‘Straw Dog’ Remake?
Remakes, remakes, remakes! Can’t anyone be original anymore?
Kate Bosworth and Alexander Skarsgard are set to star along with James Marsden in Straw Dogs, a reimagining of Sam Peckinpah‘s 1971 film.
Rod Lurie wrote the script and will direct. Filming starts in August.
The story follows Marsden who plays a Hollywood screenwriter, relocates with his wife (Bosworth) to her hometown in Mississippi. The wife left the South for LA. in hopes of becoming an actress. She agrees to return home, so her husband can finish his script in quiet. Skarsgard plays her high school boyfriend, an ex-football hero who sees the return of his former girlfriend as a way to reclaim glory.
As a 1971′s film Straw Dogs was quite violent for its time, yet claims to be Peckinpah’s best classic, loved by many. As a matter of fact, a good friend of mine just mentioned to me that Straw Dogs is her all-time favorite movie. Dustin Hoffman starred with Susan George. In looking over the remake storyline, it really doesn’t appear to be a remake. Why call it a remake? Marketing ploy?
First answer, no. Originality is at a premium any more. Why? Because it doesn’t sell. You’ll see SOME original stuff every so often because, one, you never know where the next big thing will come from and, two, if you play the retreads too hard too long everyone gets bored and wanders away. Hollywood is a business, and they want what will make money. Not what MIGHT, but what WILL. And the stuff that already DID make money is that which is most likely to do it again.
Those who create original work like M. Night Shyamalan or Soderbergh even have a rough time of it. It takes tenacity and thick skin — that’s for sure.
And let’s not forget what a mess Shyamalan’s career was reduced to in short order. It’s a bad case for originality–it has a way of turning into The Village, or worse, Lady In The Water.
Yes, he didn’t do as well as Sixth Sense — hopefully Airbender will prove out.
Oh, be honest, Kenna–he NEVER did as well as he did in Sixth Sense. Every movie after Sixth Sense was incrementally worse that the one that came before it. Unbreakable was slightly worse than Sixth Sense, Signs was slightly worse than Unbreakable, and so on all the way to that magnificent gold-plated turd that was The Happening.
I saw Unbreakable and it wasn’t as good as Sixth Sense. Well…let’s see what happens with Airbender.
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