I’ve railed against the stagnation of ideas (based on bankroll rather than creative capitol) in the past. I don’t need another version of Dune, King Arthur, or Lord forbid Robin Hood. Seriously… move on. Find one of the hundreds of fantasy books out there to work from. I mean it. I am really not looking forward to a LOTR series, no matter who’s making it. I saw the abomination that was what they did to the Hobbit. I am really uncertain about the series they’re planning based in the world of Willow. There’s just a lot of stuff out there that strikes me as a particularly bad idea.
Having said all of that, there was one mentioned that I might be able to get behind.
There’s a report out that says George Clooney may be attached to a remake of Buck Rogers. A couple of parts to unpack there.
First, while I don’t always like the work that Clooney does, I respect that it’s generally fresh and worthy. There are a number of things he’s been part of that are quite good. I enjoyed his part in O Brother Where Art Thou and thought that was a fantastic remake of the Odyssey. This is one of the things that gives me hope for this remake or restart or whatever name they put on it these days. IF you’re going to re-imagine a story, get clever. Change the time frame, update the language, make it accessible to a more modern audience.
Second, while I was a fan of the television show when it aired back in 79/80 that wasn’t the original series. Buck has been around since the 1920s. He had a couple of big radio show runs and was a staple in the comics industry for a lot of years. I also wanted to say I was a “big fan” but I was far more interested in / taken with Battlestar Galactica. That show was easily a bigger hit with me. Gil Gerard and Erin Gray did a fantastic job making a disjointed show work… but even as a kid I saw that it was just that – disjointed.
So, I’m going to hold out hope for this one. I think an excellent space show would do really well right now. We haven’t aged ourselves up to the date when the title character is supposed to “wake up” in the future, so there’s still a ton of room to work with. Hopeful.
Are there any other “remake” candidates you think might actually work?