Everything is a Remake! - Justice League 2015

You could be forgiven for thinking that somewhere during the 90's people ran out of ideas, all new thoughts were in fact just random thoughts that other people had years ago. Even in business it seems new ideas are so difficult it's just easier to try to reinvent an old idea that used to work, latest example is bebo being reinvented by the original owner who grossed a massive $84million for selling waiting on it to fail and then buying it back. 

The same can be said for a lot of the recent movies, superhero movies are particularly bad for this, being remade within a generation is disgraceful, the original viewers of any remake should at least be in a chair in the corner able to say "in my day it was much better" not barely having left their cinema seat before they are met with a re-imagining of a film they actually rather enjoyed.

Of course all of this is meaningless, what it boils down to is that risk died when the banks went pop. People want a sure thing, especially movie makers, they want to count on the same millions who saw the original to come back for the latest re-hash of it, with different actors. The Avengers movie grossed over a Billion, which would make you think it's well worth having a pop at. Of course they also had an A-List team of actors who had established themselves in their own movies prior to the coming together of their characters.

The idea behind the avengers movie, and it's success has apparently spawned a new concept for the Justice League movie, what this enables movie makers to do is create a series of movies showcasing the individual characters after they have brought together a band of loved DC characters in one massive mega movie. But there is more than one spanner in the works with this little concept, firstly the excellent Christopher Nolan who smashed home with his Dark Knight trilogy and Man of Steel will not in fact be directing it, also the Bale who added so much dark to the Batman movies will not be pulling on the kevlar costume for the film. This big blow means we will have to rely on one known character and actor in Henry Cavill and an unknown director to pull it off. The writing on the wall does not bode well, especially considering the disasterous movie Green Lantern which left many comic fans deflated. 

We can also take some advice from history here, remember the comic book clambering for an Alien vs Predator film? Well it happened, and it was astoundingly poor. Of course you wouldn't really know if Alien or Predator was the same actor or not given the heavy make up and lack of dialogue, but can you imagine if that film had both Sigourney Weaver and Arnie in it? Well I would have bet on it being the biggest Horror Sci Fi film of all time!

Farscape on the Big Screen?

Farscape ended in 2003 and left a rather large hole in the lives of many fans. Having come to a conclusion of sorts at the end of the peacekeeper wars it was always known this was the goodbye for the fans of the show. But recently the co-creator Rockne O'Bannon hinted there may be life left in the franchise yet, having recently released his new show Defiance he was asked about the farscape franchise and he admitted he would like to revisit that world but it would most likely be in movie format, siting the success of Firefly movie serenity.

Interestingly he mentions the poor exchange rate as being a barrier to any revisit but given the fan power of this TV show I'm sure they may resurrect it. So much will depend on their own success of subsequent shows to prove to a studio they are indeed worth the investment, so look out for defiance because it may be the only way you'll ever see farscape again.

Why there won't be another Hitch Hikers Guide Film for twenty years

Fans of Sci Fi are in a poor minority, the studios don't like risk and to pay for the big budget effects needed for sci fi is foolish when they can cash in on another comic book conversion. This sad reality of a creative industry that is not hampered by lack of creativity but in fact purse strings is not more felt than by the fans of Douglas Adams. Having watched a TV series of Dirk Gently completely miss the entire point of the book commisioned by the BBC we also find we sadly won't see another movie on the big budget scale. The original TV series and radio is the only way you can really engage in audio or visual with this amazing collection of books and having read them more often than my own written signature I can tell you they do not lose their enjoyment. But like anyone I crave new things, I want another film and indeed I think it would be more likely for science to bring Adams back from the dead and have him write out another few books should that be commercially viable.

Why it wouldn't work

Douglas Adams had massive input into the film, he ensured Arthur Dent was an Englishman, not some Yank putting on a duff accent. He wrote new scenes most notably the entire part with John Malkovich and he ensured his close friend Stephen Fry became the voice of the Guide itself. To envisage a film interpreted by someone else is never going to live up to the fans expectations, just ask Eoin Colfer who has been inundated with abuse after trying to resurrect the series with his offering. With such a cult following it is hard to take up the mantle showing the right amount of respect and making the correct decisions about what to leave out the film.

Why it won't happen

Martin Freeman said quite quickly after the original that a sequel was off the cards, with his fame increasing and that of Zoeey Deschanel the budget would likely have to include hefty fees for their main characters. But more than that is the issue of  it commercial success, the DVD sales were not enough to make up for the average viewer response in cinemas.

What to do next?

Well as you can only enjoy the one movie I'd suggest you get a big mug of tea and read the books from scratch.Unless of course you are an exceptional scientist in which case get back to work on that ressurection maching and get the man himself back here to sort out this dreadful mess, his fans are waiting.

So Long and thanks for all the fish!