Strike Entertainment is in talks to acquire rights to remake John Carpenter’s 1988 cult film They Live.
Based on Ray Nelson’s 1963 short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning”, They Live was part sci-fi thriller and part black comedy. Pro wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper played a down-on-his-luck construction worker who discovered a pair of special sunglasses which allowed him to see the world as it really is. He finds that all printed matter contains subliminal advertising and that many humans are actually aliens who in charge of the massive campaign to keep humans subdued. One of the film’s highlights is a five-and-half minute alley fight scene. The movie is also [...]

Screenwriter Mark Protosevich is in talks to write the American remake of Oldboy for director Steven Speilberg. Star Will Smith reccomended Protosevich for the project after working with him on I Am Legend. Yes, your worst fears have come true, the guy who wrote the 2006 adaptation of Poseidon might be writing the script for the English-language adaptation of Old Boy. This can’t be good news.

Universal Studios has signed a director to remake Bong Joon-ho’s 2006 Korean monster film The Host. Commercial film director Fredrik Bond will helm the project, based on a script by Smart People scribe Mark Poirier, and Gore Verbinski will produce. Bond has directed a variety of commercials over the last few years (check them out right now here). Haven’t seen The Host? Check out the trailer below!
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The Host follows a dysfunctional family who sets out to bring their little girl back home [...]

King of Kong director Seth Gordon has signed on to direct Suicide Squad for Working Title Films and Universal Pictures. According to THR, the story follows a desperate con man, out on parole, who recruits a crew of amateur criminals to rip off the Kentucky Derby. Sounds kinda like if Oceans Eleven was made up of a team of losers and never-have-beens. Brother screenwriting team Matt and Billy Eddy penned the latest draft, based on an original script by Chris Johnson. Gordon makes his fictional feature film debut with the Reese Witherspoon/Vince Vaughn romantic comedy Four Christmases.

Meanwhile, our friends at FirstShowing were able to catch up with Gordon at the [...]

As you know, Let the Right One In was one of our favorite movies this year. And you might also remember, the Swedish vampire coming of age adaptation is getting an American remake. MTV was able to talk with director Matt Reeves, who gave some details and reassurances about the project.
“I see the film as essentially being the fantasies of this 12 year old who’s having such a hard time. It would never be that overt where you would watch the movie and say that’s a dream but to me that is kind of an organizing principle,” Reeves told MTV. “I had such a personal reaction when I saw the [...]

Last year there was a crazy rumor began to circulate that Will Smith’s son Jaden Smith would star in a remake of The Karate Kid, with Stephen Chow attached to direct and take over the role of Mr. Myiagi.
Sounded horrible then. Still sounds horrible now. And it turns out the crazy rumor wasn’t so crazy.
Variety confirms that Jaden will star in a “refashioned” remake of the 1980’s classic. It gets worse, the film will be set in an exotic locale, with a shoot planned for next year in Beijing. Chris Murphy’s screenplay is said to “borrow elements” from the original film, and is not a strict remake.
Jaden, an avid practitioner [...]

Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are in talks to collaborate on a remake of Chan Wook-Park’s Oldboy. Spielberg has been looking for an opportunity to work with Smith for a few years now, and this just might be the project. DreamWorks is in the process of securing the remake rights, and Spielberg is on the search for a screenwriter to develop the project. The project was originally set up with Fast and Furious director Justin Lin.
In the 2003 South Korean film, a man named Dae-Su is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing why or who is holding him captive. He is suddenly released, given money, clothes [...]

According to CHUD, Fox is considering (read: probably won’t happen) relaunching the Planet of the Apes series again with a remake of the prequel Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Referred to internally as Genesis: Apes, the script written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver is set in modern times and tells the story of Caesar, the first talking intelligent ape who leads a campaign to unite the species and overthrow human society.
I agree that Tim Burton’s remake of the original film was a disaster, but I’m not sure going with a relaunch/prequel is a good idea either. I would rather them hire a visionary with a good sense [...]

