Welcome to Lost in Translation’s news round-up, looking at information about upcoming adaptations, remakes, and reboots.
Warner reschedules Batman v Superman – Dawn of Justice
Warner Bros blinked and moved their movie to March 25, 2016, so that it wouldn’t be in direct competition with Marvel’s Captain America 3. That moves the film to outside the summer blockbuster months, but may gain a bit with March Breaks in high schools.
Babylon 5 getting a feature film reboot.
J. Michael Stracysnki has announced that he will be writing the script for the reboot film. JMS was the creator of the TV series, and is hoping to get Warner Bros. to fund the film. If not, then Studio JMS will provide the funding. No other details are known.
John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War becoming TV series Ghost Brigades.
The pilot script is still being developed, but SyFy will be airing the series. Scalzi has a FAQ and an interview with one of the scriptwriters, himself. This is in addition to the Redshirts TV series on FX.
Shazam movie confirmed; Dwayne Johnson has undisclosed role.
Dwayne Johnson may play either Captain Marvel (get it right, CBC!) or Black Adam, but he didn’t say which. However, one of his favourite characters is Black Adam.
Casting announced for Andy Serkis’ Jungle Book.
Benedict Cumberbatch has been named as the voice of Shere Khan in the Warner Bros.’ version of The Jungle Book. This should not be confused with Disney’s remake, which will have Idris Elba as the tiger.
Phineas and Ferb to have Hallowe’en special.
Sure, most of Disney’s properties have Hallowe’en specials. None had Simon Pegg or Nick Frost recreating their roles from Shaun of the Dead until now. The pair will join the rest of the cast from Phineas and Ferb in a so-far undisclosed story. The writing for the cartoon targets the entire family and has been known to throw in references to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the past.
Power Rangers movie has release date set.
Lionsgate has set June 22, 2016, as the release date for Power Rangers. Now all they need to do is film it. Cast and director have not yet been named.
An Astronaut’s Guide to Life to be adapted for TV.
Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield, who commanded the International Space Station during Expedition 35, will have his book adapted for television. ABC has picked up the rights and will have Col. Hadfield as a consulting producer on the pilot.
Minority Report in development for TV series.
Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television may be adapting his movie Minority Report, based on the Philip K. Dick short story “The Minority Report”. The series is expected to focus on the PreCrime unit from the movie.
A small change in plans. With the passing of Robin Williams, it seemed to be fitting to look at something of his. A look at his filmography, though, shows a large number of potential reviews, from Popeye to Good Morning, Vietnam, based on Adrian Cronauer’s experiences on Armed Forces Radio, to The Birdcage, a remake of the French-Italian film La Cage aux Folles, and to Insomnia, a remake of a Norwegian film of the same name. A wealth of possibilities to choose from showcasing his range as an actor. However, one of his iconic roles channelled his stand-up comedy – Disney’s Aladdin.
The part of the Genie in Aladdin was written specifically for Williams, but he almost turned down the role. It wasn’t until he saw one of his stand-up routines animated with the Genie did he accept. The result was animated magic. Williams almost stole the movie as the Genie. And while the part was written for him, Williams performed his manic improv throughout the movie.
The original story of “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp” is a folk tale from the Middle East, passed down through oral tradition before being recorded in writing. The tale was added to 1001 Arabian Nights by translators in the 18th Century, becoming one of Scheherazade’s stories keeping her alive. Aladdin, according to the tale, was recruited by a sorcerer to enter a cave filled with traps to retrieve a special oil lamp. To help, the sorcerer gave Aladdin a magic ring. Stuck in the cave, Aladdin rubs his ring, summoning a djinn who helps him escape with the lamp. At home, he cleans up the lamp, summoning a more powerful djinn. The new djinn helps Aladdin become rich and marry Badroulbadour, the Emperor’s daughter, despite her being betrothed to the vizier. The sorcerer finds out about what has happened, though, and tricks Badroulbadour into trading for the lamp. Aladdin tracks down the sorcerer with the help of the djinn of the ring. After a fight, Aladdin triumphs, retrieves the lamp, and returns to Badroulbadour.
Disney’s Aladdin follows the general story closely. There are a few changes. The sorcerer and the vizier were rolled into Jafar, the Grand Vizier, and there was just the one Genie. There was no room for a second Robin Williams in the movie. The Emperor’s daughter received a name change, from Badroulbadour to Jasmine. While Badroulbadour means “the full moon of full moons”, an name implying great beauty, the name doesn’t flow naturally to an English audience, thus Jasmine. The story was moved from the far east to the fictional sultanate of Agrabah, a land with classic Arabic stylings. The changes are minor, though. The core of the story still focuses on Aladdin and his dream to become rich. Disney added a few morals to the film, but again the story could absorb the additions with no loss to the core.
With the main plot already handled, other subplots were added. The Genie wants freedom. “Phenominal cosmic power! Itty bitty living space.” Robin Williams turned in a performance that made the Genie larger than life but still human. He took a character with absolute cosmic power and made him funny, made him sympathetic, made him memorable.
Disney’s Aladdin works as an adaptation. It only adds to the story, not removing anything from the core of the tale of “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp”. Robin Williams, though, added to the story, using his talents to entertain, thrill, and enchant a new generation. He will be missed.
The hijinks of the proverbial fish out of water has been the source for many works in entertainment. The idea of taking someone from his or her element and then dropping them in an entirely new setting has great comic potential. Even Shakespeare has used the device, in such works as A Midsummer’s Night Dream and As You Like It. The latter even had the dichotomy of country and city life, one of the first being The Beverly Hillbillies.
