With the release of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” just days away, Movies.ie asks what you think of Hollywood remakes…
After over 50 years, the classic sci-fi flick “The Day the Earth Stood Still” gets a Hollywood remake with Scott Derrickson at the helm. Updating the 1951 sci-fi classic’s Cold War and religious themes, Keanu Reeves stars as Klaatu, the mysterious man from another world, who has come to warn us that unless we change our gluttonous ways and pay more attention to the planet’s needs, aliens will swoop down and destroy us all for good…
For fans of sci-fi and the original film, remaking “The Day the Earth Stood Still” may be considered blasphemous but as director Derrickson pointed out in a recent Movies.ie interview (video interview Coming Soon!), the majority will not have seen the original and in his words “it’s a story worthy of having a modern audience experience”.
This got us thinking about the nature of Hollywood and that ever-contentious issue: the Hollywood remake. With so many bad remakes out there (Planet of the Ape, The Stepford Wives etc.) it’s easy to generalise and lament Hollywood as drab and uninspired. It’s all to easy to don’t forget that for every Nicole Kidman pic, there’s a “12 Monkeys”, an “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, even Hollywood’s classic 1939 “The Wizard of Oz” is technically a remake with the first Oz released 29 years earlier!
With this in mind, Movies.ie poses the question to you readers: The Hollywood remake – yea or nay? Have your say in the poll and comment area below.
Do you have a film you want to see remade or perhaps one you fervently protest? Let us know below!
“The Day the Earth Stood Still” is in Irish cinemas from Friday, December 12.