Anyone who watches a considerable amount of movies has a tendency to champion the occasional gem, a title bound - nay, fated - to be overlooked by the masses. As you may have noticed, we here at Cinematical are not immune to such behavior.

On other occasions, fans of films that are being remade will find themselves violently, vocally opposed to the idea of a tainted classic or fave, whereas cooler minds step in and point out that their precious original will exist no less in its wake.

With that said, I'm about to spout off on why I think American remake Quarantine is primed to squander the considerable merits of its source material, [REC].

(Now, what nitpicks I have are about to wander off into moderate spoiler territory, which is actually my greater concern. Ergo, any of you planning to catch either film in the near future might be best served by directing their browsers elsewhere, including away from the newly released trailer for Quarantine.)

As for the twelve of you who I know have either managed to see [REC] or who just plain don't care -- come on in, the water's whine...

Whenever Scott and I aren't out fighting crime together, we tend to be chatting each other up about horror films, as he has often either pointed me towards many a overlooked gem or brought to my attention the best titles currently making the festival rounds.

Whether or not Weinberg was the one who got me initially amped up for [REC], I can't accurately recall, but the point is that I can support his many praises over the film, and I think it's safe to say that we're both cautiously optimistic about the forthcoming American remake, Quarantine. It seems that Sony's smarter minds are also prone to cautious optimism, as Shock Till You Drop informs us that the film's release has been bumped up a week, from October 17th to October 10th.

Now, the 10th is a crowded weekend - we also have a crime thriller, a family adventure, and a teen sex romp - but what's important is that not only do none of those films appeal to the same horror-seeking demographic as Quarantine, whereas video game adaptation Max Payne might on the 17th, but the move gives it an extra week to rake it in until Saw V comes around and effectively dominates the market come the 24th.

As for me, I'm still curious about Quarantine director John Erick Dowdle's previous film, the still-unreleased The Poughkeepsie Tapes. Is it some sort of staring contest between them and the equally delayed All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, or what?

The rule of thumb in this film blogging world of ours is, what goes up must come down. In other words, any trailer that finds itself premiering on YouTube can only find itself taken down from YouTube. So, for now, let us offer you what appears to be the teaser for this winter's big-budget remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, in which an alien visitor (Keanu Reeves) gives us Earth denizens a hefty heads-up that if we don't straighten up our act, he and his giant robot friend will do it for us ...

Now, I may or may not be entering spoiler territory with this following paragraph, so feel free to skip it (in that case, long story short: also stars Jennifer Connelly and due in theaters on December 12th) -- BUT, from what I can recall reading at one point, our main man's angle this time around is not concerns of nuclear warfare (that's SO 1951!), but rather more environmentally-fixated priorities. Who knew that between this, WALL-E, and The Happening that the big H'wood cared so much about the state of our planet.

On the other hand, pitched properly, green can only equal more green in their eyes.

[thanks to Film Web]

(UPDATE: the Quicktime trailer appears to have gone up.)

Not three weeks ago, I made first mention of a brief and bland teaser for the forthcoming horror film, Mirrors. Now, along comes IGN Movies with a red-band trailer that, at first, didn't do much for me. Blah blah blah, Jack Bauer as security guard for old department store, blah blah, former guard grew obsessed with surrounding mirrors, blah blah -- look, even Amy Smart is yawning after all that exposition.

Oh, did I say 'yawning'? I meant 'tearing off her own jaw'. Yes, while we still seem to be saddled with a fairly ridiculous premise that's seen better and worse days, there's modest comfort to be taken that the R rating ain't exactly being shied away from. Let's face facts here, people: all it takes sometimes is a couple of nifty death scenes to make movies like this that much easier to stomach (well, some might argue the opposite).

Directed by Alexandre Aja and starring Kiefer Sutherland, you can see Mirrors (bah-dum-cha!) on August 15th.

Yes, really. The 1983 sex comedy that a whole generation of guys have "seen" more than a dozen times is getting a remake treatment from filmmaker Mark Altman. To those who don't remember the flick -- and those who only watched certain parts -- My Tutor is about ... hell, it's all right there in the title: A high-school kid has a fling with his sexy tutor. Surely this concept warrants a second film.

The original flick starred Matt Lattanzi, Kevin McCarthy, Crispin Glover and the adorable Caren Kaye as My Tutor. (Well, not mine, unfortunately, but you get the point.) Variety says casting has not begun on the new version, which will begin shooting in October. This remake will mark the first production from Atlman's Maltman Entertainment -- although horror fans will remember the guy from movies like House of the Dead, All Souls Day, and Room 6.