The Beverly Hillbillies had a simple premise, as explained in its theme song – Jed Clampett, played by Buddy Ebsen, finds oil on his land, gets rich, and buys a home in Beverly Hills. Being a dirt poor farmer, Jed never saw modern conveniences. His family, Ellie Mae, Jethro, and Granny, played by Donna Douglas, Max Baer, Jr, and Irene Ryan, weren’t much better; Granny didn’t take to the advances like Jed had, like motor cars. Having a big cement pond, known to most people as a pool, was a source of amazement. Fortunately, Jed had the help of his financial advisor and next door neighbour Milburn Drysdale, played by Raymond Bailey, and his secretary, Jane Hathaway, played by Nancy Kulp. Episodes revolved around the cultural conflict between the Clampetts and the Drysdales, ascerbated by schemes by either Jethro or Drysdale. Jethro’s scheming was more to get the pretty girls of Beverly Hills; Drysdale’s scams involved using Jed’s money to get richer. Not everyone had a conflict. Jane Hathaway was friendly with the Clampetts, even with Granny, and Ellie Mae soothed some rough patches by being her charming self.
The series ran for nine years, from 1962 until 1971, switching from black and white to colour in its fourth season. Despite negative reviews from critics, The Beverly Hillbillies was a ratings hit, being the number one show in its early years. Even when it was cancelled, it was in the top third of TV series on the air. CBS, however, bowed to pressure from advertisers who wanted a younger audience and cancelled many of its shows with a heartland theme in what became known as the Rural Purge. Along with The Beverly Hillbillies, other long runners cancelled included Green Acres, Mayberry RFD, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Hee Haw, making way for new series All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, and M*A*S*H, shows that reflected the social mood of the early 70s. Rural series would return, such as The Dukes of Hazzard in 1979, but they wouldn’t dominate the airwaves as before. The Beverly Hillbillies had a reunion movie in 1981, catching up on where the characters went over the decade since cancellation.
The Beverly Hillbillies did make an impact on the mind space of audiences. Even if someone hadn’t seen the show, difficult in the age of syndication, the theme song could easily become an earworm. Even “Weird Al” Yankovic would make reference to the show, releasing the song “The Beverly Hillbillies/Money for Nothing” as part of the soundtrack for 1989’s UHF. Jed Clampett represented the rags-to-riches dream, something that appeals to a wide audience. Naturally, a TV series that had such a wide audience was ripe for being adapted as a feature film.
In 1993, that’s exactly what happened. The Beverly Hillbillies was released by Twentieth Century Fox, introducing the Clampetts to the big screen. Casting was a strong point for the adaptation, with a number of comedians and comic actors playing the major characters. Taking over the role of Jed was Jim Varney, best known for playing the character Earnest in the various ads and movies. Meanwhile, Cloris Leachman played Granny, Lily Tomlin portrayed Jane Hathaway, and Dabney Coleman was Mr. Drysdale. Rounding out the cast were Diedrich Bader as Jethro and Erika Eleniak as Ellie Mae.
The movie starts in the Tennesee Smoky Mountains, showing the Clampetts at home. Ellie Mae fends off a bear to get wild honey for dinner while Ol’ Jed’s out hunting for food. The hunt is straight from the TV series’ title credits, with crude oil bubbling out where Jed’s missed shot discovers the patch. The first ten minutes of the movie is spent recreating the events of the opening credits, including the theme song, which has one small change. In the original series, Jed’s farm was worth $96 million, in 1962 dollars. The oil crises of the 70s, in 1973 and in 1979, occurred after The Beverly Hillbillies had been cancelled. A barrel of oil, worth $2.85 in 1962, was worth $16.75 in 1993. The movie Jed didn’t become a millionaire; he became a billionaire, and the theme song was modified to reflect the change.
While the hills of the Smoky Mountains might not have changed for Jed between 1962 and 1993, Los Angeles had. Culture shock occurred using the modern LA. The iconic image of the Clampetts in their old truck on the LA freeways remained, but the reaction to it by drivers changed. Jethro’s truck caused a traffic jam, and while drivers may have fumed in 1962, things got ugly in the early 90s. Shooting incidents between drivers on the freeways hit the news. The movie picked up on it, and one irate passenger in a car that Jethro had cut off was quite willing to express his anger with the aid of a pistol until Jed trumped him with his own shotgun.
Meanwhile, Mr. Drysdale is trying to make things welcoming for Jed’s money and for Jed. His assistant, Woodrow Tyler, played by Rob Schneider, also has plans for Jed’s money, plans require Jed to not have it. Tyler and his partner in embezzlement, Laura Jackson, played by Lea Thompson, hatch a scheme when they find out that Jed is looking for a wife to help refine tomboy Ellie Mae. Laura becomes French etiquette teacher Laurette Voleur, despite not speaking French, to infiltrate the Clampett estate and woo Jed. Granny discovers the plot while making a batch of her special brand of medicine, known to Revenue Agents as “moonshine”, but Laura and Woodrow kidnap her to have her committed to a retirement home. Miss Hathaway suspects something is up, but is unable to get Jed, who has seen Granny disappear before a wedding before, or the police involved. Jane turns to one of LA’s top private detectives, Barnaby Jones, played by Buddy Ebsen himself, to locate Granny and get her back to the estate before Jed commits to a terrible mistake.
While Jed’s the subject of several matchmakers, other subplots are also playing out. Ellie Mae heads off to high school, with Morgan Drysdale, played by Kevin Connolly, showing her around. The high school allowed the film to contrast the Clampetts with the residents of Beverly Hills. The bullies took travellers’ cheques and wire transfers, there was a cappucino vendor in the hallway before class, the girls all had cell phones*. One girl even had a FAX machine in her Porsche. In a movie that could have relied on, “Hey, look at them yokels,” humour, Ellie Mae’s subplot turns the culture shock around, adding the audience’s own shock and expectations to the mix.
One of the movie’s main strengths is that it respects the characters from the TV series. While there is some fun poked at Jethro’s lack of smarts, that element existed in the original. Jed is still the calm, wise centre of the family, doing what he can for his loved ones despite his lack of education. And, even with the lack of education, Jed is portrayed as a smart man. The contrast comes from Woodrow Tyler, an educated man without wisdom.
