Newsbites: The sequels and remakes edition!

Let’s tackle this bunch in reverse-alphabetical order.

1. This may not technically be a remake, but it’s close enough for me: Variety reports that Mike McNulty, who produced the documentary Waco: The Rules of Engagement (1997), will co-produce a dramatic film about the clash between the feds and the Branch Davidians called, simply, Waco. The director attached to the film is Rupert Wainwright, who last tackled religious themes on the big screen in the ridiculously sensationalistic supernatural thriller Stigmata (1999) — so I’m not expecting greatness here by any stretch.

2. ComingSoon.net reports that Steven Spielberg had this to say about the Tintin trilogy that he and Peter Jackson are currently developing: “We are going to make three ‘Tintin’ movies back-to-back . . . I’ll direct the first one, Peter will direct the second one. We’ll probably co-direct the third one.” One cannot help but wonder how they will divvy up the directing chores, or whether it will be easy to tell their scenes apart.

3. The Hollywood Reporter says MGM has floated the possibility of doing a re-make of Robocop (1987; my comments), one of my favorite satirical action movies of all time. Why? What’s the point? Didn’t the sequels already prove that lightning doesn’t strike twice?

Oh, and they’re also thinking of re-making Red Dawn (1984), noteworthy for being the first film that was ever rated PG-13. Again, why? What’s the point? Will it be a period piece about the Cold War? Or will the colour “red” apply to someone other than Communists now? (Oh, wait, red is one of the colours in that terror-alert system now, isn’t it. Sigh.)

4. IGN.com reports that Sylvester Stallone, while promoting the new Rambo DVDs and Blu-rays, “announced that he was working on an extended Director’s Cut of the fourth film in the series, which he plans to release under its originally conceived title of John Rambo.”

5. Variety says the makers of The Hobbit have already approached not only Andy Serkis (Gollum) and Ian McKellen (Gandalf) about reprising their characters, but they have also approached Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), whose character as I recall does not appear anywhere in J.R.R. Tolkien’s book but might, I suppose, have some part to play in that second movie they’re talking about making.

But wait — there might be more than two movies! TheOneRing.net says MGM chairman Harry Sloan recently noted that the gap between the events of The Hobbit and the events of The Lord of the Rings could allow for lots of sequels, or prequels, or spin-offs, or whatever: “There’s 80 years between the end of ‘The Hobbit’ and the beginning of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ . . . Think of the franchise.”

Let me guess: They’re doing all this to explain why, in Peter Jackson’s trilogy, Frodo and Bilbo keep talking about the “adventures”, plural, that Bilbo has been on, as though he had been on a lot of them, right?

6. Variety and the Hollywood Reporter say Summit Entertainment is planning a re-make of Highlander (1986), with producer Peter Davis providing some continuity between the new film and the old film:

Davis said the new “Highlander” will not just be a remake but will incorporate more backstory elements and prequel aspects that will be fleshed out to expand the story line in a way that is inventive yet faithful to the original story.

He also said romance was key to the series’ popularity and would be a central theme in the new film.

“I would hate to think that people viewed ‘Highlander’ as a sword fighting movie because it’s much more than that,” he said. “The issues of an immortal falling in love with a woman and knowing she’s going to grow old and die in your arms, those are very romantic issues to deal with.”

Gosh, now I’ve got Queen’s ‘Who Wants to Live Forever‘ running through my mind. And speaking of fantasy films of the 1980s that became famous for their Brian May compositions …

7. Variety and the Hollywood Reporter say Sony Pictures has acquired the film rights to Flash Gordon, the newest version of which will be directed by Michael Eisner’s son Breck, who may be best-known for directing the action-comedy flop Sahara (2005). The most recent big-screen version of this story was released in 1980, and is probably best-known now for its soundtrack by Queen.

8. Michael Moore is making a sequel — though he now disputes the term — to Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), and Karina Longworth notes that news of this movie has been out there for over a year already — except, back then, it was being produced by the Weinstein company, whereas now, it will be distributed by Overture and Paramount Vantage. Moore says the new film will be so “toxic” he probably shouldn’t make it — but, well, that’s where the money is, isn’t it?

9. Amidst all these announcements of remakes and sequels, and with so many films bringing back action heroes from the 1980s these days, isn’t it refreshing to hear the Associated Press report that Clint Eastwood says he will not be bringing back Dirty Harry, the character he played in five films between 1971 and 1988?

10. After Iron Man turned out to be such a huge success, Marvel Studios announced they would not only produce a sequel, but they would also produce a movie about Thor in 2010 and a movie about Captain America in 2011, before uniting them all — with the Incredible Hulk, who has his own movie coming out next month — in The Avengers, also in 2011.

Since then, Marvel president Kevin Feige has told the Hollywood Reporter that Thor will be “a period fantasy in the vein of ‘The Lord of the Rings'”, and yesterday he told IESB.net that The First Avenger: Captain America would be “a period piece” that takes place “during World War II, just like the comic book origin story.”

How, I wonder, will they connect the characters from these two “period” stories to the present-day characters that are currently being established in this summer’s movies? Will the period-piece films end by zapping the characters forward in time? Will The Avengers move back and forth in time? Or will the gap between the period-piece films and the present-day film be kept kind of vague, to allow for more period-piece films down the road?