In this week’s Weekly Ketchup we’ve got the latest on plenty of remakes and sequels coming your way. Plus, check back Monday for an extra special edition of the Ketchup, in which we’ll give you all the hot news out of Comic-Con.
#1 ANCHORMAN 2: RETURN TO WHORE ISLAND?
Director Adam McKay (Stepbrothers) told EW this week that he and Will Ferrell have indeed started work on an Anchorman sequel, which would show us what TV newsman Ron Burgundy was up to in the 1980s. Hopefully, they can get most of the original cast together, and come up with as many instantly classic lines as “I love lamp” and “Great Odin’s Raven!”
#2 LET’S PLEASE NOT DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN…
Normally, I don’t cover made-for-cable movies in this column, but I’m making an exception in this case, because this one is particularly alarming, I think. MTV has announced plans to remake The Rocky Horror Picture Show, using the original script, but possibly new music. By taking was definitively a *live* experience (midnight shows all over the world packed with fans shouting things back at the screen) and putting it on M-T-“freaking”-V, there is no chance this can be anything but a disaster, and an insult to 30 years of Rocky Horror nights.
#3 IT WAS GREAT WHEN IT ALL BEGAN, I WAS A REGULAR VLADDY FAN…
Talking to AICN, Dark City director Alex Proyas revealed that his likely next project after Knowing (starring Nicolas Cage) will be Dracula: Year Zero, an origin story about the Romanian prince, Vlad the Impaler, who sold his soul to the devil to protect his family and country from the threat of the Turks in the 15th century. Alex Proyas is, I think, a great choice to direct a project like this, because he has a really great visual style, especially when he’s allowed to delve into really dark imagery.
#4 LEONARDO DICAPRIO WANTS TO TAKE YOU TO THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Appian Way production company is putting out feelers looking for pitches based upon episodes of the original Rod Serling-produced run of The Twilight Zone. Unlike the 1983 film, Dicaprio’s version would be a series of feature length standalone films, with his eye towards potentially making more than one film. There are really great concepts in the original series, and M. Night Shyamalan has basically built his career on feature films that feel like Twilight Zone episodes. And Leonardo DiCaprio is actually an appropriate person to produce these movies, because I could see him stepping into Rod Serling’s shoes, and narrating and/or introducing each movie himself, just like Rod.
#5 IF JOHN TRAVOLTA HAS TO PRETEND TO BE DIVINE AGAIN, WHY CAN’T IT BE A PINK FLAMINGOS REMAKE?
What is left of New Line Cinema has hired director John Waters to write a treatment for a sequel to the musical remake of his original film, Hairspray. If you want to follow the twisted cinematic genealogy here: John Waters made a movie, it became a broadway musical, which was adapted as a feature film starring in a cross-dressing fat suit, which Waters is now being asked to write a sequel to. The director and songwriters are returning, but no cast has been signed yet, and this sequel, which would follow the same family, picking right up where the first one ended, is aiming for a release in mid-July, 2010.
#6 HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO THE BANK
Although no details have been revealed yet, but New Line Cinema has signed the writers and directors of the second Harold and Kumar movie to work on a third entry in the cheap-but-lucrative comedy series. The story doesn’t mention casting, but it would seem likely that John Cho and Kal Penn would return, as well as (maybe?) Neil Patrick Harris. Regardless, although it’s cool to hear that the series will continue, I can’t help but feel that this movie and the Hairspray sequel seem like the remnants of New Line just sticking with sequels to proven material, rather than doing anything new. Of course, I suppose that’s better than them not doing anything at all. Slightly.
#7 WET HOT AMERICAN… SPRING?
At a special screening this week in L.A., Wet Hot American Summer director (and alumni of The State) David Wain revealed that there are plans afoot for a prequel, which he joked, would force the actors who were 10 years too old for their roles 10 years ago, would be playing even younger versions of the characters, but 20 years older. That movie had a great ensemble cast that included Elizabeth Banks, Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Paul Rudd, Christopher Meloni, Amy Poehler and Molly Shannon, so I’d love to see this prequel happen if they can pull it off.
#8 CAPTAIN BLOOD TO SWASH HIS BUCKLE AGAIN
There has been talk about a remake of the 1935 Errol Flynn pirate classic, Captain Blood, since before the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie started filming, and the concept got some new life this week in the form of director Phillip Noyce (Dead Calm, Patriot Games) being hired by Warner Bros to develop the remake, with expectation that he would also direct. Despite the success of that Johnny Depp series, and the Master and Commander movie (not really about pirates, admittedly), there has not yet been the rash of pirate movies that one might have expected, but there are several pirate projects in development, including one about Blackbeard announced recently.
#9 ARNOFSKY CONFIRMED TO BE HEADED TO OLD DETROIT
We sort of already heard about this a few weeks back, but it’s now confirmed, and it’s cool enough news to hear more than once: Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream) is going to direct the next Robocop movie, from a script by David Self (Road to Perdition, Thirteen Days) for MGM, which is aiming for a 2010 release. Although it’s been sometimes referred to as a remake, there are rumors that it is in fact a sequel, set twenty years after the original Robocop program has been shut down. That means the story would be significantly farther in the future, and Aronofsky and Self would be free to reinvent the entire franchise from scratch, basically.
#10 BOONDOCK SAINTS 2: BOONDOCKIER
Boondock Saints director Troy Duffy announced this week that he plans on beginning production on Boondock Saints 2 in a few weeks in Boston. In that same story, he also gave plenty of details about the sequel’s plot. Boondock Saints is a fan favorite for many, but the movie has its detractors as well, not in small part because of the reputation that Duffy built (or tore down?), as immortalized in the documentary, Overnight.
You can contact Greg Dean Schmitz via a message at the RT Forums, the thread there devoted to him, or his MySpace page.
