For the movie news week that was we capture both the highs and the lows in one neat little package. Enjoy!
Best: Wizard of Oz getting a remake
It seems that after the phenomenal success of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland Warner Bros. studio is now looking into turning another novel series into a money making machine. The LA Times recently reported that the much loved Oz novels, which were the basis for the classic The Wizard of Oz will be getting the big screen update, possibly with a much darker tone.
According to reports the studio is moving ahead quite swiftly to get the movie into production with two scripts already developed, one which is being produced by Spawn creator Todd MacFarlane. That is definitely a film I’d like to see.
L. Frank Baum's series runs at fourteen books long so if it works we may be seeing a sequel every few years long into the future. While there is not much information out there plans are supposedly to stick much closer to the original story than the 1939 classic.
While I was not overly impressed by Burton’s Alice I was pleased to see the dark fairytale element alive and well. The Oz series lends itself perfectly to grittier re-envisioning and as long as it doesn’t have Avril Lavigne singing over the end credits I’ll be happy.
And as is the case with every release nowadays I can almost guarantee it will in 3D.
Worst: Police Academy to get a remake
Well it just keeps getting worse. Just when you thought they were running out of films to remake, New Line studios has confirmed that they have plans to reboot the 80’s comedy series Police Academy.
For those of you who are too young to remember, the Academy films introduced audiences to the supposedly hilarious misadventures of police department recruits. By the end of the seventh film, the series had lost all its charm but is still held dear by low discerning movie audiences the world over.
Night owls would have recently enjoyed the repeat screening of all the films on channel Go! and possibly winced through them like I did. They were a little bit more homophobic and racist than I remembered.
From what we know the plan would be to include some of the regulars and introduce a whole bunch of new recruits. Somewhere out there Steve Guttenberg is crying tears of joy.
Little is known about the tone but expect plenty of toilet jokes.