July 19, 2004

Re: Remakes, and Lucas Vs Jackson
Danny

I personally doubt that any remake that is ever dune is likely to live up to what PJ did. Unless of course PJ does the remake. The reason I say this is that I doubt any director is going to be willing to do what PJ did to make a quality film. PJ pretty much ate drank and slept LOTR for ten years. He had a whole cast eat drink and sleep it for two years straight and brought them half way across the world to shoot it all in one consecutive shoot. I don't think we all realize how vital that was to the trilogy working. Imagine how disasterous it would be if between FOTR and TT, Frodo looked like he had aged ten years between scenes that happened a few hours appart. (The ageing is really noticable between A new Hope and Empire Strikes Back but it works in that case because the story is not supposed to be as continuous.) Also, imagine how lame it would have been if the actor for Frodo, Sam, Aragorn or Gandalf had stepped out between films. Those kinds of things would have destroyed the trilogy. Next consider how meticulous PJ and Weta were over small things like making chain mail and custom fletchings on arrows, or the embossed script of Mordor on an orc extra's glove. If a remake is done (which I think is likely sometime in the distant future) they had better be willing to pay the same price if not higher in order to get the film right. Quite frankly, knowing the nature of hollywood, and suspecting that a remake would be done by a director looking for quick money, I seriously doubt that will happen. However if a remake is done, I would like to see Faramir, and the interaction between Sam, Gollum and Frodo in ROTK done true to the books.

Now my thoughts on Lucas vs Jackson. I am probably biassed, but I am heavily leaning towards Jackson. I have always beleived that Star Wars is a decent set of films, but we have elevated it to a pedestal. When Episode I came out, it really was about the same quality of film making, and script writing as Episode IV (A new Hope) but everybody was upset. Why were they upset? Everyone expected the name Star Wars to mean that the film was going to be as dramatic as Braveheart, while still being a plethera of eye candy, with acting that would earn it 11 accadamy awards. They expected that, when quite frankly none of the Star Wars films ever were that. We have developed a perception of them to be that way, but they aren't. The Script on A New Hope reads more like a commic book than a well written movie. Fortunately Empire Strikes Back improved, but it still had moments that just exhuded cheesy script writing. Don't get me wrong, I love the original star wars, but they are not the highest pinnacle of film makeing that we have all made them out to be. People get so upset about Jar Jar being obnoxious (and justly so) when they ignore the same "cuteness" that was in the Ewoks.

Secondly, the ambition of PJs project is really unequaled. I already talked about all he did to bring LOTR to light. It took incredible guts to take such a popular and beloved book and make a film out of it. He knew that he was running a high risk of offending book fans and thus alienating the vast bulk of his audience. It was a tremendous risk that took courage and ambition beyond what I feel Lucas has.

Last of all, Lucas still is riding on the success of the Star Wars Trilogy really. Ok so Star Wars and Indian Jones, though I feel inclined to ignore Temple of Doom or at least hold it as a discredit to his name rather than something in his favor. A great director is not a one-hit-wonder who makes all his money by rereleasing the same movies in slightly tweaked formats over and over. I know that it remains to be seen wether or not PJ will have any other successes after LOTR, and it is not likely that any will compare to LOTR's tremendous success, but I feel that PJ will have more successful films under his belt than Lucas.

Lastly, PJ pulled in an unprecedented number of Oscar Awards for his trilogy. So it seems to me that Hollywood recognizes the singularity of his acheivement, and has rightly credited him as one of Hollywood's finest directors.