• Corngood@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      4 days ago

      Dear AI, please upscale this image, but also try to make tons of subtle changes that completely ruin the vibe. Do it in a way that makes it clear that you’ve been trained on lots of images from The Simpsons, but have no idea what the fuck is going on in any of them.

  • Apeman42@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    119
    ·
    6 days ago

    They knew how to do this in the 80s. Little Shop of Horrors, The Fly, and The Thing for example. All remakes that far surpassed the cheesy originals.

  • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    62
    ·
    6 days ago

    The best example is The Thing. The original film in the 1950s was awkward af. But the 1980s remake by John Carpenter was chef’s kiss. Then they made a remake of a remake and it was meh.

    • cobysev@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      35
      ·
      6 days ago

      The 2011 The Thing wasn’t so much a remake as it was a prequel to the remake, telling the story from the Norwegian scientists’ camp.

      The 1982 John Carpenter remake opened with the last two remaining Norwegian scientists chasing “The Thing” until it reaches the Americans’ camp. But they’re misunderstood by the Americans. When trying to shoot at The Thing, which has taken the shape of a sled dog, the Americans instead return fire and kill them. Then the Americans explore the Norwegian camp and try to figure out what horrors killed everyone there, while slowly discovering why they were shooting at a dog in the first place.

      The 2011 film shows what happened to the Norwegians before the 1982 remake. You’re correct, it wasn’t as great of a film (hard to compete with John Carpenter), but it wasn’t exactly a remake.

      • The worst thing about the 2011 prequel is they had filmed the whole movie with practical effects, like the Carpenter movie, which is one of my favorites of all time. If you’ve seen it, you may remember very little of these and a lot of cgi.

        The studio or production company or whatever didn’t like the practical effects and we got cgi Thing instead. I’d love to see the original effects, and I feel so bad for the people who worked so hard on it just to get scrubbed from the final cut.

      • Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        5 days ago

        It was a weird combination of remake and prequel. It hit all the same story points and barely added anything new apart from Tetris aliens.

    • tahoe@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      6 days ago

      You scared me for a second, being only aware of the 80s one I thought you wanted a remake of that lol

    • lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      4 days ago

      Today we see it that way but in the 70s and 80s, the 1950s Thing was hailed as a classic prestige science fiction film. That’s why Carpenter’s version was trashed at the time. It was dismissed as a grotesque barf bag SFX spectacle that completely disregarded what made the original so good.

  • Apeman42@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    6 days ago

    On a vaguely related note, why aren’t we making more movies that take a Shakespeare plot and just stuff it in a different setting without trying to hide it? Like 10 Things I Hate about you was Taming of the Shrew.

    Tell me you wouldn’t watch Mechbeth.

      • cobysev@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        22
        ·
        6 days ago

        The Lion King (1994) is Hamlet.

        “O” (2001) is Othello.

        Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) is based on two minor characters of Hamlet.

        She’s the Man (2006) is Twelfth Night.

        Romeo + Juliet (1996) is a modern-day Romeo and Juliet.

        O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) is Homer’s Odyssey. Not Shakespeare, but a brilliant modern retelling of one of humanity’s oldest surviving stories. In the same vein as the above mentioned films.

        These are all I can think of off the top of my head. Not to mention dozens of modern Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth retellings over the years. Those three alone are the more popular Shakespeare stories for reinvention on the big screen.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      5 days ago

      It’s been done a million times: 10 Things I Hate About You, She’s the Man, West Side Story, The Lion King, Ran, Forbidden Planet, etc.

        • cobysev@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          6 days ago

          I would love to see ReBoot (1994) with modern CG. And also a modernized plot, considering we know so much more about computers and the Internet now.

          1994 was when the Internet started to spread publicly around the world and became a thing you could access from your very own home. It was this cool new technology that connected humanity across the globe, but most people didn’t really understand it yet.

          So shows like ReBoot captured our fascination with the “Information Superhighway” and built a fantasy/sci-fi story around it. Even if it was horribly inaccurate to how computers and the Internet actually worked.

          • AeronMelon@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            8
            ·
            6 days ago

            A group is remastering ReBoot with the blessings of its creators from the original DAT tapes, so they are pixel-perfect HD transfers that one could not have seen on any TV at the time.

            Look it up on YouTube. Reboot doesn’t need to be remade, the original masters still looks smoking hot. They recovered the widescreen versions, too.

            They’re negotiating the rights to do the same thing to Transformers Beast Wars next.

            • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              5 days ago

              It needs to be finished. Damn Cartoon Network for cliffhanger canceling them after reviving them from a hasty finale.

  • FrChazzz@lemmus.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    6 days ago

    This only works on like mid movies, maybe. You can’t do it with a film like Plan 9 from Outer Space or The Room because the jank is part of the appeal. But maybe an actually good version of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? Sucker Punch, but with a better director?

    • hansolo@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 days ago

      Mid movies with an interesting premise. That’s the point of OP’s post.

      Scarface, Omega Man, The Bird Cage, Thomas Crown Affair, Ocean’s 11, Fist Full of Dollars, Vanilla Sky, Wizard of Oz, The Bourne Identity: all remakes. Arguably, the new Dune movies might be considered remakes of a relatively mid original movie, though the new ones are far more tied to the book.

      So taking the 1993 mid kids’ movie Rookie of the Year and adapting it to a modem take where the lead is 19 and plays soccer for Arsenal or whatever, would be what OP means. Or redo the 1993 racist POS movie Falling Down. Or Dave, JFC.

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      6 days ago

      There is no saving Sucker Punch. The fundamental premise of the movie is each rape is a fight scene showing a literal interpretation of a metaphorical struggle. It’s not recoverable.

        • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          4 days ago

          Can it be done? Maybe. But the problem with making a metaphorical struggle a physical fight is that the audience for both is drastically different. Many people affected by rape hold a feeling of helplessness about the event. A Zach Snyder 300 style fight scene is literally about exerting control and overcoming. For a person to make such a drastic emotional pivot begs the question were they were ever feeling at all?

  • ArmchairAce1944
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    4 days ago

    I want something completely different… Pick up rejected movie ideas from the 1920s and 1930s and make them EXACTLY like they would have done back then.

  • mangobanana
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    4 days ago

    The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I would love to see a modern version and one that’s got great effects.

    • Cort@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      4 days ago

      Tbf that is the modern version. The old one from the BBC definitely suffered from lackluster effects.

      • foo@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        That was part of its charm for me. Red Dwarf was the same; the lack of budget somehow made it funnier.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 days ago

      I do wish they would do one that follows the plot of the radio show. It would probably have to be a TV series though, it goes on a movie.

      • Soggy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        I think Douglas Adams thought it was funny that every iteration was a little different.

      • Xenny@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        Well they DID make a TV series in 87 that is really fun and worth a watch that follows the radio show. I assume you knew this though and wanted an updated one.

    • TeddE@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      5 days ago

      That’s actually a fairly good take - they could make a bunch of old scripts and make them enticing to license, and couple that with a small fund to seed some ultra small-scale productions (by Hollywood standards). I like it.

      Couple that with remakes on whatever gets traction and it could prove short term profitable as well as raise the overall long term value of their vault. (I hate that this analysis is needed, but unless we change copyright law, this buy-in would be a necessary step.)

    • multifariace@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 days ago

      Instead of making another high action time travel movie they could make something more adventurous. Also don’t make it a silly family friendly movie. We need more serious adventure films that aren’t reboots.

  • JennyLaFae@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    6 days ago

    Instead of the corporatization of storytelling, we should be letting artists tell the stories they want to tell. We should engage with our media more critically and stop chasing nostalgia.