Film at Eleven

In a new variation on the current fad for remaking every film for which the copyright can be bought, Fangoria is reporting that Jack Hill has been joined by director/cinematographer Mark Atkins to remake a number of Hill’s ’60s and ’70s low-budget features.

Scheduled to be updated are three films that starred Boris Karloff: House of Evil, Fear Chamber and Isle of the Snake People. The rights to a fourth Hill film, The Sinister Invasion, are currently being negotiated; also in the package will be a never-filmed original Hill script, Squirm (no relation to Jeff Lieberman’s killer-worm opus).

The only good thing in all this is that Squirm may finally get made. For the rest, we really don’t need any more remakes - especially not when they are being launched on a production line such as this.

Sci-Fi Wire (via) appear to be quite desperate to get the hype machine going for Death Race 3000, the upcoming remake of Roger Corman’s seminal exploitation flick.

On the subject of Death Race 2000, they quote Corman as saying:

I like Death Race 2000 very much. It won a poll as the greatest B movie ever made. I think what made it work was the idea of killing the old lady and getting 10 points. And, also, we were talking really about the manipulation of society and the bloodlust that was in it. I thought if you go back to gladiatorial games—if you look at wrestling and these various things that are brutal—the audience loves it. You go to car races, and everybody wants to see the crashes. So it was partially that which led to Death Race 2000.

However, even though he has a producer credit for the remake, which is to be directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (not a good sign) - who also co-wrote the screenplay (a really bad sign) - Corman sounds less than enthusiastic about it.

Technically, according to the contract, I am executive producer. They send me each script; I have discussion and send my notes, but I don’t spend that much time on it, because I don’t believe I will have that much influence.

To me, this sounds very much like it’s going to be another Rollerball.

Another one from the Asian remake pile is the news (via) that Tom and Charlie Guard are in talks to direct a remake of Ji-woon Kim’s A Tale of Two Sisters for DreamWorks.

Kim’s original film is based on a classic Korean folk tale infused with ’70s British horror. The DreamWorks version centers on modern-day teenage sisters…

There is nothing else to add.

A while ago there were a number of stories floating around about a possible remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Then the stories ground to a halt and I assumed that they had been little more than rumours and speculation.

Now, according to Bloody Disgusting (via), the film is back in development, under the wing of Platinum Dunes.

According to Platinum Dunes’ Brad Fuller:

“We are considering remaking The Birds, but our remake is not based on the Hitchcock film. It is based on the Daphne Du Maurier short story. So while the concept of birds attacking will be the same, the plot is totally different from Hitchcock’s film. We are currently in the process of developing the script.”

So, according to Fuller, it’s not a remake - it’s another adaptation of the same book. Fair enough, you may say.

However, Platinum Dunes were also responsible for the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake andThe Amityville Horror remake. They are also producing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel, yet another Friday the 13th sequel and a remake of The Hitcher.

If they are behind another version of The Birds, it’s safe to say that it will be a remake and it will be crap.

What is is with all these bloody remakes at the moment? I still haven’t been able to get through the trailer for the moronic remake of The Wicker Man and now it emerges that New Line is planning a remake of Battle Royale.

Producer Neal Moritz (who recently went all Japanese for Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) and regular Asian remake guru Roy Lee are attached, but there’s no director or writer on board yet. We’d like to point out here that there’s some irony in Moritz’ company being called Original Film.

Irony indeed.