Universal Pictures will remake the 1983 David Cronenberg-directed thriller "Videodrome," with Ehren Kruger set to write the script and produce with partner Daniel Bobker.
The producers tracked down the rights to Canadian distribution vet Rene Malo, who will be exec producer. Universal distributed the original and had first refusal on a remake, and the studio snapped up the opportunity.
The original "Videodrome" starred James Woods as the head of Civic TV Channel 83, who makes his station relevant by programming "Videodrome," a series that depicts torture and murder that transfixes viewers.
The new picture will modernize the concept, infuse it with the possibilities of nano-technology and blow it up into a large-scale sci-fi action thriller.
Cronenberg has no role in the film as yet. He is prepping for MGM "The Matarese Circle" as a starring vehicle for Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington. Since Cruise appears likely to next star in the DreamWorks drama "Motorcade" and Washington has committed to the Fox drama "Unstoppable," "Circle" doesn't appear likely to get under way until later this year or 2010.
Bobker/Kruger Films recently set the thriller "Dream House" at Morgan Creek and is producing, with Matthew Stillman, "The Keep" for Rogue. Kruger co-wrote the June 24 Paramount/DreamWorks release "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.
Videodrome is one of my favorites but I'm not totally against the idea.
I do however think that there is no way to do this right and the attempt will probably end in an epic FAIL.
Neeb
04-27-09, 03:42 AM
Aren't we already living in the remake?
riotinmyskull
04-27-09, 05:44 AM
Blu-raydrome...
:suicide:
RichC2
04-27-09, 08:23 AM
turning it into a big action thriller sort of defeats the purpose of the movie. At that point it isn't a remake anymore. May as well be remaking eXistenZ.
KillerCannibal
04-27-09, 11:26 AM
Seriously, I stopped reading after "Ehren Kruger". That guy is a fucking hack. There are scant few writers working today who could even make a decent attempt at remaking Cronenberg, and he's definitely not one of them.
RichC2
04-27-09, 11:40 AM
But but but he wrote The Ring which dabbles in similar territory! So what if it's a remake of a popular Japanese movie! And so what that the dialog was the worst part of the remake!
oh wait.
inri222
04-27-09, 12:16 PM
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40889
Long Live The New New Flesh? VIDEODROME remake in development...
Hey folks, Harry here... In 1983, I did not see VIDEODROME. That was after my parents' divorce, and I'm relatively certain that it didn't play the nearest theaters to me in Wichita Falls, Texas at that time. However, when it hit HBO - I saw it at like 3 in the morning via Satellite on the Ranch I was living and I remember it freaked my shit right out!
David Cronenberg's VIDEODROME is as classic as they come. James Woods' performance is so freaky, the effects felt absolutely filthy. The concept of the New Flesh and the interactivity with video was mind-blowing to me as a kid - and watching that film today... It packs an even stronger punch because you realize just how pussy most of what we get today is by comparison.
So - it should put you at ease to know that Universal has snatched up the remake rights - and that Ehren Kruger (writer on ARLINGTON ROAD, THE RING remake, THE SKELETON KEY, THE BROTHERS GRIMM and this summer's TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN) is updating and most likely under the delusion of improving material that most likely will be... what? I kinda can't imagine what a big version of VIDEODROME would be intended to be.
Certainly - it'll forego the brilliant and innovative practical effects in lieu of the latest and greatest of digital effects, but will it be as sweaty and nasty and lurid as the original? Will it even touch on the psycho-sexual overtones?
I suppose all we can do is sit back and watch what happens to this classic material - and hope that a director comes aboard that has the brilliant imagination and the sack that Cronenberg had when he made the original.
Kurtie Dee
04-27-09, 12:25 PM
McG is concurrently remaking the remake, upon the completion of which we will all be sucked into a quivering VHS slot and made to watch episodes of The Nanny for eternity.
I give up.
Suprmallet
04-27-09, 01:20 PM
Who thought this was a good idea?
Cardiac161
04-27-09, 01:54 PM
I'd assume this remake would be using dvds instead of VHS tapes.., though I can't imagine discs throbbing like the way the VHS tapes did in the original.
Giles
04-27-09, 01:57 PM
throbbing DVD's just sounds waaay too dumb.
Dr Mabuse
04-27-09, 02:39 PM
This will suck.
Hokeyboy
04-27-09, 04:17 PM
Videodrome is one of my favorite movies of all-time.
