April 2, 2008...2:12 pm
They’re remaking Casablanca?
With yesterday being April Fool’s Day, I thought this was a joke when I read it! To my disgust, it appears this is a real project.
I’m well aware of the “what’s old is new again” mentality out there these days, but touching the Classic Hollywood Studio System Films, such as Casablanca, should be grounds for immediate dismissal from the current studio execs. The problem is Hollywood is a SHELL OF ITS FORMER SELF!!! The name of the game use to be a combination of artistic approach and money… OK, so it was about money even then (remember the Paramount Decision of 1948?), but the content produced back then stood for something other then the “pop culture” status that MTV and VH1 label with a paint sprayer today.
Ingrid Bergman was the only actress (back when women were called actresses, now they like to be known as…actors) who could embody the role of Ilsa with such conviction and femininity.
And now Madonna wants to reprise that role? The woman who went from Pop Culture Icon of the 80s to actress (a poor one at that - though she was entertaining in A League of their Own and Dick Tracy) to adopt-a-child woman of the decade (though Angelina stole that limelight now) and now back to an actress again? And she wants to remake a film that is EASILY in the top 5 best American Films EVER MADE!
Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre and Michael Curtiz (director) would be rolling over in their graves!!!
I think what’s really astonishing isn’t that Madonna wants to remake the film, but rather that a studio system would actually agree to do that. The Studios are eating up remakes these days. Even Spielberg hopped on that wagon and remade War of the Worlds - a horrible remake that was overdown with TomCat’s over-the-top acting, ridiculous sfx and the comparison of alien invasion to the “occupation in Iraq”. If I want politics in my films Steven, I’ll watch something on the History Channel or the CNN/Fox News, not a fantasy film, OK?
To set the film in modern-day Iraq, with the current status of the country and the U.S. involvement is absurd. I realize the original was set during WW II times and it served as the backdrop for the story, but “throwing Iraq” in a remake to make political points about the current administration or the status in the U.S., is a bad concept and the film (any film) would suffer if the real intentions are the political subtext rather then light-hearted romantic love story the original showcased.
I for one won’t buy a ticket if this monstrosity is ever produced!
1 Comment
April 2, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I agree. The remake with the dude from Starsky and Hutch was bad.
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