The latest rumor is about as bad an idea as I can possibly imagine. Right now, a group of people actually think it’s okay to remake the Terry Gilliam piece of genius “Time Bandits”. Yes, I know that many of you may not even be aware of this 1981 cult classic involving time travelling midgets. The movie follows a kid named Kevin, who embarks on a series of adventures throughout time with the aforementioned group of midget thieves. They go back in time to steal treasure via a map created by The Supreme Being.

“Time Bandits” is essentially Terry Gilliam’s kid’s movie. Sure, there are several historical references (all of which would go over a kid’s head), scary moments involving the bad guy called Evil Genius, and plenty of midget death, but in the end, it’s a kid’s movie. Never mind the fact that it scared me to death as a kid. The movie is better for it and it still holds up, thanks to Gilliam’s go for broke style. Sadly, the brilliant minds behind this remake want to make it more “kid friendly”, thus dooming it before they even start.

Gilliam is not connected to this remake at all. So that means that neither is his Monty Python teammate Michael Palin, who wrote the script with him. It also probably means we won’t see a repeat performance from John Cleese as Robin Hood, Ian Holm as Napoleon, or Sean Connery as King Agamemnon. So really, this remake must be stopped at all costs. Call your friends.

Source: Cinema Blend

Including “Shrek Forever After,” “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time” and “Marmaduke,” family-oriented films made up four of the top ten over the weekend. 45 percent of the people purchasing tickets for “The Karate Kid” were bringing children, not yet born when Ralph Macchio put on the gi in the original.

The poor showing of “The A-Team” comes as a surprise to most industry analysts, who had pegged the Joe Carnahan action fest for $45 million on average. The film was made for just over $100 million.

Here’s the Top Ten from the weekend, courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com:

Their version, titled “Our Footloose Remake,” will be out this summer and will feature scenes created by fans from across North America.

The prom theme-hosted premiere will be July 1 in Los Angeles, before making its way across the US and Canada and then will be online, for free.

Which will you prefer to see: a fun, sing-along Sweded version of the ’80s classic, or a “re-imagined” gritty Hollywood version?

It’s okay if you call me a hypocrite – in this case I won’t mind. Y’see, I rail continuously about Hollywood’s obsession with remaking everything from the 1980s into big-screen fiascos, and the news of “The A-Team” remake was no exception. Liam Neeson as Hannibal Smith? Sharlto Copley as “Howlin’ Mad” Murdock? Please.

However, looking at the new trailer for the movie (low-res for now, and we’ll post the high-res as soon as it hits)… I’m cautiously optimistic. You be the judge:

The van, Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper and Rampage Jackson join Neeson and Copley in the film, written and directed by Joe Carnahan. He knows a bit about mass mayhem with automatic weapons, to be certain.

“The A-Team” guns for theaters June 11.

Studios embracing social media: Twitter accounts based on film characters, or set up and fed by the film’s directors or stars. Facebook pages giving one-on-one interaction between fans and actors. Eventful pages where hungry moviegoers “demanded” their flicks be released in their town. It may very well be buzzword bingo gone horribly wrong, but the public benefited when studios like Universal, Fox and Sony started marketing campaigns that were more than “viral,” but effective. “That one-on-one communication is vital to getting the word out about films today,” a producer told me earlier in the year. “Talking ‘at’ people simply won’t work anymore. If we don’t talk ‘to’ them, we won’t get the message out.”

The Boondock Saints II Southwest Premiere: In many ways, this was the “coming-out party” for Red Carpet Crash. In one week, we were able to string together a killer premiere for Troy Duffy’s long-awaited sequel to the 1999 cult classic, and get Duffy, Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus to show up, answer your questions, and toss back many adult beverages at the after-party. There are plenty of people to thank (Sony Pictures, the Angelika Theatre, Trinity Hall), but mostly I want to thank the 350 people who showed up, dictated that we move the screening into a larger theatre, and made our first exclusive event one to remember (if we could, once the shots of Jameson wore off).

John Hughes

Celebrity Apocalypse: The only thing certain in this life is taxes, a new “Saw” movie on Halloween, and the Grim Reaper visiting at the end. This year, however, our stage and screen heroes were hit extremely hard. The list is incredible: Walter Cronkite, Patrick Swayze, John Hughes, Farrah Fawcett, Ricardo Montalban, David Carradine, Soupy Sales, Ron Silver, Les Paul, Paul Harvey, Patrick McGoohan, DJ AM, Bea Arthur, Natasha Richardson, Ed McMahon, Dom DeLuise, Karl Malden, John Updike, Brittany Murphy, Michael Jackson. That’s just for starters. We are diminished by your absence, gang.

