Last week, I covered how technology and progress affected vehicles in remakes. This week, I look at vehicles that have featured in projects that haven’t been remade yet.
Akira
The vehicle: Kaneda’s motorcycle.
Currently in the process of being adapted for a live-action movie, Akira was a milestone in anime released to North American audiences. One of the plot elements is Kaneda’s red motorcycle, something that Tetsuo coveted. The motorcycle is obviously powerful and futuristic, with no make or model given. For a live action version of the movie, the motorcycle needs to match the appearance.* Fortunately, without a specific manufacturer to worry about, the producers can approach a number of motorcycle firms for sponsor ship or try to get one of the fan-made models.
Airwolf
The vehicle: The titular helicopter.
Airwolf came out in 1984 on the heels of The A-Team and Blue Thunder and featured a helicopter with hidden weapons and capabilities. The Airwolf itself was a modified Bell 222 helicopter, used for both utility and executive transport. Remaking the series would require keeping the fictional helicopter’s role the same, an attack vehicle capable of blending into an urban airspace. With the Bell 222 no longer in production, another base model would be needed. Fortunately, a Google quick search brings up several suitable models from Sikorsky and AgustaWestland that have similar appearances to the original Airwolf.
The vehicle: The Bluesmobile, a former Mount Prospect police Dodge Monaco.
As mentioned last year, The Blues Brothers was adapted from a series of musical sketches by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi on Saturday Night Live. Elwood (Aykroyd) had to trade their old Cadillac for a microphone, replacing the caddie with a former Mount Prospect police car dubbed the Bluesmobile. The car, a 1974 Dodge Monaco, was chosen because Dan Aykroyd felt it was the hottest police cruiser in the 1970s. In Blues Brothers 2000, the new Bluesmobile was a 1990 Ford LTD Crown Victoria, an ubiquitous vehicle in law enforcement. A remake of the original movie, a daunting challenge in itself because of the music, would need a make and model of car that has been used as a police car. A used Crown Vic from a more recent year would work, as would a used Dodge Charger.
Back to the Future
The vehicle: A silver DeLorean DMC-12, modified.
In the Back to the Future trilogy, crazy Doc Brown modified a DeLorean DMC-12 to become a time machine, powered by a nuclear reactor. The DeLorean had several things going for it – unique appearance and not well known. The former let the car look cool, a different type of sports car than what was normally seen on screen. The unfamiliarity helped with people not knowing about its performance issues. TVTropes lists the car under the Real Life section of The Alleged Car. Doc Brown was crazier than people suspected. A remake of the movies will have to keep the DeLorean in mind; either to keep the signature car or find a new vehicle that fits the same role. Most car manufacturers prefer not to make bad cars; they cost money, either in lost sales or in lawsuits.** At the same time, a car that’s unique would also fill the role well; for example, a Tesla Motors Model X.
Next week, back to the reviews.
* Something has to remain original.
** The Ford Pinto with its exploding gas tank comes to mind here.
As a semi-recurring feature of Lost in Translation, I take time to discuss how adapting, rebooting, and remaking affects the choices made for elements in the project. This week, what happens to a key vehicle when progress makes it out of date? What can be done? Normally, a car is a car, a truck is a truck. However, several works have memorable models that feature prominently, either because the show was based around the car or because the vehicle was chosen specifically for its appearance. Here’s how some remakes handled it.
The A-Team
The vehicle: A black 1983 GMC Vandura van with red stripe and spoiler.
The remake: Reused, then crushed.
In both the original series and the remake movie, the van belonged to B.A. Baracus. The van makes an appearance early in the film as the characters are being introduced and is destroyed when Murdoch accidentally drops a roof ventilation system on it. The appearance of the van helped assure viewers that the original series would be respected. It was replaced by a HMMWV* later in the film.
Knight Rider
The vehicle: A black 1982 Pontiac Trans-Am, modified with front scanner.
The reboots: In both the 1991 Knight Rider 2000 movie and the 1997 Team Knight Rider series, KITT was transplanted and the original Trans-Am was not seen. For Knight Rider 2000, the replacement was a modified Dodge Stealth camouflaged as a Pontiac Banshee. TKR, however, had KITT in a non-mobile installation. The 2008 Knight Rider updated KITT, giving him a black Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang.
Knight Rider provides an interesting challenge for updating. KITT, the Knight Industries Two Thousand, was an integral character to the show. Removing KITT removes a large element of the show’s appeal. The original KITT was, as mentioned, a black Pontiac Trans-Am with extra bells and whistles to show the high tech nature of the base car. The 1991 Knight Rider 2000 starts with KITT disassembled, then later placed into a 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air. Not quite the technological marvel, and KITT did remark on the downgrade. Later, KITT received the “Banshee”. With the TKR series, the concept of “one man can make a difference” changed into a team making a difference. The show also had a sponsor in the form of Ford, so all the vehicles were either came from Ford or a Ford subsidiary, which Pontiac was not**. Ford was also the sponsor for the 2008 Knight Rider series, thus the Mustang with two sensor lights instead of one***. However, the Mustang was the Knight Industries Three Thousand, a descendant of the original KITT.
The Dukes of Hazzard
The vehicle: An orange 1969 Dodge Charger with the Confederate battle flag on the roof and the number 01 on the door.
The remake: The same make and model.