The cast was well chosen. Talented comedic actors who understood the role plus promising young actors presented the script well. The actors suited the roles. Dabney Coleman was ideal as Mr. Drysdale. Cloris Leachman channelled Irene Ryan as Granny. Diedrich Bader turned in a dual role, as Jethro and as his sister, Jethrine, just as Max Baer did in the original series, without turning Jethrine into a charicature. The script captured the feel of an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, right down to using the closing theme at the end. Tropes that haven’t been used in some time, like the speeding of the film during especially frenetic scenes, were in use as they would have been in the TV series.
The cast and crew showed great respect to the original material and actors. The film played out like an episode of the TV series, taking advantage of the 92 minute running time to add scenes of culture shock on the part of the Beverly Hills locals. In short, The Beverly Hillbillies movie was an almost perfect adaptation of the original show.
Next week, Ocean’s 11
* Today, that’s a given. In 1993, cell phones were mostly used for business purposes, and usually by the higher executives instead of the rank and file. The critical people usually had pagers when they had to be on call.
Prohibiton still affects American life, despite the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment by the Twenty-first effective December 1933. The War Against Alcohol meant that law-abiding people were not allowed to drink. For some, that was enough to not touch a drop of anything except de-alcoholized beer. For others, this was an opportunity. Organized crime made hundreds of thousands a day supplying illegal hooch. The penalties for violating the Volstead Act, the law that proscribed the crimes and penalties regarding alcohol, were a slap on the wrist at best; up to $1000 for a first offense of making or selling booze and up to $2000 for subsequent offenses, with the fine increasing to $10,000 in 1929. The Untouchables went after Al Capone for tax evasion instead Volstead Act violations for this reason; the Volstead Act just didn’t have the teeth needed to stop the gangster.
When Prohibition was repealed, many rum-runners and bootleggers were suddenly out of a job. For many, part of the thrill of bootlegging was outrunning the Revenuers. They modified their cars to get as much speed without sacrificing space for moonshine. Without the chase, they had to find something else to do. They did – they started racing each other. The ultimate result of the racing was the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, or NASCAR. The effects don’t stop there, though. Even with Prohibition gone, counties were still allowed to ban alcohol within their boundaries. Bringing booze through one could get a person fined or imprisoned, depending on the volume. Smokey and the Bandit was based on this idea, forty-four years after the end of Prohibition. Television, where trends are picked up and run into the ground, picked up the idea of former bootleggers doing car stunts two years later, in 1979 with The Dukes of Hazzard.
To be fair, The Dukes of Hazzard owed far more to Moonrunners than to Smokey and the Bandit, at least as far as themes and setting goes, thanks to Gy Waldron, creator of both. Bandit, however, was popular enough to get people wanting to see more car chase scenes. The opening credits set up the series, with the Balladeer, Waylon Jennings, singing “Good Ol’ Boys“. The titular Dukes, cousins Bo and Luke, were on probation for bootlegging after their Uncle Jesse had promised to stop making moonshine*. To round out the cast, Daisy Duke helped Jesse on his farm and, to help make ends meet, worked as a waitress at the Boar’s Nest. Daisy was originally meant to be Ms Fanservice on the show, but the writers developed her beyond just that. Since the show depended on car chases for the main action, it would be negligent to not mention the General Lee, the Duke boys’ Dodge Charger. Of course, if that was all to the show, it’d be dull. Enter the antagonists, Boss J.D. Hogg and his right hand man, Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltraine. As villains went, they weren’t evil or destructive. Boss Hogg wasn’t power hungry as such; power was just a means to get money. Roscoe even had his limits on what he would do for Boss Hogg. Adding to the light drama, Boss Hogg and Uncle Jesse were both bootleggers themselves in their youth, rivals. The main difference between them was that J.D. was there for the money while Jesse was there for the thrills and challenges.
The series ran on CBS from 1979 until 1986. Most episodes focused on the Dukes thwarting a ploy by Boss Hogg to pull a swindle, to get the Dukes arrested, or to get the Dukes’ farm. The other episodes either had the boys or Daisy working on their own goals or had an outside threat arrive in Hazzard that the Dukes and Boss Hogg had to work together to defeat. Car chases occurred, with vehicles racing around and over obstacles. Over 300 Chargers were destroyed over the course of the series, making replacements hard to find by the last season.
The series spawned off the spin-off Enos, based on the character of Deputy Enos Strate, and an animated series. A reunion movie, aptly titled The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! and also known as Reunion in Hazzard, brought the surviving actors back in 1997 after the series gained renewed popularity through reruns on The Nashville Network. The reunion allowed viewers and fans to find out what happened to the characters; Bo had become a NASCAR driver, Luke became a fire-jumper, Daisy returned from Duke University with a Ph.D, Roscoe became the new Boss of Hazzard County after the death of J.D. Hogg**, and Cooter, the mechanic, arrived from Washington, where he represented Hazzard County***.
In 2005, Warner Bros. released The Dukes of Hazzard, a big screen remake of the TV series. The film was a bit of an origins story, changing some of the background of the characters. Bo and Luke, now played by Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville respectively, weren’t parolees, nor was Uncle Jesse, now played by Willie Nelson. Bo was looking forward to racing in the 70th Annual Hazzard County Road Rally****, trying to get his fifth consecutive win. Luke, meanwhile, was just trying to avoid getting shot by irate fathers. Jesse still distilled moonshine, the boys making the deliveries and Daisy, played by Jessica Simpson, helping when she wasn’t working at the Boar’s Nest. Bo has a few obstacles in his way to winning, one being the return of Billy Prickett, who also is a four-time winner.
The second obstacle was the damage to Bo’s car, an orange 1969 Dodge Charger, after having to outrun yet another shotgun-weilding irate father after Luke. Fortunately, Cooter, portrayed by David Koechner, was able to fix up the car, adding a hemi engine for extra power and giving the Charger a new paint job. The biggest obstacle in Bo’s way, though, was Boss JD Hogg, played by Burt Reynolds. JD and his right hand man, Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, played by M.C. Gainey, have a scheme to take over all of Hazzard County, including the Duke farm. JD has Rosco plant a still in the Duke’s barn, mainly because the Sheriff can’t find the real one there, to give pretense to arresting the Dukes.