A phenomenal slate of movies: Yes, there are far too many remakes, rehashes and bad scripts coming out of the Hollywood machine… but any year that gives us “The Hurt Locker,” “Zombieland,” “The Messenger,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Precious,” “Watchmen,” “Star Trek,” and “Avatar” can be forgiven for drek like “2012,” “Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen” and “The Men Who Stare At Goats.”

Launching Red Carpet Crash: 2009 could have been an extremely bad year, for myself and Sam the Mailman. When both of us were asked to depart our positions at Corporate Radio, we could have hunkered down, started collecting unemployment checks, and drowned our sorrows at the nearest bar where we’d worked up free tabs. Instead, Sam had the idea to build an entertainment site with a local focus, giving North Texas movie and TV nuts a place to call their own. Six months later, we’re still growing, with fresh content added daily, killer contests and giveaways, and exclusive events. I’m eager to see what the new year brings – with in-depth coverage of SXSW Film, the Dallas International Film Festival, and San Diego Comic-Con, we’ll be bringing Crashers a lot of content they simply won’t get anywhere else.

Bring on 2010.

ABC is bringing back “Charlie’s Angels,” and CBS will be hanging ten with “Hawaii Five-O.”

NBC’s Warren Littlefield claims “It’s a good idea to try.  Movies have proved you can do well with a presold concept.”

The New York Times, however, is skeptical, reminding us that this plan has never worked for network TV (although it has on cable, of course, with “Battlestar Galactica”).

And there is nostalgia for older shows, as RCC reported recently on the planned Tim Burton “Dark Shadows” film – based on a plot that was first seen on TV (twice).

Robert J. Thompson, a television and popular culture scholar from Syracuse University, is wary.  He explains, “The identity of a hit TV series is so intimately tied to the original stars, style, and attitude that made it a hit in the first place that any deviation from that creates a real sense of aesthetic dissonance.”

All three projects are still in the writing stages, so stay tuned to RCC for more specifics as they become available.

The skinny on the story:

Set in an exotic Asian locale, the new film will borrow elements of the original plot, wherein a bullied youth (Smith) learns to stand up for himself with the help of an eccentric mentor (Chan).

“The Karate Kid” hits theaters with the drum technique on June 11.

The werewolf franchise is being re-launched as “The Howling: Reborn.” It will be backed by Joel Kastelberg and Etchie Stroh, and will be the directorial debut of Joe Nimziki.

The plot is currently under wraps, but the script is being written by Nimziki. The original franchise of seven features was about a news anchor stalked by a serial killer who turns out to be a werewolf.

The film enters production in February. The producers are looking for a Halloween release.

I had to watch this trailer twice. Not because it was really good, but because I had to get past the quick cuts and highly out-of-place Evanescence-esque score to be able to try and get a sense of what the movie would actually look like. Look, I understand you’re trying to market Greek mythology to the Gen-Y crowd, I really do. That said, you don’t have to make it look and sound like it’s paced for people suffering from ADHD.

Once you’re able to get past the misstep in editing the trailer together, it does look pretty stunning. Leterrier appears to have crafted a pretty good thrill ride, with not a mechanical owl in sight. You get glimpses of Sam Worthington as Perseus making Leonidas-style leaps into action and danger, Liam Neeson scowling as Zeus, massive scorpions, and other mayhem worthy of the subject matter. Your ever-handy synopsis:

In Clash of the Titans, the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god, defy his fate and create his own destiny.

“Clash Of The Titans” premieres March 26.

Jeff Bridges has already signed on for the film, and the brothers are now in talks with Matt Damon and Josh Brolin.

The film, about a U.S. marshal and sheriff who, along with a teenage girl, search Indian territory for the killer of the girl’s father (although the killer is an outlaw, not an Indian), is set to begin production this spring for release toward the end of 2010.

The young girl is yet to be cast, but so far Bridges would be taking on the role of the U.S. Marshal—filling the shoes of the original’s John Wayne, Damon the lawman, and Brolin would be playing the killer.

Variety reports that the Coen script is more in line with Charles Portis’ 1968 novel than the first film.