Please, No More Re-Makes

Universal looks to be doing a re-make of The Birds, one of Hithcock's finest. "Why?" he shrieked plaintively. The article mentions both the shot-for-shot idiot reproduction of Psycho and the travesty A Perfect Murder that took the sleek Dial M for Murder and turned it into a muddled Hollywood mess. Don't movie people read? I do realize there is an economic element involved in capitalizing on the prior success of famous movies, but there are plenty of books out there to base new movies on. At least those movies, even if they weren't landmarks of art, would be somewhat original. And what if one of them became a blockbuster? Then the director would be able to live off of his own success for any number of movies, much like M. Night Shyamalan has done.* Instead, studios create awful re-makes that send their reputations lower than they already are.


*That's mostly tongue-in-cheek. The Village was a fine horror movie, and Signs wasn't as bad as some would say. Unbreakable, on the other hand, was worse.