Bo and Luke escape, and start digging around. They discover samples that were kept in Boss Hogg’s safe and, after recovering the General Lee and making a fool out of the Hazzard County Sheriff’s Department, the cousins head to Atlanta to find out what the samples are. Being Dukes, they get on the wrong side of the law early by not maintaining the speed limit. In a twist, they were two miles per hour below the speed limit of 10mph when the campus police pulled them over. The boys, though, reacted as they normally do and leave the police golf cart in the dust.
While hiding from campus police, the boys go to the university’s geology lab, where they’re told their samples indicate the presence of coal underneath Hazzard. Boss Hogg has several farms already under his control throug his dirty dealings. All he needs is to convene a hearing at the county courthouse, scheduled during the road rally. JD even sponsored Prickett, guarenteeing that everyone in Hazzard would be at the race and not the hearing. The Duke boys figure out a plan, one that has Bo arriving at the race, even with most of Hazzard’s finest and even some of Georgia’s state police trailing.
At this point, I need to point out that my “review copy” was the unrated version, not the theatrical version. Elements that would need to be cut from a PG-13 film were re-added. Fanservice, topless nudity, swearing, PG-13 has limits. However, even the target rating is a small issue. The original TV series was a light family action/comedy. Sure, things could get dire for the Dukes, but things would work out. PG-13, while it does allow a younger audience in, means that there will be portions of the movie not suitable for a general family audience. The humour was much more low brow, with more groin shots and drug humour than in the TV series run.
The approach of the movie was much like the original Dukes. JD had a scheme that needed thwarting by the Dukes. The Balladeer, voiced by Junior Brown, narrated. The movie even included freeze frames at cliffhangers, as the TV series would do before commercials. Risky, movie audiences have expectations about flow and not seeing ads during a film, but the freezes harkened back to the TV show and, just as importantly, they weren’t overdone.
The cast, though, is a different quibble. The Bo and Luke of the movie weren’t really the Bo and Luke of the TV series. The leads were probably better named Coy and Vance, except very few fans of the series would want to see a movie with the replacement Dukes. Even Daisy wasn’t quite Daisy. The role was Jessica Simpson’s first in movies, and like Rihanna in Battleship, the singer didn’t bring that much to a small role other than be a draw for the younger crowd. That said, Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg brought a new interpretation, a smarmier JD who was more willing to cross the line to get what he wanted. Willie Nelson was as cantakerous as Denver Pyle was with Uncle Jesse, but, again, added his own interpretation.
Despite the younger cast, the movie still felt like an episode of the TV series. The elements were there; JD Hogg’s scheming, Rosco aiding with help of his basset hound Flash, Enos having a crush on Daisy. Where there were issues with the acting and script, the stunt driving more than made up. Cars flew. One stunt involved flinging the General Lee up on to an overpass into traffic. What few 1968, 1969, and 1970 Dodge Chargers that remained after the TV series were used up in the movie, but their sacrifices ensured that at least the vehicular portion of The Dukes of Hazzard lived up to expectations.
The movie did well enough in theatres, doubling their budget domestically before considering the international box office. Critics weren’t impressed, but Dukes wasn’t meant to be more than just fluff. The movie had a few challenges; older fans would be more likely to enjoy country music while the younger audience in because of Jessica Simpson were more apt to listen to pop. Feelings about certain symbols of the American South and the American Civil War are more divided; the movie did have a scene covering the various reactions to the flag on the General Lee’s roof.
Overall, as mentioned above, the movie did feel like it belonged on the TV series. The problems come in with the rating and the sexual humour, so the adaptations feels slightly off. There was respect towards the original, but the movie could have used a little more time perculating.
Next week, The Beverly Hillbillies.
* Moonshine is the popular name for alcohol brewed or distilled illegally. There was no quality control beyond the moonshiner’s testing.
related programming dropped.
** Sorrell Booke, who had portrayed J.D. Hogg, had passed away in 1994.
*** Ben Jones, who had played Cooter, served in the House of Representatives for Georgia’s 4th district from 1989 until 1993.
**** Assuming the movie was meant to take place the year of release, that would put the first race in 1935, about a year and a half after Prohibition ended. If you give the rum-runners a year to race each other due to a lack of bootlegging to be done and get organized, that puts the first race in the right time frame.
Welcome back to the round up of news about adaptations, remakes, and reboots. Each month, Lost in Translation brings a selection of links to news items related to the focus of the column. Enjoy!
American Gods picked up by Starz
Starz has picked up the series now that HBO is out. Fremantle Media is still developing the Neil Gaiman novel for a TV series.
Lifetime to air sequel to The Omen
Lifetime, of all networks, is working with The Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara to create Damien, which follows the young terror of The Omen as an adult as he faces his destiny.
Yet…
The Omen is to be remade again. This will be the second remake from Fox, the previous being the 2006 version. I got nothing here.
Predator also getting a remake/reboot.
Shane Black, of Lethal Weapon and Iron Man 3 fame, will write the treatment and then pass on the writing to Fred Dekker. Black is also slated to direct the reboot.
Audition getting an American treatment.
Takashi Miike’s Audition will have an English langauage remake with Mario Kassar, one of the people behind the Terminator franchise. The Japanese horror movie was originally based on a novel by Ryu Murakami, about a lonely man who holds fake auditions to find a girlfriend.
NBC’s Peter Pan musical announces casting for Captain Hook.
Christopher Walken will play Hook in the musical. NBC saw success with The Sound of Music last November, giving the network confidence in further musical adaptations. Walken started in musicals and can be seen dancing in Fat Boy Slim’s video for “Weapon of Choice“.
Trailer for Ouija out.
In the scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel adaptations, a movie based on the Ouija board seems like a weak premise. The trailer for the Michael Bay-helmed adaption isn’t helping.
