The Insider: 041

Drop Dead Again
There are some films so great that no one should try to remake them. And then there are some that make you scratch your head as to why anyone would bother in the first place. Drop Dead Fred falls squarely into category two. The 1991 movie starred the, er, winning combination of Phoebe Cates and Rick Mayall in the tale of a woman (Cates) whose imaginary friend becomes all too real and causes chaos. It flopped spectacularly, but now Russell Brand has signed on to star in a remake. Desperation, thy name is Hollywood…

 

Weirdest pitch of the week award
The clear winner for this randomly made up category is Humpty Dumpty, which has been set up as a 3D horror pic by Snakes On A Plane director David R Ellis. The pitch? A half-human/half-alien creature goes on a rampage after his alien mother is abused by rednecks. Yes, it’s exactly that strange. Sounds like a straight to video special to us.

 

Predator goes back to basics…
Robert Rodriguez has been trying to get a new Predator movie going for a while now and though he’s ditched the idea to try to get an expensively large third adventure going, he’s now planning a reboot called Predators. It’ll apparently re-introduce the characters last seen hunting Aliens in the two AVP films. Let’s hope it’s better than either of them.

 

…But what of the Alien?
Coincidentally, the Alien series has also had some hype thrown its way this week. 20th Century Fox Chairman Tom Rothman has stirred the ashes of the xenomorphic rumour fire by hinting that Ridley Scott – the man who brought the franchise to life – is seriously considering a return to the Alien universe with a prequel idea. Let’s wait and see if this one pans out – after all, it’s not the first time Scott’s name has been attached to a new film…

 

30 Days Of Twilight
After plenty of speculation on who might direct the third entry in the Twilight franchise – Eclipse – David Slade has been picked for the job.  Though his take on the graphic novel 30 Days Of Night opened to mixed reviews, he’s the man responsible for Hard Candy and certainly knows how to make a stylish film. Is he the right director for the Twilight series? We’ll find out in summer 2010.

 

Roger Rabbiting again?
Sometimes it feels like Hollywood is one big version of those “I Love The 1980’s” nostalgia shows as filmmakers look towards the decade that fashion forgot to find projects to remake or sequelise. At least this time it’s the original creator of a movie talking about revisiting it… Yes, Robert Zemeckis has dragged the long-rumoured spectre of a Roger Rabbit sequel back to the fore, positing the idea that his growing love for performance capture and other cinematic digital trickery could help him realise his idea for a follow-up. This one has been hanging around the limbo shelf for ages now, so don’t hold your breath just yet – he’s only pondering what he could do.