eiker_ir

The Langoliers

Obey The D

If they did go ahead with a remake and Jackson wasn't available, I think Terry Crews would be a pretty good choice for that role.

Burnt Thru

Peter Berg has decided to ditch on the proposed Dune remake hasn't he? Does anyone know the status of that picture now? Production limbo would be my first guess..

Numanoid

Transformers.
Transformers 2.

Imagine how cool those movies could have been if just about anyone other than Michael Bay had directed them.

Numanoid

Considering how Dune is about the oppression of sand-dwelling people by a powerful foreign empire that is raping its land to acquire a valuable resource necessary for transportation, only to be met with an organized resistance consisting of mostly terrorism (and includes the heroes using such terms as "mujahedeen" and "jihad")...well, now may not be the best climate for a remake.

Ash Ketchum

We need DiCaprio-free versions of these films:

Titanic
Gangs of New York
The Aviator
The Departed
Shutter Island

Solid Snake

?! Wtf are you going about, sir? I'd have it no other way now especially with how well he did in anything after Gangs of New York (horrible idea to have him go against Day-Lewis...Neeson was the only one to be as good as DDL...though Scorsese did man up DiCaprio)

MrSmearkase

/\ I bet Jason Statham would have been better in all those Scorcese (+1 Cameron) flicks

Burnt Thru

You're not wrong. I've been watching Lynch's semi-coherent version again over the last couple of days (the TV edit actually) and it's funny how easily the Harkonen/Emperor could be substituted by America/Britain. Minus heart plugs, one would hope..

Burnt Thru

If you've not seen it you might enjoy The Ninth Configuration. A far superior film, IMO.

Ash Ketchum

You said it!

Jason Statham vs. Bill the Butcher! Five Points is cleaned up in record time. The history of New York's criminal underworld is indelibly changed for all time.

Jason Statham as Howard Hughes. No germ-filled doorknob is gonna slow down our hero. Germphobia is for pussies! With Megan Fox as Ava Gardner.

Jason Statham takes on the Boston mob. No undercover work required, just barge into Jack Nicholson's HQ and beat up or kill all his henchmen and arrest Nicholson on the spot. A much shorter movie, too.

Jason Statham is the only sane one on SHUTTER ISLAND. He gets off the boat and proceeds to lock them all up--Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Mark Ruffalo, Ted "Buffalo Bill" Levine, etc.--in the cell with Jackie Earle Haley. Mission accomplished. Another much shorter movie.

Jason Statham as the captain of the Titanic. An icepick is the only weapon he needs. Once he's done, there's no threat to the ship at all and everyone arrives safely in New York. And he gets the girl, too. (Played this time by Megan Fox, of course.)

Now, that's how these movies should have been made.

Travis McClain

I think it's way too easy to just bash DiCaprio. Personally, I think his work with Scorsese helped him evolve from a movie star into an actor. His work in Gangs of New York was a first step; he's improved each time out, but then, that's the idea, isn't it? To keep improving? I thought he brought a lot of nuance to his portrayal of Howard Hughes in The Aviator, masking darkness with enthusiasm early, and gradually giving way to the inner demons.

As for The Departed, Mark Wahlberg stole the show, but I thought the only thing to knock on DiCaprio for was his accent. It sounded to me like he was doing a Boston-by-way-of-Brooklyn thing. Haven't seen Shutter Island yet, so no comment there.

hasslein

Let the church say Amen.

lamphorn

I'd love for Whedon to make a Buffy movie now, continuing off the end of the series. Hell, do another series, just catching up with Buffy after a few years. Maybe she teams back up with Angel. Loved both of those shows.

hiccup

The Last Dragon is not a bad movie, but rather an untimely, misunderstood classic.

lamphorn

In my opinion, DiCaprio was a good actor even before he was a movie star. Believe me, I will trash a crappy actor with undeserved popularity, but I really think he's great.

Bacon

Superman III- Richard Donner could make the original script work

popcorn

There was a rumor about a remake of The Last Dragon awhile ago. I think it got shelved when they suggested Beyonce in the Vanity role.