HBO’s Westwood remake adds to cast.
Anthony Hopkins and Evan Rachel Wood are joining the cast of the remake of the Yul Brynner film. The switch from feature film to TV series will give writers time to explore the ramifications of Westworld.
Sinister Six gets release date.
Sony, following in Marvel Studio’s footsteps, is branching off the Spider-Man license and spinning off Sinister Six, to hit theatres November 2016. Sony also announced The Amazing Spider-Man 3 for 2018. The Sinister Six are a group of villains in Spider-Man’s rogues gallery.
You’re tearing me apart!
Oh, hi there! Tommy Wiseau, creator and star of The Room is getting his follow up, The Neighbors made as a sitcom. The show, which has an official website, is supposed to be out in September. The Room, which can be seen at repertory cinemas, is considered to be one of the worst films ever.
Orphan Black to spawn a comic book series.
IDW Publishing will release a comic book series based on the Canadian hit science fiction series. The title is expected out next year.
Amazon places order for The Man in the High Castle
Amazon has picked up the Philip K. Dick novel after the SyFy Channel‘s plans fell through. The original novel won a Hugo in 1962.
Experience comes through learning from mistakes. These mistakes can be made by someone else. Lost in Translation has looked at a number of adaptations, remakes, and reboots over the past three years, covering works of a variety of quality. One of the difficult parts of the reviews is differentiating quality of the movie from the quality of the adaptation.
Generally, a bad movie is bad everywhere. Not only does it miss the point of the original, the bad movie also misses the point of pacing, characterization, plot, and entertainment. A good movie, though, may not necessarily be a good adaptation. A good adaptation may not work as a good movie; there could be elements that don’t carry over during the translation between media.
In general, there are nine possible outcomes, combining the degrees of quality. Along with beging good or bad, there’s the middle stage, the decent by not outstanding. The middle stage is the interesting part when looking at adaptations here at Lost in Translation; the work shows signs of understanding the original work while still missing key elements. I can highlight both and show why the adaptation works and why it needs more thought.
Good work, good adaptation is getting more common. With movies, studios are realizing that an accurate adaptation will please the original work’s fanbase. Word of mouth counts for a lot more today than in pre-Internet days; anyone can be a reviewer and can get their views out during the movie. Risk-averse Hollywood needs the fanbase onside. However, it’s still difficult to get a pitch perfect adaptation. The best I’ve run into so far were Scott Pilgrim versus the World and Blade Runner. Neither movie adapted the original fully, instead going with what I’ve called a “partial adaptation”. Blade Runner left out a number of elements from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep just to be filmable. Scott Pilgrim followed one plot line, the seven evil exes, and ignored some subplots; however, the movie used the graphic novel as the storyboard and filmed in Toronto to keep what was filmed accurate.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are few bad works that are also bad adaptations. Few people set out to make a deliberately bad movie. Even Ed Wood* was putting in his best effort to make the movie he envisioned. With today’s blockbuster budgets breaking past $200 million, studios want to see the movie succeed. Still, bad movies happen. The worst I’ve reviewed here was Alien from L.A., a very loose adaptation of Journey to the Centre of the Earth that had problems that go far beyond the script. Movies don’t get featured on Mystery Science Theatre 3000 without going that extra step.
Bad movies make it easy to point out what went wrong, but there’s nothing to point out where there was effort. A lack of effort dooms adaptations, but even works that try can fail. On the flip side, movies that have the deck stacked against it succeed against the odds. The size of the budget is no guarentee; the big budget Battleship suffered from being too tied to the Save the Cat script formula while trying to reflect game play, while Flash Gordon was successful as an adaptation and became a cult classic despite executive meddling. It’s these middle cases that make Lost in Translation interesting.
The good movie/bad adaptation combination comes out when a studio has a vision for the final product that deviates from the original work. Real Steel was a family movie about a man reconnecting with his son through the rounds of a robot boxing league. The Richard Matheson short story “Steel” that the movie was based on, though, was about a desperate man stepping into a ring posing as a robot in order to earn money to fix his own entrant. Yet, Real Steel is worth seeing for what it is. The 2014 Robocop could fall into this category; it eschewed the over-the-top violence and satire of the 1980s, reflecting the New Teens instead.
The reverse, the bad movie/good adaptation, is rare. The effort needed to create a good adaptation would also go towards making a good movie. The eye to detail that leads to good adaptations would also go to making sure that the movie’s pacing suits. Cult classics have the potential to fall in this category; Street Fighter: The Movie might qualify. But, most bad adaptations go the route of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, missing the point of the original work while still committing sins of the bad movie.
The middle case, the okay movie/okay adaptation, is ideal for reviewing. This sort of adaptation allows for showing what does work and what doesn’t, providing a contrast. These adaptations tend to be shallow, either because the format of the adaptation doesn’t allow for depth or the adapter doesn’t quite get the original. The novel-to-movie adaptation can easily fall here; Dragonlance and Firefox are the exemplars. In both cases, the adapters put an effort into being faithful, but the length of the adaptations prevented from getting deep just to cover the story. Dragonlance also has the problem of a larger cast; in a movie, this prevents the audience from really getting to know anyone. Television, either a regular series or a mini-series, could have been the better choice, something that A Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead have shown.
All the above discussion looks solely at the quality of the adaptation. The original work hasn’t come into play, yet its quality also becomes an issue. With Harry Potter, JK Rowling created a vibrant world that people want to visit all from playing with words. The fanbase expected no less from an adaptation. Meanwhile, the original Battlestar Galactica was seen as a throwback to an earlier for of science fiction, ignoring that the series routinely was in the top ratings until the network, ABC, couldn’t make up its mind whether it wanted the series and moved it around or pre-empted it. The popular view of Galactica gave the remake room to experiment and take a harder look at what it would be like for a ragtag fleet escaping the destruction of its homeworlds. It is very possible for an adaptation or a remake to be seen as better than the original; the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series is seen as an improvement on the movie.
