Yet another of my pointless rants against the anti-remake crowd.
I’ve been seeing a lot of statements lately to the effect of “They keep making dumb remakes and sequels when ________ (name of book) would make a great movie.” Even though filming ___________ would be impossible or would cost $600 million because of special effects shots. I can commiserate to an extent with this sentiment, since I am always reading a novel and thinking “This would make a great movie, even if the special-effects shot of the giant slug eating Philadelphia would be cost-prohibitive.”
But the idea the latest remake or sequel took the place of a movie version of one of your beloved books is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Movie production is not a zero-sum game. If Friday the 13th doesn’t get remade, it doesn’t mean the studio automatically has to make another horror movie in its place. They allocated the funds to make Friday the 13th because they believed the name had a certain amount of marketability (and because they made money with the similar Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes remakes). So don’t blame the latest remake for the fact there hasn’t been a big-budget version of Bunnicula, The Vampire Bunny.
I realize I’m tilting at windmills here.
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