A petition against movie remakes(needs research)

[cjkrythos]

After seeing some info on certain remakes that are getting produced, Ive decided that someone ought to step up and see if we cant encourage movie producers to start considering books, comics/webcomics, and even Animes and cartoons for movies before they pull crap scripts out of their A$$es and slap them into a movie, or just remake an old masterpiece into new garbage. Im gonna create a petition for just that purpose, but Im gonna need some help. Ive already posted on another forum for some friends to try and think of some such movies, but hopefully I can get you folks to do the same. Im looking for old movies that got remade into new crappy movies. If the new one ended up ruining the reputation of the previous movie, try and list info on the box office ratings of the two movies and DVD sales if you can get ahold of that info.

Ill need the original airing date of the first version of the movie, along with the airing dates of any remakes. Any info regarding the ratings that you could provide would be helpful.

Also, if you know of sites where people can get this info, but dont have the time to look it up yourself, please post, Ill see what I can do about researching it.

Finally, Im looking for books, webcomics, and other such things that would make perfect movies. Try not to focus on werewolves. I know thats our area of specialty and im sure between the lot of us, we could name a couple hundred, but I want to try and diversify the list of possible movie candidates.

thanks for any help you can offer.

CJ

[Vuldari]

I'm only against remakes if they are cheap, low quality cash-ins on popular old franchises/stories.

However, when they are actually well done, I enjoy them very, very much ... and love to at least see people TRY to bring back classic old characters and stories from time to time.

For example, I'm quite pleased that they are doing a re-make of the classic "Wolfman", though I'm nervous about what it's final quality is going to be.

Likewise, it brings a smile to my face when I hear rumors of people bringing back classic Characters like "Buck Rogers", or new takes on classic novels that have already been made into movies several times in the past.

I'd sign a petition against lousy directors and studios making awful re-makes of movies that were done much better 30-50 years ago ... but not against re-makes as a whole. I love Good remakes/revivals.

[Kaebora]

This petition is pointless. Fans have no say over what people do with the franchises they own. Even 1,000,000 signatures wont have any legal rights against someone's intelectual property. The public outcry can be seen in the financial figures. If it sells, they use it. If it doesn't they rethink their strategy. There will always be remakes, including badly made ones. It can't be helped, as producers and directors have always been addicted to easy money. Taking chances on something new that could fail is a fear Hollywood has always had. Pixar Studios is one of those groups that is totally against unoriginal work of any kind. Their progress has made many moviemakers rethink their business concepts, but not eliminate sequels and remakes completely.

I stick by my simple plan. If a movie sucks, don't watch it.

[Scott Gardener]

We're pretty much voting with our cash on this one, but our votes get drowned out by the rest of the consumer electorate. Remakes are done so much because according to current formulas and calculations done by marketing firms, they make money. Adapting video games seems a lot riskier, so while Bioshock, the movie, may have squeezed past the formulas to get the green light, it's doubtful we'll get to see Okami rendered on the big screen any time soon. Comics tend to do better.

The trick is convincing studios to be a little more brave about stepping outside the formulas. Unfortunately, a lot of historical steps outside the formula have produced a sizable library of excellent movies that haven't sold very well. And, while directors, editors, and playwrights may be artists, studios are in it for the money. Not that they are evil, but because they are businesses, and a business is by design supposed to be in it for the money--a business that's not in it for the money isn't doing its job.

What this ultimately means is that if we want to see braver experimentation and less rehashing, we have to be willing to watch said movies, listen to independent music rather than Hip Hop Top 40, and channel flip off of the major networks. Actually, for me that's not very hard, though I do confess to still enjoying as a guilty pleasure the formulaic blockbusters like Transformers.

[cjkrythos]

meh, thats the problem, voting with our cash only works if we know for a fact how bad the movie will be even before we spend the money to go see it. If you go see it, unless you demand your money back, and unless at least half of the people who go see it grow enough balls to demand their money back as well, Its quite likely they will make enough of a profit off the horrible remake that the loss of reputation wont matter at all.

THATS why im looking to make this petition. and I dont expect it to stop them altogether, I just figure it might make them think twice about remaking a sh*t ton of old movies as opposed to doing films on perfectly good books.

[Terastas]

Kaebora and Scott pretty much summed it up; we, the appreciators of the art, are the smallest minority, and they are only themselves in it for the money. Movie remakes are easier since they already own the rights to it (as opposed to some artsy-fartsy schmuck that may badmouth it to the press if it's anything but flawless), and ultimately they don't care what the movie is about as long as people see it (which I thought we'd already established that in the Beverly Hills Chihuahua thread).

Chances are if we did start a petition, they'd probably just look at it as another tantrum by the art-types. The only place Hollywood will feel our wrath is in the wallet; if you really want to make a statement, all you have to do is not see their crap remakes and go see an original movie instead.