Et Tu, Hollywood?

April 16th, 2008 by balam | Posted in Sci-Fi |

Hollywood, I love you. Sometimes you really come through for me. But today, you have a lot to answer for. For example, this:

The second is the long-coming dreaded remake of Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai.” I know what you’re thinking, “But ‘The Magnificent Seven’ was a remake of ‘Seven Samurai’ and that wasn’t terrible.” True enough. In fact there are even a few things in John Sturges’s western that I like better (James Coburn is in it, for example). But here’s what TWC has in mind: “Seven Samurai” will start shooting in the fourth quarter for release in 2009. The cast will feature American, European and Asian stars, and a director is in advanced talks with TWC.

Guys, NO! What are you doing? Do me a favor from now on, and remake movies that had promising stories or concepts, but which failed to deliver excellent final products, okay? And by this, I absolutely do NOT mean that you should do the following:

Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Entertainment has acquired the screen rights to Japanese manga “Ghost in the Shell,” and they have plans to adapt the cyber-punk thriller as a 3-D live action feature. The film will follow the story of Motoko Kusanagi, a member of the covert operations section of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission, which specializes in technology-related crime.

GAH! Somebody bring me a drink.