And if this project marks the beginning of a new trend -- the 1980s sex comedy remake -- then here are a few obvious suggestions: Private School, Private Lessons, Private Resort, Hardbodies (1 & 2), Spring Break, Fraternity Vacation, Losin' It, My Chauffeur, Joysticks, Zapped!, Class, Hot Dog: The Movie, Hamburger: The Motion Picture, Loose Screws, Screwballs, and The Joy of Sex. Get back to me once those remakes are in production; I've got about two dozen more.

Ever since the first details have slipped out about Mirrors, Alexandre Aja's follow-up to High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes, I can't say there's been any vested interest on my part to see the end result. After all, those films were grisly pieces of work, and while I would respect Aja for deciding to mix it up with something a bit more psychological, the central premise of "vengeful reflections" is one that I've yet to see the suspense in, particularly in the wake of a certain SNL Digital Short (attached after the jump for your enjoyment).

The film's new teaser trailer has shown up over at Yahoo! Movies, and as unfair as it may be to judge a full-length feature on the merits of these whopping forty-five seconds alone, there's nothing here that indicates to me that the oh-so-spooky reflections of Kiefer Sutherland, Amy Smart, and Paula Patton are going to send chills up my spine come August 15.

Then again, it doesn't help that a demotion to the role of mall security guard doesn't stop my mind from automatically associating Kiefer with his gun-toting, voice-raising '24' hero, Jack Bauer. As such, feel free to wake me up if Aja opts to bring either Elisha Cuthbert and/or a cougar into the works. Now THAT's suspense, my friends!

Any regular readers of the site know and love Scott Weinberg, who knows and loves the horror genre like nobody's business. He has already (rightfully) sung the praises of a freaky foreign handheld horror flick called [REC] (the American remake of which, Quarantine, is due out Stateside this October), and while I'd add my own voice to that choir, today comes news of a sequel to the original, vividly titled [REC] 2 (hey, it's a step above The De2cent).

Originally featured on Spanish-language site Aullidos, a simple and striking teaser poster comes bearing the news that a sequel was even in the works, touting precious little information besides the promised reunion of original helmers Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. The original is good enough that I fear for any attempt to re-catch lightning in a bottle, but while it didn't beg for any sort of follow-up, it didn't quite eliminate the potential for one either.

Since this puppy doesn't even have an IMDb page yet, we'll keep you posted on more details as they come in. Otherwise, enjoy the trailer for [REC] included after the jump, since it reveals less about what goes down that fateful evening than what its American cousin has already managed to spoil.

[Thanks to Bloody-Disgusting for the heads-up.]

Now that just about every horror movie ever made has been RE-made, I guess we're now preparing for a massive onslaught of science fiction retreads ripofffs remakes. New versions of The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and When Worlds Collide are in various stages of re-production -- and now it's time for the 1970s sci-fi flicks to be exploited. To that end, Irish director John Moore will direct a remake of Peter Hyams' 1978 sci-fi thriller Capricorn One. I imagine it will be only weeks before we get fresh news on remakes of Logan's Run, Soylent Green, Zardoz, and Silent Running.

The original Capricorn starred Elliott Gould and James Brolin, and it was about the trouble that goes down after NASA decides to "fake" a moon Mars landing. According to Variety, the screenplay comes from Jurassic Park 3 writer Peter Buchman and the funding will come from New Regency / Fox. The director's last film was an ill-fated remake of The Omen (which was just so damn boring), but I'm definitely a fan of Moore's Flight of the Phoenix as well as his basic-yet-entertaining Behind Enemy Lines. Also, he just finished up Max Payne for Fox, and I'm definitely looking forward to that one.

Things weren't so peaceful in the movie buff land when word got out a few weeks ago that Werner Herzog plans to remake Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage in the lead role. Even noted trash auteur Abel Ferrara publicly complained about having his work redone. Bad Lieutenant isn't anybody's idea of a good time: Harvey Keitel puts on a freakishly raunchy performance. Still, it definitely sounds like Herzog's pumped about the gig. Defamer cornered the director in New York today for a few questions about the project, and the responses are kind of amazing. Herzog tends to do a great job of explaining himself, no matter what crazy scheme he has cooked up, but the best part of this interview arrives when the guy claims utter cluelessness about Ferrara's work. Way to stick it to the source material.

To hear Herzog tell it, his version of Bad Lieutenant isn't a remake, although he wouldn't know, since it sounds like hasn't actually seen the original. However, he says that Cage's character's name and the plot are entirely new. Herzog apparently liked the "very, very dark story," written by William M. Finkelstein, and he can't wait to work with Cage (given Herzog's notorious appreciation of Anna Nicole Smith, this last bit actually makes sense). Hearing about Ferrara's discontent, Herzog just eggs him on: "Let him fight the windmills, like Don Quixote." It's a feud made in heaven, almost too good to be true. You might just call it ecstatic truth.

Top: Early poster art for the new 'Bad Lieutenant,' snapped at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

Roger Ebert once referred to it as "a movie so sick, reprehensible and contemptible that I can hardly believe it's playing in respectable theaters," but it sure looks like Meir Zarchi's infamous 1978 grindhouse flick I Spit On Your Grave (aka Day of the Woman) is about to get the remake treatment. Accorrding to Variety, CineTel Films is planning a theatrical release for their new gob of Spit, which producer Paul Hertzberg is approaching very artistically: "After seeing what was done with an R rating on films like Saw and Hostel, we think we can modernize this story, be competitive with what this marketplace expects and not have to aim for an NC-17 or X rating." But hey, how does one "modernize" gang rape, anyway?

For the sane folks who've never seen I Spit On Your Grave, it is indeed about four backwoods scumbags who rape a young woman (more than once) before she bounces back with some of the harshest vengeance you've ever seen. (Butcher knives don't belong in bathtubs! Ouch!) Personally, I think it's a seriously trashy film, but one you've sorta gotta "survive" at least once if you're a horror freak. (And if you do rent the DVD, it comes with a Joe Bob Briggs audio commentary that's seriously excellent.) When contacted by Variety, Mr. Ebert simply hoped that the remake would be better than the original. Heh. Good ol' Rog. (Read that full review right here, by the way.)

Thanks to BD.com.

We have no details at all beyond what you just read in the headline, but THR is reporting that MGM has remakes of Robocop and Red Dawn in the works. (L-Rappe had some buzz on Robocop right here.) Studio chiefs Harry Sloan and Mary Parent must have simply stood up at Cannes and said out loud: "MGM is remaking Robocop and Red Dawn" before vanishing into a hotel or something. So in lieu of additional information regarding cast and crew, I'll just fill a second paragraph with some ranting.

First off, you're never going to improve on Paul Verhoeven's Robocop, which is just about the most spot-on, no-bullsh!t action satire you'll ever see. Unless MGM wants to hire someone like David Fincher or Brad Anderson, I don't have a very good vibe on a Robo-remake. And Red Dawn? Well ... obviously you'd have to update the villains, wouldn't you? Viewed through a socio-political spectrum, John Milius' Red Dawn might be one of the most "outdated" action movies at the video store. Plus, as cool as it looks on screen, the concept of paratroopers invading America is pretty damn hilarious.

So obviously I don't think much of either project at this point. (Sorry, but when I read the word "remake," my brain heads right to the word "lazy," although obviously that's not always the case.) But of course I'll see both of 'em as soon as they come out. I just can't help it. And since it's also an '80s-era MGM title that begins with a "R," I guess you can expect a remake of Road House soon enough.

The last time I saw my awesome amigo Nacho Vigalondo, it was at a Sundance party during which he was A) very thrilled to have his film play the festival, B) mega-elated that writer/producer Steven Zaillian would be involved in the English-language remake of his film (Timecrimes), and C) seriously drunk and hanging out with an overworked karaoke machine. When I pressed him for additional details, he said something to the effect of "I don't know yet, but .... Steve SALE-IAN, man! He wrote Bobby Fischer and Gangs of New York, man..." To which I responded, "Yeah, dude. Damn good writer. Plus Schindler's List, A Civil Action, American Gangster, and the awesome Falcon and the Snowman!"

The drunken Spaniard's eyes went absolutely wide: "Steve SALE-IAN is remaking my movieeeee!" He was like a little kid on Christmas morning, I swear. It was an awesomely sweet thing to see. But since we weren't really sure about Mr. Zaillian's specific attachment to the remake, this fresh news is also pretty exciting. Wouldn't it be cool if the Timecrimes remake had a Steve Zaillian screenplay and a director named ... David Cronenberg?? (I've seen Timecrimes more than once, and I think Mr. Cronenberg would be a perrrrrrrrfect fit for this time-travel / serial killer material.)

The United Artists re-do is still in the very early stages, so we could see a lot of personnel changes before the American version of Timecrimes hits the scene -- but given how positive the reaction has been among festival audiences, flick-buyers, and remake makers, we might just see it a little sooner than later. In the meantime, keep an eye out for the original film, which is a favorite among the Magnolia gang, and should be getting a release some time later this year.

Gracias: Shock and Blogdecine

I absolutely adore Jack Arnold's The Incredible Shrinking Man. I think it's without question one of the finest science fiction movies ever made. Not only does it have an endlessly fascinating story, but the 1957 film is also smart, sad and scary ... plus it has one of the most wonderfully thought-provoking endings I've ever seen. And since I love this movie so darn much, I couldn't stop weeping as I read this recent news piece at The Hollywood Reporter...

Not only is Universal (stupidly) intent on turning The Incredible Shrinking Man into a comedy (because that worked so damn well on The Stepford Wives), and not only are they planning to give the lead role to Eddie Murphy ... but things just got a whole lot worse. First off, the newest screenwriters to climb on board are Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, two guys who proved their comedy chops on The State and Reno 911 -- and then obliterated those chops by writing the screenplays for Herbie: Fully Loaded, Taxi, Balls of Fury, Night at the Museum, The Pacifier and Let's Go to Prison. Surely these are the men who should re-write one of the best sci-fi movies ever made.

Oh, but it gets even better! Although Keenan Ivory Wayans and Pete Segal had been attached to the project at one point or another, it looks like Universal now wants Brett Ratner to direct this horrid idea. Now, I'm not one of those film nerds who thinks that Brett Ratner is the worst director ever born (far from it, actually), but nor do I think he's all that exciting of a filmmaker. I just can't believe that such a beautiful little sci-fi gem is being morphed into this sort of misguided train wreck.

OK, this is now moving beyond ridiculous and venturing somewheres towards Planet Absurd. Obviously I can see the creative / financial appeal in remaking something like Halloween, Dawn of the Dead or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. On the creative side you get to play around with one of the grand-daddies of the horror genre ... and hopefully you've got something new to add to the mix. On the financial side, remakes with semi-familiar titles like Prom Night, When a Stranger Calls, The Fog and The Hitcher are a quick way to turn a relatively easy dollar.

But a few of these remakes just boggle my mind. It's not a half-bad remake, but someone actually made another version of The Toolbox Murders a few years back. I guess I'm just surprised to learn that someone else besides me actually remembers movies like The Toolbox Murders, The Wizard of Gore, and The House on Sorority Row ... and not only remembers 'em, but wants to remake 'em!

Yes, the latest wacky word from the horror sites (beginning at Fangoria, I believe) is that the justifiably obscure 1983 slasher flick The House on Sorority Row is the next flick to be tossed into the remake mill. Written and directed by Mark Rosman (who ultimately went on to direct a lot of Hilary Duff stuff), HOSR is about a bunch of college girls who get slashed up after they cover up an accidental death. Surely a plot like this simply screams for a remake. According to Fango (and a website called TrackingB.com), the screenwriting team of Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger are on the job. They just finished writing the Piranha remake for Dimension, so I assume they'll soon be remaking Spasms, Humongous, and The Final Terror.

My affection for the fantastic Spanish horror flick [REC] has been well-documented at this very website (and elsewhere), but now it's time to throw a little spotlight towards (you guessed it) the remake. I refuse to allow my enthusiasm for the first movie to foster an unkind perspective towards the remake, but basically ... if Quarantine is only half as good as [REC], then it's already twice as good as most studio-sponsored horror flicks.

Second studio flick from newcomer John Dowdle (his The Poughkeepsie Tapes is complete, but currently stuck on a shelf at MGM right now), Quarantine is about the horrors that go down when a news crew, some rescue workers and a bunch of clueless tenants are locked inside of an apartment building. (I'm not spoiling a thing, but let's say things get zombiefied.) The directors of the original flick had a lot of fun playing games with the "found footage" approach, and I'm hoping the American version will been able to capture some of [REC]'s choppy charm.

Quarantine doesn't arrive until October, but you can check out the brand-new teaser trailer over at UGO.com. You won't see much of the cast in the teaser clip, but trust me when I say the movie features Jennifer Carpenter, Johnathon Schaech, Greg Germann and Jay Hernandez. (And here's a photo gallery!) Regarding the new promo clip, I'd say this: Those who've seen the original film will find little here that's new -- nor will they find anything to get all irritated about, either. And that's a good thing.