Hollywood Isn't Out Of Ideas
Whenever we see a story in the trades announcing yet another studio remake of an old movie or TV show, we tend to derisively lead our link to the item with "Hollywood Out of Ideas" (a tic which is, we suppose, nothing if not an indictment of our own lack of creativity). We apologize for our wrongheaded, sky-is-falling declaration of an idea deficit in the entertainment industry, for Patrick Goldstein's column in today's LAT demonstrates that there is, if anything, a surplus of fresh ideas in Hollywood. Unfortunately, much of the innovation happening around the studios is being directed to film executives' cutting-edge rationalizations for shitty remakes:
"We're not doing this cynically," says Sony Pictures Vice Chairman Amy Pascal, who's made "Bewitched" and "Charlie's Angels," with a remake of "Fun With Dick and Jane" due this fall. "Remakes are the best kind of genre film. They allow you to say something without people feeling they're being hit over the head with a message. The core idea within 'Bewitched' is that love and magic are the same thing. It's a great way to tell a love story in a sly, witty way." [...] "There's a certain snobbery about what's an appropriate source for a movie idea," [Disney production chief Nina Jacobson] says. "It's fine if it's a book, but not if it's a movie. It's fine if it's a comic book, but not if it's a theme park ride...There's nothing criminal in searching for the seeds of a good idea wherever you can find it."
Until now, our snobbery wouldn't allow us to get too excited about the upcoming The Dukes of Hazzard. But now that Amy and Nina have made us realize that the TV show is a completely valid, non-cynical source of an idea and that no one's going to try box our ears with the message that "Jessica Simpson's ass looks really fucking hot in cutoffs," we're starting to get a little psyched for the core idea about the unshakeable love between cousins in the South.