What all the above means for Lost in Translation is that the choice of works to review needs to be diverse. If all I did was review just good adaptations or just bad ones, I’d be missing the full picture. Quality of movie doesn’t matter; neither does box office success. Limiting myself would mean missing on works that would allow for greater understanding on how adaptations work.
Next week, the July news round up.
The 1980s were a time of excesses. While Oliver Stone’s Wall Street was a reflection, not the cause, one line summed up the corporate mentality; “[G]reed, for a lack of a better word, is good.”* Or, as Newhart‘s Larry, Darryl, and Darryl put it, “Anything for a buck.” Conservative governments in the US, the UK, and Canada embarked on deregulating and privatizing anything possible, regardless of the impact. During this time, the archetypical Cyberpunk novel, William Gibson’s Neuromancer was published, followed two years later by Walter Jon Williams’ Hardwired, both taking a hard look at the rise of corporate power and what it meant to the workers and the outsiders.
As the decade began to wrap up in 1987, the movie Robocop hit theatres. The film was billed as a science-fiction action movie, set in the near future. Detroit was bankrupt and was being bought out by Omni Consumer Products. The Detroit Police Department had been privatized, bought by OCP who turned the department into a profit centre through underfunding. OCP has a project in the works to replace the officers in the field with robots; in fact, there are two competing projects. The first is a fully automated law enforcement unit, the ED-209. The second is Robocop. However, the Robocop project requires a human base to be augmented.
Enter Alex Murphy, police officer, family man. Murphy worked on the police as a patrol officer on the dangerous streets of Old Detroit. How dangerous were the streets? Body armour was part of the patrol uniform. Murphy and his new partner, Anne Lewis, respond to a call that led to the chase of Clarence Boddicker, the leader of a criminal gang handling a bit of everything, including cocaine dealing. Murphy and Lewis separated, giving Boddicker the opportunity to kill Murphy brutally.
Lewis discovers Murphy, barely alive. OCP takes over Murphy’s trip to the hospital, leading to Alex being declared dead and a clause in his work contract getting invoked. Bob Morton then takes possession of Murphy, wanting to use him for the Robocop project. The ED-209, championed by OCP VP Dick Jones, had a setback during initial testing, leading to the shooting death of an intern after the prototype failed to recognize the intern had dropped his gun. Morton reveals the new Alex Murphy, Robocop.
Robocop, along with being a violent science-fiction action movie, was a satire of the politics and culture of the 80s. Underfunded police forces, privatization, high level corporate drug use, corporate politics, dangerous streets, anything and everything that hit the news, TV series, or feature films. Yet, today, Detroit is bankrupt and the average police officer on patrol is wearing body armour. While it wasn’t meant to be predictive, Robocop foresaw the rise of corporate power and the militarization of police services.
With the risk aversion in Hollywood studios and the appetite of foreign markets for known franchises, it was almost inevitable that Robocop was remade for 2014. With the original movie having had two sequels, a TV series, a video game, a pinball game, and even a cartoon**, the character of Robocop is a known figure. Over-the-top action transcends language. Robocop was ideal for a remake.
The new Robocop saw a few changes right away, mainly because of cultural and political changes during the intervening twenty-seven years. While Detroit wasn’t mentioned as being bankrupt nor being owned by OCP***, the city was still a dangerous place to live. Murphy became a detective instead of patrolman, as did his partner, Jack Murphy.
The movie begins with The Novak Element, a cable news program with high tech flash that wouldn’t be out of place on Fox or CNN. Pat Novak, played by Samuel L. Jackson, goes on a rant on how drones, being used for peacekeeping in American-occupied Tehran, can’t be used for law enforcement thanks to a popular law passed by Congress. Omnicorp, a division of OCP, is seeing hundreds of millions in unrealized sales, and a plan gets hatched to turn popular opinion against the Act. Raymond Sellars, CEO of Omnicorp, finds a loophole that lets him get his wedge; drones aren’t allowed, but a machine with a man inside isn’t covered. All he needs is a suitable candidate.
Meanwhile, Detectives Alex Murphy and Jack Lewis have been on the trail of Antoine Vallon, gang leader with fingers in a number of rackets, including selling guns from the Detroit Police Department’s evidence lockers. Hampering the investigation is the possibility that Vallon has several police detectives on his payroll. Murphy and Lewis arrange a meeting with Vallon, but have their covers blown. Lewis is shot and wounded during the firefight while Vallon escapes. Vallon later arranges for a bomb to be placed in Murphy’s car. The explosion all but kills Alex.
Alex’s wife, Clara, is approached by Omnicorp to keep him alive. There’s not much after the blast and the fourth-degree burns, but Omnicorp and its division Omni Life have made strides with cybernetic technology. Murphy is rebuilt, augmented, and turned into Robocop. The movie takes the time to cover Murphy’s transformation from barely-living to cyborg law enforcement officer. The conflict between Murphy and Omnicorp also grows; to the corporation, Murphy is product.
The original Robocop was known for its satire and for being over-the-top violent, almost getting an X-rating from the violence. At the same time, the movie had its moments of humour, despite the grimness of the setting. In the new version, the satire is still around, but it hits closer to home. Drone use by law enforcement is a hot issue, and today’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicles aren’t the combat model EM-208 and ED-209 robots of the movie, just remotely piloted aircraft missiles. Likewise, corporate influence on government is a concern; Omnicorp’s manipulation of public opinion and rules-lawyering is a little too close for comfort. Whether that’s a plus or a minus is up to the individual viewer; satire is a way to get a message across but does need a deft hand.
