Reboots, so hot right now. Recent reboots include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Robocop, Fantastic Four, and Poltergeist. Even Ghostbusters has two — yes, two — reboot films in the works. So there’s obviously nothing sacred any more… except perhaps the Back To The Future franchise, which is being protected by original director Robert Zemeckis. In a recent interview with The Telegraph, the director gave his thoughts on rebooting the time traveling adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown and gave a fairly morbid guarantee:
“Oh, God no,” the 63-year-old director told the Telegraph, when asked if – as one of the two rights holders to the original film, along with co-writer Bob Gale – he would ever consider signing off on a remake.
“That can’t happen until both Bob and I are dead. And then I’m sure they’ll do it, unless there’s a way our estates can stop it.
“I mean, to me, that’s outrageous. Especially since it’s a good movie. It’s like saying ‘Let’s remake Citizen Kane. Who are we going to get to play Kane?’ What folly, what insanity is that? Why would anyone do that?”
What a silly question. Joaquin Phoenix would play Kane, and if the Joaq has a similar issue of integrity related to the film then there’s always Shia Labeouf. But at this point we’re just quibbling over details. OF COURSE there’s eventually going to be a Citizen Kane remake – the only way it isn’t happening is if humankind somehow wipes itself out before it gets a greenlight.
Ditto with Back To The Future. The Zemeckis estate better have amazing lawyers who are super serious about keeping Hollywood from ruining his body of work. Robin Williams was very specific about this kind of stuff as well, and even his rights are only going to be protected until 2039. Fortunately for Zemeckis, we’re totes gonna blow ourselves up by then. So depending on your priorities, there is hope.
(Via The Telegraph)
