Remakes, Re-Imaginings, Retardation

Three news bits today. In order of interest:

HORTON HEARS A WHO



I loved the book growing up and the cartoon that was made of it. They have a GREAT voice cast for this one as well. Jim Carrey, Steve Carrell, Carol Burnett, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Isla Fisher, Dan Fogler, Amy Poehler, Dane Cook, Jaime Pressly and Jonah Hill are all taking part in this one. AND it's CGI, as opposed to Carrey in an Elephant suit, thank god. I look forward to this one.


TIN MAN



The Sci-Fi Channel, lauded for mini-series and chastised for movies, is re-imagining The World Of Oz book in a series called Tin Man. So far, the cast is Zooey Deschanel (who is awesome in anything) as Dorothy, Alan Cumming (ditto) as 'Glitch' and Richard Dreyfuss as the Wizard (or 'Mystic Man' in this case). Here's more on the story. I'm definitely interested in seeing this and it's about time the Oz books started catching up to Alice In Wonderland in terms and how many times you can remake it and it still be fun to watch. NO, 'The Wiz' doesn't count. It's not watchable.


ESCAPE FROM NY (remake?!)



This is the retarded one in case you couldn't guess. Looks like Gerard Butler (who I enjoy immensely and rocked '300') is lined up to take over the role of Snake Plissken. This? Is stupid. There's nothing WRONG with the original. This is like remaking The Hitcher. Which was perfect in it's original incarnation. The movie isn't old enough. Give it a good 30-40 years at least before a remake for Chrissake. And what's wrong with m'main man Kurt? He still has a good 20 years worth of Plissken in him. He's in the new Tarantino movie, dammit, he can do more Plissken!

Sigh. The real problem is that I'll watch all the casting, get excited, wait for the trailer, get more excited and see it opening weekend. It's a weakness. Ah well.