Another one I'd like to see is The Wraith (just to see them redesign that bad ass car).

dhmac

That would've been great, not sure why it wasn't done as a part of the show itself as some sort of flashback episode.

But you don't have to make allowances for the original feature film at all. Joss Whedon didn't and the backstory of the TV series was always his original script and not that movie. For example, the TV series mentioned Buffy's original school gym burning down, which was in Whedon's original script, but does not happen in that (now non-canon) movie.

Jay G.

It's probably a rights issue. I don't think the TV rights included the rights to remake the movie; the movie rights are separate.

There was talk of a non-Joss remake last year:
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/9465775-post52.html

I said it'd be nice if I could watch the series from the beginning. I can't watch the original script on my TV.

Ash Ketchum

I would rather Scorsese had cast an actor in GANGS who didn't have to "improve," but who was already a good enough actor to pull it off. To qualify as a "star," you have to have spent your time working in negligible film after negligible film learning your craft and developing your persona before you're good enough to be a star. A genius like Marlon Brando could get away with it because he was good enough right at the start. Marilyn Monroe had to improve in film after film even after she'd become a star, but she could get away with it because she was Marilyn Monroe. DiCaprio ain't Brando and he ain't Marilyn.

John Wayne didn't become a big star until he'd been in the business almost 20 years. Howard Hawks cast him in RED RIVER, the film that arguably established Wayne as a bonafide star and Wayne's longtime director/mentor John Ford told Hawks, "You finally made an actor out of him."
William Holden was a male ingenue for eleven years before he worked for Billy Wilder in SUNSET BOULEVARD and won his Oscar three years later in Wilder's STALAG 17. The point is, Wilder waited for Holden to "improve" before casting him in his films. He didn't cast him right at the start. (Wilder also cast light leading men Fred MacMurray and Ray Milland, in DOUBLE INDEMNITY and LOST WEEKEND, respectively, and made real actors out of them, but each had been in the business more than ten years at that point.)

Granted, DiCaprio had been acting in movies for ten years before GANGS OF NEW YORK, but he still hadn't "improved" enough to pull that character and that movie off. He still seemed wet behind the ears to me. I never believed him as a hardened Five Points resident. SHUTTER ISLAND is a somewhat different story. He gets physically abused so much during the course of it that he has no choice but to react honestly to it. I rather liked that aspect of it.

Travis McClain

I'll come back to the first point, but as for being a "star," I'm going to disagree about how one reaches that status. When the publicity and fandom reach a certain level, that's when one is a star. Studios have pledged to make stars of actors and actresses for years, and many have gone to Hollywood just for that purpose. Others have gone to pursue the craft of acting, regardless of whether they became "stars."

But...did he have to be either of them? Does any other actor? Surely, we should appreciate the work of the masters, but isn't there still room for the rest to hone their craft and evolve?

I would posit that it would be a tremendous mistake to categorically dismiss the work of either actor prior to those features simply because they'd been works in progress prior to Red River and Sunset Boulevard. I don't know the story on Wilder's view of Holden's career, but I have a hard time imagining anyone in the industry following every step of someone else's career, waiting for them to reach a level of maturity in the industry appropriate for collaboration. Holden's name undoubtedly came up in casting, and I suspect it was dismissed with "Not right for the role," not "Not ripe yet."

I'd be more than happy to continue this discussion, but it appears early on that your ultimate position is going to be that you're more discerning and expectant than I am, and I would counter that I'm more indulgent of the evolution of artistry.

Ash Ketchum

All I'm sayin' is that I didn't like DiCaprio in GANGS OF NEW YORK (nor in anything else he's done that I've seen) and I was using a broad historical argument to dress up my position. I would have liked that movie more with better actors in the DiCaprio/Diaz roles or diminished roles for those characters. If DiCaprio worked for you, as he works for so many out there, fine. I can't tell you you shouldn't like him. Only that he didn't work for me. I'm an old crank and I'm harder to please.

Rainet

Well this is an easy answer for me. About 90% of every Stephen King adaption made.

Nesbit

Watched Little Shop of Horrors ('86) the other day and even though it was done well I'd be down for a remake that doesn't have a crappy feel good ending tacked on.