Sequels, Remakes, Reimaginings and Adaptations

And reboots



The other day when I saw the latest "Harry Potter" flick there was an advert for a new film and it blew my mind - I simultaneously loved and hated it. It's just called Sherlock Holmes. The movie looks like a LOT of fun... but.... watch it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQbmFAE5WI

Now I don't know very much about Sherlock Holmes. I've seen and enjoyed a couple of films with Peter Cushing (You may fire when ready) or Christopher Lee (Qui-Gon was once my apprentice or something) but I've never gotten around to reading any of the stories. They're on my list.

But I think I know enough about Holmes to find this trailer terrifying. In it, Robert Downey Jr plays Holmes as a wisecracking, irresponsible, musclular playboy manchil..... Iron Man. He plays him as frickin' Iron Man. Now I love Iron Man, but I don't want every fictional character to just become Iron Man!

I know Holmes knew how to fight and I know he was eccentric. But come on!

Also I love the part where the genuinely English, relatively unknown actor says to Downey, "This may be a hobby to you but I do this for a living."

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I'm looking at the top five movies at the box office on Rotten Tomatoes. I was hoping there would be a majority of remakes and sequels so I could look clever on the blog here.

1) Harry Potter and the Oh My God Ron is Totally In Love With Hermoine Oh My God
(fifth sequel and adaptation)
2) Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
(second sequel)
(The 'dawn' of the dnosaurs? During the Ice Age? What?)
3) Bruno
(You know it counts as a sequel)
4) The Hangover
(Completely original)
5) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
(Sequel to a remake)

Right now Tim Burton is finishing up Alice In Wonderland. (Second adaptation.) The biggest and most successful franchise now is Batman (reboot of a remake of a remake of an adaptation). They've now run out of Marvel Superheroes to make movie reboots of, but DC are yet to get around to Wonder Woman (I guess because no-one in Hollywood looks like her) and the Flash (because the Flash sucks).

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I just wrote 'why?' and deleted it - I guess they do this because they make more money than when they make films that tell an independent, singular story with characters unique to it and created for it. Or maybe it's too much work. Maybe in Hollywood they just sit around with twenty or thirty people in suits and trainers around a huge, solid gold desk and they drink coca-cola and say, "You know what I like? Sherlock Holmes. Dude was badass. Let's make a movie about that."

Meanwhile, around the globe, millions of talented writers with things to say and facinating new concepts and characters just waiting for someone to read about them continue to eat cans of sweetcorn for lunch to save money (meeeeeeeeee).