Oh No, Remakes of Val Lewton films
 

Unbelievable, I Walked With a Zombie, Bedlam, The Body Snatcher, and the Lucille Ball movie Five came Back.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryId=13&cs=1

Andy Fickman has made a deal with Roseblood Movie Company and Twisted Pictures to godfather four remakes from RKO’s horror heyday, including three that were produced by horrormeister Val Lewton. Fickman will direct at least one of the films.
Roseblood is the horror/thriller division of RKO Pictures, and Twisted is the horror division of Evolution Entertainment, financiers and producers of the “Saw” series. The companies will co-finance the films.

The remake properties are the Jacques Tourneur-directed “I Walked With a Zombie” (1943); the Robert Wise-directed Bela Lugosi-Boris Karloff starrer “The Body Snatcher” (1945); the Mark Robson-directed Karloff starrer “Bedlam” (1946); and the John Farrow-directed Lucille Ball-John Carradine starrer “Five Came Back” (1939).

The first three pics were produced by Lewton when he ran the horror division of the original RKO. Lewton co-wrote both “Bedlam” and “The Body Snatcher” under the pseudonym Carlos Keith.

RKO chairman Ted Hartley is producing the remakes with Twisted’s Mark Burg, Oren Koules and Carl Mazzocone. Jonathan Marshall is executive producer.

It’s the second recent multipicture deal for Fickman, who recently made a first-look deal with Disney, where he directed “The Game Plan” and is currently wrapping “Race to Witch Mountain.” Fickman became steeped in monster lore while working as a Universal tour guide and was intrigued with the way Lewton scared up fright hits on relatively small budgets.

“After Frankenstein and the Wolfman came Lewton and RKO, and what they lacked in budgets they made up for with atmosphere, imagination and great directors making horror with psychological flair,” Fickman told Daily Variety. “It was on the heels of WWII, when Nazi Germany showed that the scariest enemy might be the person who looked like your next door neighbor. It didn’t have to be some creature.”

: Said RKO’s Hartley: “I have never met a filmmaker who has the level of appreciation and passion for films that Andy has for Lewton’s incredible creations.”

RKO last produced “Are We There Yet,” a remake of the 1946 RKO Cary Grant comedy “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,” and produced the upcoming “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” with Michael Douglas, to be released next year by After Dark Films.

Twisted Pictures next releases “Saw V” on Oct. 24, followed by the Nov. 7 release of the horror musical “Repo! The Genetic Opera,” starring Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton and Paul Sorvino. Lionsgate distributes both pics.

oh say it aint so. :sad:

Only if Paul Schrader is involved, so we could get something on par with Cat People... :)

As bad as we all know these will be, at least it'll in no way tarnish the greatness of the originals. I suppose that's the best attitude to take in this age of remakes.

Grab some of Simone Simon's DNA, clone her and age said clone to around 25 or so, and cast her in everything.

[Ben Stern] Thank you [/Ben Stern].

Five Came Back has possibilities. Small plane crashes in jungle. Crash survivors picked off one by one by cannibals. I'd see it.

This doesn't make much sense to me. The main selling point of remakes is their name recognition value, but who beyond old movie fans remembers these films? Even I've never heard of Five Came Back and I'm a big classic movie buff.

That said, if a studio is planning a return to the more atmospheric horror of old, I'm all in favor, though I wish they'd try something new.

By remaking obscure films, the studios can sell them as new properties and most people won't know or care that there's an older version available.

Why oh why do they insist on remaking movies that got it right the first time - there are literally hundreds of movies based on good stories/ideas that were poorly made, and <i>these</i> are the ones that need to be remade.

These movies were made for black and white.

I agree 100%. I just finished watching Cat People for the first time and I was impressed at how much atmosphere and emotion Lewton was able to fit into just 73 or so minutes. The scene were Irena is stalking Alice is gorgeous, frightening, and perfectly for black/white filming.

I understand the making something old new again aspect of things, but I don't think it'll work.

The only good thing Fickman has accomplished in his life is scoring Christine Lakin and I don't comprehend that either.

We need a remake sub-forum.

So I can avoid it completely.