MOVIE NEWS …
HOLLYWOOD AND REMAKES
With the release of the A-Team, it has become obvious that Hollywood is looking back to remake big screen movies and TV series. The A-Team starring Liam Neeson is a remake of a popular 80s TV hit.
Aussie actor Alex OLoughlin will star in a remake in a TV version of Hawaii Five-O to be released later in 2010.
Will Smith has produced a remake of hit '80s movie The Karate Kid, starring his son Jaden with Jackie Chan as Mr. Han..
A 3D sequel to Ghostbusters is production with the remake of '80s horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street already released.
"The trend internationally is that the '80s are back in fashion," the managing partner of media company MindShares, Mark McCraith, said.
"These movies and TV shows dovetail perfectly into Generation Y and Generation Z consumer trends."
The '70s has been inspiration for movie remakes of Charlie's Angels and Starsky and Hutch, the '80s for updated versions of Miami Vice and Knight Rider, and the '90s for Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210.
A movie version of '90s TV series Baywatch is set for 2011. Noughties hit Sex and the City has already spawned two movie sequels.
The old saying, "everything old is new again" is definitely true.
"For older people, these movies and TV shows are tried and trusted brands and they can also capture a whole new (younger) audience," Mr McCraith said.
Media analyst Steve Allen is more sceptical. He said the trend had been fuelled more by a lack of ideas by executives than nostalgia.
"Rarely are the remakes as good as the originals," Mr Allen said. "Just reaching back into the old tool box is no guarantee of success. It screams out we've got nothing else on offer."
Some remakes have been outright duds.
A planned TV remake of The Rockford Files, with Dermot Mulroney playing detective Jim Rockford - the role made famous by James Garner - was so bad it never made it to air.
"The pilot looked like it was shot in the seventies. You didn't even know it was the current day until Jim pulled out his mobile," an NBC source said.
Nicole Kidman's version of Bewitched, Robin William’s remake of the 1961 The Absent Professor as Flubber and Will Ferrell's Land of the Lost were amongst other remakes that just did not make it.
The remake of Get Smart, with Steve Carrell taking over from Don Adams as secret agent Maxwell Smart, got so-so reviews.
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