It works NOT because the story is a huge, ginormous, action-picked, action/conspiracy/horror thriller.
It works because it is in essence a SMALL movie that terrifies you with the notion that, in the pursuit of whatever interest or fetish you have, there may be some person or organization out there who will totally fuck your with reality. In the analog world of 1982, this concept (along with Cronenberg's vision of bio/mechanical symbiosis) was pretty mindblowing -- the concept that the next phase of humanity's evolution not being physical but virtual. But even if you remove 25 year old sensibilities, the film still works as a horrifying vision thanks to Cronenberg's script, direction, and vision, and chilling moments of intimate terror. What could be more terrifying than the horrors of your own mind?
Why great big explosions and stuff, of course!! Plus the latest CW star in the lead role, wisecracks, and a hip-hop soundtrack. You KNOW that's coming.
Why great big explosions and stuff, of course!! Plus the latest CW star in the lead role, wisecracks, and a hip-hop soundtrack. You KNOW that's coming.At the end, Efron smirks, kills the videodrome (a transformer with a giant VHS slot) by jamming the tape, saves Emma Roberts and lives happily ever after.
Bateman
04-28-09, 03:00 AM
Seriously, I stopped reading after "Ehren Kruger". That guy is a fucking hack. There are scant few writers working today who could even make a decent attempt at remaking Cronenberg, and he's definitely not one of them.
Also doubt he was using one the proper instrument...
At the end, Efron smirks, kills the videodrome (a transformer with a giant VHS slot) by jamming the tape, saves Emma Roberts and lives happily ever after.
At the end, Efron smirks, kills the videodrome (a transformer with a giant VHS slot) by jamming the tape, saves Emma Roberts and lives happily ever after.
Not to mention he kills the Videodrome with a quirk like "Be kind... REWIND, bee-yotch!!" to the opening strains of Drowning Pool's "Bodies". As the Videodrome explodes, Efron and Roberts have to escape hand-in-hand by outracing an exploding fireball. They jump out a glass window just milliseconds before the fireball erupts over them as they fall 40 feet into a snowbank. And live. He asks if she's alright. She responds, "That's the LAST time we rent off YOUR Netflix". They laugh as the credits roll and everybody's breakdancing to the latest Nickelback extravaganza. An after-credits sequence shows the Videodrome being recruited by Samuel L. Jackson.
inri222
04-29-09, 12:24 AM
Not to mention he kills the Videodrome with a quirk like "Be kind... REWIND, bee-yotch!!" to the opening strains of Drowning Pool's "Bodies". As the Videodrome explodes, Efron and Roberts have to escape hand-in-hand by outracing an exploding fireball. They jump out a glass window just milliseconds before the fireball erupts over them as they fall 40 feet into a snowbank. And live. He asks if she's alright. She responds, "That's the LAST time we rent off YOUR Netflix". They laugh as the credits roll and everybody's breakdancing to the latest Nickelback extravaganza. An after-credits sequence shows the Videodrome being recruited by Samuel L. Jackson.
What a fucking nightmare!!!
But you might be right (or at least close).
Right from the Hollywood movie cliche circa 2009 handbook.
ReduxGuy
04-29-09, 01:24 AM
Not to mention he kills the Videodrome with a quirk like "Be kind... REWIND, bee-yotch!!" to the opening strains of Drowning Pool's "Bodies". As the Videodrome explodes, Efron and Roberts have to escape hand-in-hand by outracing an exploding fireball. They jump out a glass window just milliseconds before the fireball erupts over them as they fall 40 feet into a snowbank. And live. He asks if she's alright. She responds, "That's the LAST time we rent off YOUR Netflix". They laugh as the credits roll and everybody's breakdancing to the latest Nickelback extravaganza. An after-credits sequence shows the Videodrome being recruited by Samuel L. Jackson.
to the opening strains of Drowning Pool's "Bodies".I like "Click Click Boom" myself, or the POD song with the lyric "ready or not -- how you like me now?" I think there's one other one that fits in there too, but I can't remember. Maybe we'll have to save them for the trailer.An after-credits sequence shows the Videodrome being recruited by Samuel L. Jackson.Yes.
deadlywaiter1119: the videodrome apparently is rehabilitated as a hero
deadlywaiter1119: that's what that coda implies
deadlywaiter1119: lol
deadlywaiter1119: The Videodrome 2: Judgment Day
deadlywaiter1119: V-1000
bostonianice: it gives Efron a thumbs up as it goes into the magma
Buy: