Another day, another remake. Today, there’s two on the agenda. Total Recall, which I will be writing about in another post, and The NeverEnding Story. I’ve already stated my aversion to remakes of movies that don’t need remaking, and sequels to films that weren’t any good in the first place.
This project, to remake the 1980s children’s fantasy adventure, The NeverEnding Story has bad idea written all over it. The original was relatively successful, making $20 million in 1984, and it’s continued to pick up fans since. But two sequels produced in the nineties didn’t do as well, and ended up going to video before their time.
The NeverEnding Story is based on a German-language book Michael Ende. It tells the tale of a boy who discovers a parallel world after reading about it in a book called The NeverEnding Story. The more he reads, the more the learns that his life and his world are intertwined in the book.
With the success of fantasy films in recent times, Harry Potter and all, this remake could succeed. But that doesn’t explain why there’s a need for it. If the original had been a poor interpretation of the book then maybe, but I don’t believe it is.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, no writers have yet been hired, and the project is still at a very early stage. But I think it’ll happen.
