No remake will ever be able to repeat the glory of Patrick Swayze’s “Point Break” hair.
The Playlist has an interview with producer Andrew Kosove of Alcon Entertainment in which he gives updates on their many projects. For example, the highly regarded script “Prisoners,” which they’re having a hard time casting; “Hong Kong Phooey,” the big screen adaptation of the ’70s TV cartoon which no one cares about, even with Eddie Murphy lending his voice; “Nagasaki Deadline” and “Brothers in Arms” had respectively, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington set to direct, but both are gone.
There’s more, but the real topics of interest are the remakes of “Blade Runner” and “Point Break.” Now as to the former, if you’re panicking (hand raised) try to remember that this idea DID come from Ridley Scott, director of the original “Blade Runner.” Here’s what Kosove had to say about them:
Ridley is a special guy. He’s a force of nature. He’s got a lot of stuff that he’s working on. I believe it’s an extremely high priority for Ridley, that’s what he’s said to me. This project is moving forward aggressively in development…Sometime in the first two months of the new year we’ll announce who the screenwriter will be and whether or not it’s a prequel or sequel. And then we’ll be off to the races.”
It’ll probably end up like “Prometheus,” which Scott thought was going to be an “Alien” prequel but then just became some other scifi thing.
As for the beloved (and not just by me) “Point Break,” the remake may not feature surfing. Here’s what Kosove said:
“This is the thing — surfing is a part of it, but I will tell you that we believe firmly, in terms of remaking a film like this, we’ve got to make it fresh,” Kosove said. He then cited a recent 1980s remake of an example of what “Point Break” would not be. “It’s not a literal remake of the original the way ‘Footloose‘ was — it was identical to the original film. [Our 'Point Break'] has got elements of the original and it’s not just surfing, it’s other kinds of extreme sports, but surfing is very, very prominent in the story.” He says that the folks at Alcon have figured out who they want to direct, but they can’t announce just yet. “We’re out to a director now, so if it were to go in that direction, it’d be a big announcement. We have someone who we think is the perfect filmmaker. I’d be very surprised if we weren’t in pre-production in 2012.”
At least it will have some surfing. You can’t have “Point Break” if you don’t have surfing…out of airplanes!! Personally, I’d prefer they don’t make it too close to the original. That had its own brand of period specific loopiness that you just can’t recapture. Speaking of things you can’t recapture, good luck with casting and trying to find someone who has even an iota of Keanu Reeves’s Keanu-ness.