Warner Bros has hired J. Michael Straczynski to write a remake of Forbidden Planet. The original saw a group of Earth scientists who are sent some 17 light years away to investigate what happened to a colony of settlers on Altair-4. They find a man with a secret and his daughter who somehow survived a hideous monster attack on their planet. Gene Roddenberry has noted that Fred Wilcox’s original 1956 sci-fi film was one of the inspirations for Star Trek.
Loosely based on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the movie was nominated for best special effects Oscar, and was noted for its groundbreaking use of an all-electronic score, and the first appearances [...]

Columbia Pictures’ is remaking Berry Gordy’s 1985 cult classic martial arts film The Last Dragon. Samuel L Jackson will star as the film’s villain - Sho’nuff, the Shogun of Harlem, a character played by Julius Carry in the original film.
Set in New York City, the story follows a black teenage martial arts student and aspiring martial artist named Leroy Green, who goes on a quest to achieve The Final Level and a mystical energy called The Glow. On his way to becoming The Last Dragon, he must confront villians like a crooked arcade mogul named Eddie Arkadian and the evil Sho’nuff (Jackson).
Aspects of the film have been incorporated into modern [...]

20th Century Fox has released a five minute trailer for The Day The Earth Stood Still on Yahoo. As expected, much of the extended trailer was featured in the television presentation last month. From what I gather, I think I’m the only one who thinks this looks bad. But even I’ll admit, Gort looks cool.

Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” is 20th Century Fox’s contemporary reinvention of its 1951 classic. Keanu Reeves portrays Klaatu, an alien whose arrival on our planet triggers a global upheaval. As governments and scientists race to unravel the mystery behind the visitor’s appearance, a woman (Jennifer Connelly) [...]

Mike Nichols (Closer, Charlie Wilson’s War) will direct a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low.
Based loosely on Evan Hunter’s King’s Ransom, the original 1963 detective thriller that tells the story of an executive named Kingo Gondo, who learns that his son has been kidnapped. He is prepared to pay the ransom amount until he discovers that the kidnappers mistakenly abducted the child of his chauffeur. Gondo must decide between using the money he has saved up for a critical corporate buyout, or to use the cash to save his drivers son.
If the names involved thus far don’t get you excited, then read on. Originally commissioned by Martin Scorsese in [...]

Christopher Lee (Count Dooku in Star Wars, Saruman in Lord of the Rings) has been cast in Tim Burton’s 3D adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Lee’s role has not been  disclosed, but I would guess that he is either The Caterpillar, King of Hearts, or The White Knight. Lee has worked with Burton several times: Sleepy Hallow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride. Lee was originally scheduled to be in Burton’s Sweeney Todd, but the sequence his character was part of was cut out during preproduction. [christopherleeweb]

Eleanor Tomlinson (Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging), a 16-year-old Beverly teenager, has been cast in a part created specifically for Burton’s adaptation. [...]

The teaser trailer for the Friday the 13th Remake/reboot is attached to SAW V. But you don’t have to sit through a SAW marathon tonight (like me) to be able to see it. The trailer is now online for your viewing pleasure.
Aside from the few seconds of Jason running at a woman with a machete, I really wasn’t impressed with the footage that premiered at the SCREAM 2008 Awards (if you haven’t seen that footage, click here). I think the problem is that I’m hoping for a film that calls back to the horror movies of my past, and not a reinvention of the horror films of my past. That [...]

Dimension Films will release 18 direct-to-dvd movies, each with budges between $3 million to $6 million, in 2009. Variety reports that “the films, mostly sequels, prequels, remakes or spinoffs of TWC/Dimension titles, could debut in a particular ancillary arena — DVD, VOD, TV or the Web — depending on a closer look as they near release.”
Some of the films include Pulse 2, a new Children of the Corn, Feast II: Sloppy Seconds, Feast 3: The Happy Finish, Hell Ride 2, a comedy from the screenwriter of Monster-in-Law called Last Man Standing, a zombie film from Raw Nerve (Hostel) Dead by Daylight, Midnight Man, Midnight Man 2 and Midnight Man 3, [...]