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But, well, there have been two announcements in the past couple of weeks that've been testing my 2020 era saintly patience. Firstly this past Tuesday it was announced that celebrated producer Amy Pascal has set her eyes on remaking (deep breath) Charles Laughton's 1955 masterpiece The Night of the Hunter. Hunter, which stars Robert Mitchum as a morality-spewing wife-murderer in preacher garb with tattooed knuckles, is the only film the famed, closeted Laughton ever directed, and is one of the greatest movies ever made, full stop. It holds up to this day as a portrait of religious hypocrisy and simultaneous surreal beauty. It's a perfect goddamned thing.
Pascal has hired Matthew Orton, who is, let me check my notes, the writer of Operation Finale, the 2018 WWII movie starring Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley, which was forgotten -- save the scene of Oscar Isaac rasslin' around with dudes in some tight shorts -- approximately a week after it was released, to write this remake. Of this movie, which has come to be widely recognized one of the greatest films ever made. This person. Okay. They're saying it will be a "contemporary reimagining of the storyline and not a period piece" so... different. That's nice. Whatever, I whisper between clenched teeth, I can go put on my copy of Laughton's film right now, tomorrow, and every day after if I like. All's good.
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Good luck surprising people with the twist like this one did. #justfineasis https://t.co/CTFMIuZteZ— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) April 8, 2020
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4 comments:
I thought it was earlier, but according to IMDB Night of the Hunter was remade as a tv movie in 1991 with Richard Chamberlain as Powell. Since Night of the Hunter was seared in my brain when I saw it as a child in my small town movie house in the South I remember approaching this remake with great skepticism. And while I have never seen it again, it is supposedly available on Amazon. I thought the movie was terrible at the time and sullied the value of the at the time also underappreciated Laughton film. If you are curious here is where you can find it on IMDB. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102533/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3
NOOOOOO... why remake a wonderful film like The Others. Even knowing the big 'twist,' I can still watch that movie and be spooked by it.
Why remake King Kong, A Star is Born (the Streisand version, the Lady Gaga isn't bad), The Day the Earth Stood Still, Leave Her to Heaven (TV movie with Loni Anderson), Anna and the King of Siam (I just can't bring myself to watch the Jodie Foster version), War of the Worlds, Charade, or as you mentioned, that Meg Ryan mess supposedly based on the brilliant 1939 comedy The Women.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Peter Bogdanovich some years ago and he said if you're going to remake something, you remake a good story that wasn't made very well, not King Kong or A Star is Born. Since then, I've looked to see what could be remade. There's a Jean Harlow-Clark Gable movie called Hold Your Man. Good story, but the movie isn't very good. The Norma Shearer Robert Montgomery Private Lives is horrible. They get the first act right, but after that the script goes out the window, and the second and third acts of the play are hilarious. Noel Coward's Design for Living was laundered beyond recognition. That could be remade in a manner worthy of Coward.
On the other hand, one remake that works is the Mel Brooks Anne Bancroft To Be or Not To Be, but the problem is that ad good as it is, it keeps people from seeing the original with Carole Lombard and Jack Benny giving his best performance on film!
We don't need a remake of a masterpiece like Night of the Hunter, though. How dare they?
Night of the Hunter was wonderful until Lillian Gish showed up. Couldn't stand her character and the totally forced happy ending. I'm all for remaking it if they will actually go with an ending that lives up to the first and second acts promise.
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