The Dukes of Hazzard featured many car chases. The titular characters’ car, the General Lee, appeared in all but one episode, either chasing or being chased. Fortunately, the Charger was already a decade old when the show first aired. The 2005 movie could easily reuse the same model**** as a result. Any differences would be under the hood, usually out of sight of the audience.
Doctor Who
The vehicle: A Type 40 TARDIS with a broken chameleon circuit
The reboot: The same TARDIS
When /Doctor Who/ first aired, the Doctor’s “spaceship” was hidden in a junk yard and disguised as a British police call box. As the show continued, call boxes were phased out of use by British police in favour of radios. However, the Doctor’s TARDIS remained in its form. This was later explained by a broken chameleon circuit, which would allow a properly functioning TARDIS to blend into its surroundings. The Master’s TARDIS had a working circuit and could hide in most terrain. The Doctor did try to fix the circuit, but wardrobes were just as obvious as the call box in the middle of a wilderness. The reboot brought back the TARDIS in its much-loved form, with only the inside changed, reflecting the organic look from the 1996 Fox TV movie. Over the run of the series, the exterior received minor, cosmetic changes, but the essence remained.
Next week, how technological updates will affect more classic movie vehicles.
* aka, the Hum-Vee.
** Pontiac was a brand of General Motors until discontinued in 2009.
*** Like an original Battlestar Galactica Cylon being upgraded.
**** Many 1968 Chargers were totaled in the original Dukes.
The 1970s was chock full of children’s programming on Saturdays, despite (or because of) the lack of specialty cable channels. The three major American broadcasters – ABC, CBS, and NBC – competed for the eyes of the youth. Sid & Marty Krofft produced a number of live action TV series for the networks, many of which were more cartoony than an animated series. Among their work was Land of the Lost, created by David Gerrold, writer of the classic Star Trek episode “The Trouble With Tribbles”. The series told the story of a father and his two children who went canoing and wound up in a different land.
The opening theme served as much of an explanation as anyone would get. Our heroes, Rick Marshall and his kids, Will and Holly, were plunged into a land where dinosaurs roamed, primitive human-like creatures were discovering tools, and reptile-men lurked. Marshall used his survival skills to find food, create shelter, and domesticate young dinosaurs*. Meanwhile, a fearsome** Tyrannosaur hunted, waiting to grab any creature who couldn’t outrun it. Unusual for its time, the series ended with an episode that would work as a finale of sorts, a time loop that brought the characters back to the beginning of the season just in time for reruns.
Although the series was short run, it left an impact on many people***, in part because of the sense of exploration and danger that the series created. The land was an alien world, with beings that weren’t just humans with funny foreheads. The Sleestak were a credible threat and weren’t defeated by their own incompetance. The writers included several science fiction authors, such as Larry Niven, Ben Bova, Norman Spinrad, and Theodore Sturgeon.
In the 2000s****, studios were exploiting the market for remakes of old TV shows, popular or not. Land of the Lost was remade as a feature film. Several liberties were taken. Marshall, played by Will Ferrell, became a paleontologist instead of a park ranger. Will and Holly were no longer related to Marshall or to each other, and both were aged up. The tone went from family adventure to broad, loud “adult” comedy. While the original TV series did have comedic moments, the focus was light adventure, with enough fright to keep the intended audience watching without sending it running under a couch.
The movie did not fare well with audiences or critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported only 26% of reviewers gave favourable reviews. The box office returns didn’t cover the budget of the movie. The movie received seven Golden Raspberry nominations. What happened?
The big problem was that Land of the Lost was used as a Will Ferrell comedy vehicle, with all other considerations coming a distant second. Fans of the original series would be disappointed with how the original material was treated. The care taken in the original series into creating a larger world than seen on screen was not evident in the movie. Things existed solely for comedic purposes. In terms of previous columns, there was no respect for the original material.
The Land of the Lost movie could have been different. It could have followed a family dropped into a strange world and having to survive against numerous threats. Instead, the movie was a brash comedy aimed at a completely different audience than the original series was. The potential was wasted.
Next week, side-tracking a little.
* Herbivores only.
** Supposed to be fearsome, though the special effects budget was already strained.
*** References to Land of the Lost have even appeared in Peter David’s Star Trek tie-in novels, including a character Marshall Willenholly.
**** Also not know as the Oughts and the Naughties.
The Cold War between the USSR and the US allowed spy novels to flourish after the end of the Second World War. During the 50s and 60s, British authors dominated the genre. However, the 70s saw American titles side by side with their British counterparts. One of the earlier successes in spy thrillers was Robert Ludlum. Among Ludlum’s many best sellers was The Bourne Identity, published in 1980. Considered to be one of the best spy novels written, Identity was turned into a movie twice; the first time in 1988 as television mini-series, the second time as a theatrical feature with Matt Damon in the title role in 2002. A review of the adaptation of the novel to the big screen will come in a later column. This one takes a look at the latest in the Bourne series of movies, The Bourne Legacy.
The original Bourne trilogy followed the story of a man with amnesia, several bullet wounds, and a surgically-implanted message found floating in the Mediterranean Sea. The man follows the message to a Swiss bank where he finds cash and documents with his photo and the name “Jason Bourne”. The story continues as Bourne is pursued by several people, all leading back to Operation Treadstone. Through Identity and the follow up movies, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, Bourne works to find out who he is, what Treadstone and its successor, Blackbriar, is, and how to get his life back. The end of Ultimatum worked as the end of Jason Bourne’s story. (more…)
