From "Star Trek" to "Spider-Man": There's A Certain Way To (Re-) Do It! - Herbie J Pilato

There39s been resurgence in remakes of recent Classic television programs for the bigscreen or small classic films for the bigscreen classic concepts remade in general whether they were remade from an original comic book or novel sourceIn the past few years there39s been small screen television retreads of Battlestar Galactica The Defenders and The Munsters More are on the way as actors Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley Ralphie from A Christmas Story are partnering with Paramount to develop a new Brady Bunch while Warner Bros is still dabbling with the possibility of redoing Wonder Woman for which a recent David E Kelly edition did not flyOn the bigscreen classic TV shows have shown up in retrograde fashion with for example director Tim Burton and star Johnny Depp39s Dark Shadows based on the 1960s gothic soap and the ongoing adventures of Mission Impossible featuring Tom Cruise who is now also working on a redo of TV39s The Man From UNCLE Into this mix producerdirector JJ Abrams who helmed Cruise in Mission Impossible 3 is now promoting his second Star Trek film based on Gene Roddenberry39s original genius Trek TV series Moreover Abrams is further involved with a reboot of the Star Wars franchise which has long been in direct competition with the Trek universe and that development alone poses an interesting triadic dichotomy1 That any Trek associate veteran or novice would be aligned with a direct quotrivalquot is nothing less than intriguing2 That Wars never began as a television series but in the theatre and3 That Abrams would not only be redoing a stabilized television franchise but is also now rebooting an established film franchiseWith regard to the latter certainly other creative sorts have found themselves in similar shoes with for example the likes and dislikes of the SpiderMan and Superman feature film worlds Both SMen initially commenced in comic book form Spidey from Marvel origins Clark Kent and company from DC origins and went on to become small screen animated and live actions series But some have questioned the wisdom of rebooting feature film editions of these two superheroes so soon after their fairly recent early retreads if only in the last decade Included in this unique reclub would The Incredible Hulk with which Universal went back to the bigscreen remake drawing board to less than stellar results with not one but two total Hulk redos within a five year spanHowever The Amazing SpiderMan introducing the new Peter Parker now played by Andrew Garfield proved profitable followed in the websteps of the ultimately success of Tobey Maguire films And many are hoping the soontobeseen Man of Steel will do the same with the Superman feature film series although the late great Christopher Reeve has continually proven to be a tough super act to followAny way the retread is sliced it is no easy task to remake a small screen classic whether or not it began in comic book or novel form for either television or the moviehouse And although those involved certainly always have the best of intentions they do not always produce the best resultsHowever there are certain precepts and quotrulesquot that could and should be adhered to help things along the way all of which once more comes in threes1 The given property39s core mythology must be respected2 If at all possible any living member of the original cast or production team of the original series or conceived project should somehow be involved3 The correct casting is pertinent and that does not always mean that an Alist actor or actress should be cast as a solid draw Ideally remakes should not be starvehicles the script and the story and the characters should be the star attractions and everything should fall into place after thatBut what might be the most important component to consider in remaking per se a classic television program in particular is to know when and when not to take the concept seriouslyA few years back The Brady Bunch was made into a glorious feature film and the camp aspect played into the scenario very well The original television series which still rules by the way though not intended as camp became camp in the process although no less loved Consequently campingitup nicely served the feature film transition amp8211 and the Brady franchise in general The Brady Bunch Movie released in 1995 pristinely incorporated camp into its very core and in the process became a satire So that workedConversely such was not the case in 2004 with Ben Stiller39s Starsky ampamp Hutch movie remake of the Aaron Spelling TV series Granted the original series could never be considered Masterpiece Theatre but it wasn39t campy either But for some reason Stiller decided to go the satire Brady Bunch route Maybe because he married Christine Taylor who played Marcia Marcia Marcia in the Brady motion pictureWhat also didn39t work on a bigscreen level was the aforementioned BurtonDepp Dark Shadows redo from 2012 There was a mistaken assessment that the original Shadows TV series was a campy series But such was not the case The low budget may have invited some to perceive the series as camp but the writing and storylines and the alwayssolid acting given the allotted timeframe and liveperforming aspect of daily daytime production on that sonamed gothic soap raised the barUnfortunately Burton and Depp most disappointedly decided to turn Shadows into a joke The first few minutes of the film were pure genius but as the movie continued they decided to camp it up as they again had assumed the original series camped it but things went downhill from there Adding insult to injury the four main original Shadows actors Jonathan Frid Kathryn Lee Scott Lara Parker and David Selby were poorly and disrespectfully employed onscreen you39d have to blink to see their cameos in an entryparty sceneIn all Shadows was a dark disappointment on so many levelsBut such does not have to be the case with future remakesThose who in control should trust their affection for the original concept they seek to redo respect the original material and proceed with remake style classic elegance and sophisticationIf such is the case then everything should turn out just fineMake that refinedEr remake that refinedOh you get the big picture Herbie J Pilato is the Creative Director of PopCulture Consultants an entertainment consulting firm that specializes in remakes of classic television programming for the bigscreen and small For more information log on to wwwpopcultureconsultantsblogspotcom or email hjpilatoyahoocomRead all Herbie J39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Herbie J39s Classic TV CornerCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers 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From "Star Trek" to "Spider-Man": There's A Certain Way To (Re-) Do It! - Herbie J Pilato

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