One big difference between the two movies is the level of violence. As mentioned above, the original movie was violent and brutal, setting a mark for other movies of what could and couldn’t be done and still stay R-rated. The remake, however, went for a PG-13 rating. PG-13 hits the sweet spot for blockbusters; it allows younger audiences in to watch the movie while signalling that it isn’t sanitized. An R-movie prevents viewers under seventeen in, losing a major market. To get a PG-13 rating, though, the level of violence had to be toned down. Robocop’s primary pistol is a variable-setting taser instead of a beefed-up machine pistol. The amount of blood and gore shown is minimal; there is no one getting doused in toxic waste then splattered across the the front of a step van like in the original. To make up, the fighting became more personal. Murphy isn’t showing off his shooting skills; he’s hunting down his own killers, defending himself, or fighting the combat drones.
As its own movie, the Robocop remake holds up well. It’s a science-fiction action movie that reflects its time. As a remake, that reflection creates a few problems. It’s not the almost cartoonishly violent movie that the original was. Nor does it take the theme of what it means to be human. Instead, the remake looks at the human spirit, what keeps a man going despite everything that has happened to him. It also looks at the degree of leniency that corporations enjoy today, something the original just scratched the surface of. The remake is Robocop, but it’s the Robocop of the new millenium, not of the 80s.
Next week, a look at methdology used when writing Lost in Translation.
* It was lost on people championing the line that the character who said it, Gordon Gekko, was indicted in the film for insider trading.
** The 80s were known for seeing R-rated movies getting cartoons. See also, Rambo.
*** A deleted scene from the remake does have the CEO of Omnicorp making an offer to the mayor of Detroit to buy the police department.
It’s said that a writer should write what he knows*. For Scott Adams, a contract at Pacific Bell was an inspiration. The result, Dilbert, was picked up by United Media Syndicates. While the artwork was simplistic, the situations hit home with working readers. Adams based the characters on people he met on his contract. Dilbert is an amalgam of the engineers Adams worked with, while Alice and Wally were based on specific people. Alice was modelled on the lone woman engineer at the firm who felt she had to out-perform the men in all areas**. Wally, that model of corporate laziness, was based on an engineer at PacBell who couldn’t be fired after making a major mistake but was told he’d never be promoted; the engineer turned his intellect towards doing the least amount of work possible.
The strip focused on the day-to-day life of working at an unnamed tech firm and introduced a few terms into the English language. Anyone who has spent time in a large enough company has run into a Pointy-Haired Boss, or PHB, who has absolutely no understanding of what his people or even his department does. When Dilbert isn’t working, he spends his time with Dogbert, a dog with all of Dilbert’s intelligence and none of his morality. Dogbert gets to be the cynical part of Dilbert, saying what Dilbert would only think while abusing people for fun and profit. Meanwhile, Ratbert often represents the general public being abused by Dogbert.
The popularity of the comic strip comes from readers being able to, if not empathize with Dilbert, recognize similar situations in their own lives. Even if they’re not engineers, readers have dealt with PHBs, evil heads of human resources, and lazy co-workers. Dogbert says what many people think but can’t vocalize at work if they want to stay employed. The strip is meant for an adult audience, readers who are or have been in the work force, though people at tech firms get a bit more out of the situations.
In 1999, Scott Adams teamed up with Larry Charles, showrunner for Seinfeld, to create a TV series A live-action series was considered but the ultimate decision was to go with an animated Dilbert. The show aired on the former UPN, now part of The CW Network and lasted two seasons. The animated series had a head start on how the characters would look, thanks to the comic strip, but had a few other concerns to deal with. The first was mouths. In the strip, Dilbert, Dogbert, and Catbert, the evil head of HR, had no mouths. Facial expressions and, for the animals, wagging tails were enough to convey emotions. Word bubbles made it clear who was speaking. In an animated series, though, people expect to hear the characters speak and know which one was speaking through mouth movements. The decision was made to add the mouth when Dilbert, Dogbert, and Catbert were speaking, with the mouth disappearing when they were silent.
The other concern also comes from the characters speaking. Readers would have an idea of what the characters sound like. Even Adams stated as much in one of the DVD extras. The casting search needed to find actors who were, well, not that manly*** and, in Dogbert’s case, would sound like the voice came from a small, egg-shaped, cynical dog. The search resulted with Daniel Stern as Dilbert and Chris Elliot as Dogbert, both of whom fit the characters well.
The series brought in as many of the supporting cast as possible, though Bob the Dinosaur wound up with just a cameo despite appearing in the opening credits. Ted the Generic Guy was replaced in importance by Loud Howard; Howard’s schitck, being loud, was easier to do with an audio track. The episodes tended to focus on Dilbert’s office life, as he dealt with annoyances from Marketing down to the trolls in Accounting, but did highlight his home life and go to Elbonia. All the elements of the comic strip were in the show.
Helping to keep the the series close to the feel of the comic strip was Scott Adams’ involvement. He was listed as a producer and wrote or co-wrote several episodes. Being on UPN also helped; the network needed viewers and wasn’t willing to drive away existing fans by adding a love affair between Alice and Dilbert. The animation allowed Adams to experiment away from the three-panel format of the strip, giving him a chance to try out stories that would take weeks or even months in newspapers. The animation also let the scripts bend and ignore physics as needed.
Dilbert the series lasted two seasons on UPN. While it did well for UPN at first, the schedulers managed to channel the PHB in the second season and placed the show after Shasta McNasty, a series about a three-man rap band whose label goes bust when the band moves to LA. The audience for Shasta was unlike the audience for Dilbert, leading to the end of both shows.
As an adaptation, the animated Dilbert kept the feel of the comic strip. Adams and Charles worked to make sure that the voices fit the characters. The episodes had the mix of whimsy and cynicism found in the comic, and, ignoring the look of the computer equipment, are timeless****. Respect for the fans of the comic could be seen throughout the series.
Next week, Robocop.
* To a degree, it’s true, but it might be better to say that a writer needs to know about what her writes. Otherwise, all that would ever be published are autobiographies and coming of age stories, and that would get dull.
** Sadly, a state of affairs common in engineering due to the heavily male-dominated field.
*** Except for Alice, really.
**** “The Return” is funnier today thanks to the proliferation of online shopping. “Ethics” predated the Diebold voting machines and served as a predictor of the inevitable.
