Film Friday October 2005

Another month closes, so it is time to round up all of the remakes, sequels and TV to film adaptations Hollywood deemed more likely to make a buck than a new spec screenplay. Actually, this month there were a lot of literary properties acquired and fewer remakes/sequels/updates than we have seen the last few month. Still, they never let us down, do they?

• In-Utero - remake of Hong Kong sequel (a double whammy!) Jian Gui 2.
  
• Creepshow - remake of the 1982 film. I guess 23 years is a long time ago...
  
• The Man Who Fell to Earth - remake of '77 film.
  
• Rambo IV -- because Rocky VI alone wasn't enough for a true Stallone revival.

Believe it or not, that's it this month. I know, really light. Well, I noticed there were a lot of new rewrites and projects which had originally been setup at some point in the last 2 or 3 years getting new life, so it parallels what I've heard, which is that the spec market is tight (duh), studios and prodcos have acquired so many properties/scripts in the last few years that in an effort to save money they are going back to the pile and pulling out existing properties to develop rather than keep buying new specs or pitches (that isn't to say some haven't sold, but most seemed to be from established writers, directors, producers and actors).

Well, I say it every month -- keep working on the specs. You never know what will happen these days...