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It seems the drive to make more live action animated combo films is having studios look into their vaults for new projects. The latest announcement being that THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPETT is headed for a remake. The studio talk is all about how the film will give a new take on the cult 60s film that starred Don Knott's as a fellow who loves fish more than people and ends up falling into the ocean and becoming a fish. It is a cute tale... and very 1960s. Too often, creators, execs and studios get nostalgic and pull flms from the past and try to revision them. Sometimes it does work, but it usually dies in failure. A success can happen if you have someone a bit visionary (or maybe lucky) pull off the idea. But, as mentioned, they generally fail. I feel the reason for failure is that too much effort is put into updating a movie. True, that is somewhat the point of the project, but often, there is a better way to go about it. Simply go back to the book. For example, when the Bond people decided to remake CASINO ROYALE, they did not look at the wild 60s version that starred Woody Allen, Orson Welles and other such unlikelies. The producers went back to the original novel by Ian Fleming and built their own new story. By doing such, they reduce the risk of someone seeing the new film and comparing it to the old. Now take the recent remake of WILLY WONKA by Tim Burton. The 60s Gene Wilder film is another cult favorite. When Burton did his film, he could have simply "forgotten" the Wilder film and re-adapted the book. Instead, Burton took a few ideas in the book, not found in the Wilder version, added some Wilder elements and then tacked on some Burton bits. So instead of a film that is 100% Dahl (author), or 100% Burton, or 100% Wilder remake, you get sort of a mush. It is an interesting mush, with a number of clever ideas. But, again, by using the movie as the key source, one is constantly being reminded that this is not the original film. For MR LIMPETT, I would suggest going back to the original book published in the 1940s - and for some reason never published again. Adapt the book as if there hadn't been another movie. The title should pull the crowd in, and there is less chance of a deja vu. When I was working at the Disney studio in the 70s, I got to talk with the fellow in charge of all their animal movies and shorts. I asked him what he thought of other studios who tried to do similar films. He said he never saw any. His theory was that if he watched their takes on animal stories, their ideas might creep into his own. "If I need an idea for a story, I will look through the many books of animals tales and adapt it." He felt that way it was his solo view of the author's work. Maybe more of today's filmmakers could take a page from that theory. John Cawley - 7/4/9 Recent Just Kickin's 2008's Just Kickin's Come visit my store on CafePress! |
 
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