Stargate still being rebooted.
Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are returning to the Stargate helm with a reboot trilogy, as was reported back in September here. Details have still not been announced beyond the trilogy being a reboot instead of a continuation.
Spinward Traveller TV pilot on Kickstarter.
d20 Entertainment is working to put together a pilot episode of Spinward Traveller. The show, based on the Traveller RPG, follows the exploits of the free trader Beowulf in the Spinward Marches of the Third Imperium. The Beowulf‘s fame in the game comes from the distress call on the back of the box of the classic edition of Traveller.
Starship Troopers reboot/remake could be in works.
Still unconfirmed, but Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures had some interesting tweets involving the work.
Magnificent Seven being remade.
Denzel Washington may star in the remake. This leads to the chain of remaking an adaptation; the original Magnificent Seven took The Seven Samurai and placed it into the American frontier.
Speaking of Denzel Washington…
The Equilizer is set to hit theatres in September. The movie is a remake of the CBS TV series starring Edward Woodward that ran from 1985 to 1989 about a semi-retired spy who freelanced as a troubleshooter for people who needed help.
Sonic the adaptation
The speedy hedgehog is getting a combined live-action/CGI animated movie. Little has been released other than Doctor Eggman will be the villain.
Magic School Bus rebooted to Netflix
Miss Frizzle rides again as the series gets rebooted thanks to Netflix. The original Magic School Bus aired on PBS as an educational series where Miss Frizzle took her students in the titular bus to visit various locations, such as Egypt, space, and the human body.
Lion King spin-off Lion Guard
The series will follow Kion, the second born of Simba and Nala, as he leads the Guard. While other characters from the series may appear, new characters will compose the cast.
Grumpy Cat gets Christmas Special
Internet celebrity and meme source Tardar Sauce, also known as Grumpy Cat, will be getting a Christmas special that will air on Lifetime. The cat earned the nickname because of colouration and facial features that made her look like she was perpetually grumpy. When asked about the the special, she said, “Let it – NO.”
You new too, Scooby-Doo?
Warner Bros. to reboot Scooby-Doo, most likely as live-action movies. No cast is attached yet; the reboot of the adaptation movie is still in pre-production.
“Demon With a Glass Hand” to be adapted for the big screen.
Harlan Ellison’s episode for The Outer Limits will the basis for the upcoming movie based on the classic TV series. The episode involved time travel, aliens, and a man with a computerized hand.
Once again, the day will be saved…
… thanks to the Powerpuff Girls! Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup will be returning to Cartoon Network in 2016.
True Blood: The Musical.
With the TV adaptation wrapping up on HBO, Charlaine Harris’ The Southern Vampire Mysteries may become a stage musical. Nathan Barr, who worked on the TV series, has composed the musical.
Pacific Rim returning hard.
The sequel to the movie has been announced for April 2017. In the meantime, an animated series and a book series based on the movie, the latter having begun with Year Zero, are in the works. The original movie centered on fighting an invasion of kaiju, or giant monsters, with giant mecha and did far better outside the US than in it.
Last week, I looked at the mess that was Super Mario Bros. That adaptation, along with those for Double Dragon and Street Fighter, cemented the idea that movies based on video games will suck. Mortal Kombat, released in 1995, did reduce the stigma of the video game movie by being both entertaining and a decent adaptation of the Mortal Kombat video game, but quality is still not guarenteed. Still, licensing for movies still happens, even if the concept of the game isn’t easily adapted.
With the march of technology, what once cost thousands to millions to make can now be done at home on a computer with inexpensive or even open source software. Digital cameras are now standard on cell phones, smart or otherwise. Editing software allows budding film makers to create their blockbuster. Sure, they may not have the budget for extensive sets and A-list actors, but creativity can get the film makers around those problems. Today’s technology allows anyone to try to make a film. Even Spielberg and Lucas had to start somewhere and, today, it’s far easier to get started.
This week’s focus is on The Four Players by PolarisGo, a group that creates short films based on video games. With The Four Players, they went for a gritty background for four iconic characters. Each part is short, no more than five minutes each, and is available on PolarisGo’s YouTube channel. Go take a look, then come back.
Without names being dropped during each video, it’s easy to tell which Mario character is the focus. The videos use the iconic colours for Mario and Luigi, even if they’re not wearing the traditional coveralls at first. Mario is still a plumber and still Italian-American. He still wears the cheesy mustache. Luigi is tall and lanky. The Princess is still in distress. Toad is still a mushroom. In fact, Toad being a mushroom puts his video ahead of the official adaptation, even with Mojo Nixon doing what he can with what he was given.
The cast and crew have put their own spin on the video game. At the same time, the videos do fit into the world of Mario. Mario punches a block made of bricks, something not seen in the movie. Likewise, the Chain Chomps that threaten the Princess and the power-up mushrooms Mario and Luigi use appear in the videos but not Super Mario Bros. Toad gets a bag full of Bob-ombs. Guarding and menacing the Princess are recognizable Koopa Troopas, which were called Goombas in the movie.
At this point, it is obvious that PolarisGo put more effort into keeping to the spirit of the Super Mario Bros. video game in four short videos that the creators of the movie had. Steve said it best when he pointed out the movie “went out of its way to be wrong.” Meanwhile, a low budget fan production managed to portray Mario as seen in the game while still putting a dark twist on it and still giving the audience a ray of hope. The Four Players channels the essence of Mario and builds on top instead of replacing.
The videos do show why now is a great time to be a geek. A creative group willing to put time and effort can put together a video based on a favorite work and be seen by other fans. The gear needed to film and the software to edit is within reach of most groups. Game peripherals can easily be adapted for filming; a steering wheel controller can be turned into a steady-cam for far less than the cost of the steady-cam. Getting the final product out for the world to see just requires a webpage and a YouTube channel. We’re long past the 500-channel future of the 80s and 90s.
Next week, the June round-up of remake news.
