Upcoming Sci-Fi/Comic Book Film Remakes That Will Crush the Originals
With a recent spike in bad film remakes (War of the Worlds) and planned remakes (The Karate Kid), we decided to take a more positive approach. Here are five four movie remakes that are going to absolutely destroy their originals:
CLASH OF THE TITANS
Story: The 1981 film, which centers on Perseus (son of Zeus) and his quest to save the princess Andromeda from the dreaded Kraken monster. A young hunkish Harry Hamlin played Perseus, and Laurence Olivier was Zeus. Burgess Meredith, of Rocky fame, was Perseus’s sometime sidekick.
The remake: With an outstanding cast that includes Liam Neeson as Zeus, Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation) as Perseus, sexy Alexa Davalos as Andromeda, and Ralph Fiennes as Hades, this movie should deliver plenty of great performances. The story for the remake appears to have changed somewhat, seeing that they’ve added Hades to the 2010 version.
Why it will crush the original: Technology. Remember the awful metal owl in the original? Those special effects were anything but special. With CGI, the monsters and demons should be top notch. Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Big Chill) wrote the screenplay, so the story should be solid. We’re betting Clash of the Titans is a top 5 grossing film of 2010. The film hits theaters next March.
CAPTAIN AMERICA
Story: A long-frozen Steve Rogers is thawed out to battle his arch enemy, The Red Skull.
The remake: It appears that the movie will be a complete reboot. We’ll see Steve Rogers become Captain America and battle during World War II. The budget should be pretty stout.
Why it will crush the original: Have you seen the 1990 version? It can’t get any worse than that. No word on who will play Cap yet, but you can bet that Marvel will find an A list actor for the role. Captain America will also appear in The Avengers (and most likely other sequels), so this is a huge role. Joe Johnston, who directed Jumanji, The Rocketeer, and Jurassic Park III, should do an outstanding job behind the camera. There is too much riding on this film for it to fail. Scheduled for release Summer 2011.
FLASH GORDON
Story: Football player Flash Gordon travels to the Planet Mongo to battle Ming the Merciless and save the Planet Earth.
The remake: Director Breck Eisner was quoted as saying, “you’ve got to throw away the 80s version of it…it’s about reinventing Flash.”
Why it will crush the original: This is a film about another world’s tryrant attempting to destroy Earth. It isn’t campy. It needs to be, as Eisner states, “intense, aggressive, gritty and real.” Now that Eisner is no longer directing Creature From the Black Lagoon, Flash Gordon should ramp up quickly. This film will hit sometime in late 2010.
JUDGE DREDD
Story: In the future, the justice system has transformed. Judges serve as police, jury, and executioner. The baddest Judge of them all, Dredd, is sentenced for murder. Dredd finds out another Judge shares his DNA, so he has to save himself and stop his evil collegue.
The remake: Word is that the story will take the form of another arc from the comic books. Just guessing here, but we could see something along the lines of The Robot Wars (Judges battle an uprising from the city’s robot workforce) or The Cursed Earth (Dredd and others transport a vaccine for a virus that is destroying a Mega City)
Why it will crush the original: It won’t have Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd. Enough said.
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I haven’t actually seen the original Flash Gordon, but no matter how good the remake will be, it can never compete with a soundtrack by Queen.
there’s only four
The new flash gordon is lucky to share its namesake with that piece of 80s gold. Flash Gordon (80s) was a fantastic flick that was hilariously campy and epic all at once. Plus Queen wrote the soundtrack good luck topping that one. psssshhhhh I agree with the rest of the list though
If you think there could be a better remake of Flash, I suspect you missed the point.. its all about that great music.. bloody awful sets, crappy acting, special effects involving fishing line.. it would have been a shocker if not for the campiness and the brilliant soundtrack and I cant imagine any remake touching it for awesomeness
The Clash of the Titans special effects were done by Ray Harryhausen. A legend in the special effects business. There are many people who watch the film just to see his works. Lots of other films pay homage to his works and his stop motion animation style.
Whoever wrote this article is a gigantic tool.
With the exception of captain america, which couldn’t possibly be worse, the movies will lose all of the charm they had in favor of yet more over-the-top cgi blockbuster circlejerking.
Have we learned nothing from transformers? In what universe does something like “you’ve got to throw away the 80s version of it…it’s about reinventing Flash” sound like a good idea? Destroying the core of the story in favor of some micheal bay-style douchebaggery?
Are you insane?
All of these are just going to be CG cartoons that rape everything that was good about the source material, and people that actually look forward to these abominations and funnel more funds into the pockets of these hacks are the reasons movies are so lame these days.
You and all the faux-sci-fi fans should be ashamed of yourselves.
To stay with the Flash Gordon comments; who will be the next Princess Aura?
Ornella Muti was deliciously awesome in that role.
BOOOOOO!!!!
How dare you dump on any of the work of Ray Harryhausen!!! The guy was an effects genius when they had to be done the old fashioned way – by hand. CGI, technology? Sure, they are great, but they lack any of the heart and soul that real effects have.
2010 they may release the Kracken, but it won’t have any of the life of the one that Harryhausen did back in 1981. Heck, unlike the one in 1981, it won’t even exist.
They better not go all PC and turn him into Ming the polite business man. Although, instead of travelling to the planet Mongo, Ming could have his base on Mars or something.
Flash will be VERY hard to beat. That’s like trying to out do Big Trouble in Little China by making a serious kung fu film.
Oh no, the days of Harryhausen are dead with discussions that this new Clash of the Titans will be better than the original. And Worthington? OMG, did you see Terminator Salvation. Though I am looking forward to the remake, think original will remain as a classic and the remake will be forgotten.
About Flash, I am not a comics reader, but I feel like I am watching a comic book played on-screenwhenever I sit down for some Flash. Again, the remake will be forgotten.
Max Von Sydow as Ming the Merciless? That’s a pretty high bar, my friend, and a great performance. Flash belongs to a different age, and over the top Art Deco spaceships suited it–without its trappings, it’s just another cheap space opera. It must be over-the-top to actually be Flash Gordon. Some new, high-tech, realistic version? Eh. Dispatch war rocket Ajax to bring back its body.
No camp=no fun.
Yes the original Flash Gordon is a classic. Enough about that.
The worst thing about Dredd wasn’t Stallone, it was the lack of respect for the original material. It was as if someone heard about the books, and went ahead and wrote a story. Then someone threw in a robot from a *different* series in the same magazine to make it look like they cared.
By all means, let’s see The Cursed Earth or the Robot Wars (although I’m not sure “Call Me Kenneth” would work on screen), and for drokk’s sake, Dredd, keep your [bleep]ing helmet on this time.
Stallone was awesome as Dredd. Leave well-enough alone.
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war of the worlds was great
Red Skull cast in the first avenger today.. KEVIN BACON set to to star as Bad guy In upcoming film set for 2011. as reported on tv at movienews on channel 12 comcast. 2/22/10