singer) David Hess
1978: The Seventh Woman (U.S. title The Last House on the Beach), Franco Prosperi
1979: Sensitività (U.S. title The Last House Near the Lake) Enzo G. Castellari
1980: The House on the Edge of the Park, Ruggero Deodato, starring David Hess
2002: Last House on Hell Street (aka Beyond the Last House on the Left) Robin Garrels & John Specht
2006: Chaos (went into production as House in the Middle of Nowhere), David DeFalco
2006: The Forest Outside (U.S. title Last House in the Woods) Gabriele Albanesi

As with Hess's acting career, the films taper off, then pick up again in recent years as a new generation of would-be directorial extremists look up the classics to crib from them.

Director is Dennis Iliadis, writer is Adam Alleca; the remake takes place under the watchful eyes of Craven and Sean S. Cunningham, who produced the original. Production will begin sometime in 2008.

Various Voyages

MGM is prepping the return of Bill & Ted. Creators Chris & Ed (Matheson and Solomon) tried to get a third flick made a few years ago: Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves were both into the idea, but Reeves' manager thought it was a bad idea. It's hard to imagine the movie being much fun with Eric Christian Olsen and Derek Richardson.

The third film is still in the outline stage.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure was followed by Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, video games, an Evan Dorkin comic book, an annual Halloween stage show at Universal Studios Orlando, Bill & Ted's Excellent Cereal (and numerous other tie-ins and products), a stage musical, and two TV series, both called Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures. An animated version with Winter, Reeves, and George Carlin doing voice work ran two seasons; a live-action version starring Evan Richards and Christopher Kennedy ran just eight episodes.