It seems that most major Hollywood movies in the last decade or so have either been movie adaptations of stories from other media (books, comics, cartoons), sequels to previous moves, remakes of old moves, remakes of non-US moves or combinations of the above.

This may be seen as lack of imagination, but I also think there is a significant factor of lack of guts involved -- why risk your investment producing something original when you can build on something that already has a record of success and, hence, minimize your risk?

Space ships, girls dressed in plastic and rubber and lots of

rumpy pumpy? So explain again why we should be disapointed?

Oh God, no! I was foolish enough to sit through Grindhouse, a movie where I fervently wished the trash talking dolts would just hurry up and DIE!

What do you mean finally?? They ran out of decent ideas in the 90's and have been drip feeding us sequels and crap ever since (OK There are a few good ones that pop out now and again, but they are the exception rather than the norm).

Withnail & I?

I'd love to see them try and get their head round that.

I thought they had run out of ideas years ago...

Italian Job (not a bad film though, just not the original)

Get Carter

Flight of the Phoenix

War of the Worlds

Godzilla

Charlie and the chocolate factory

Rollerball

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Psycho

the list goes on.....

...why haven't they tried to remake Dr Z, Dr Strangelove, Chaplin or Keaton films? It's because all they want are the quick bucks for crap. Hollywood is so short of ideas they "try" to remake/re-imagine films that those of us in our 40's once enjoyed and would probably only watch again in the original (thinking George Segal and Jane F. in "Fun With Dick and Jane" as opposed to the piece of crap with Carrey and Leoni).

It's no bloody wonder that the Rest of the World (tm) hates amerikkka - it's so full of BS, crap, remakes, re-imaginings, tossers and heart-attack food that one wonders why any civilised person would ever deal with them. Talking of which, I'm off to partypoker to fleece the buggers again.

TD

America is doomed....

The really sad fact is that the American entertainment juggernaut has NOT run out of ideas - rather, they have perfected the idea of maximizing profits by reusing paid-for ideas of the past. Many of the "remakes" in recent years have been driven not by a dearth of new story ideas, but the fact that the studios OWN these properties outright from years ago. They can now re-issue these ideas as "new" films with very little expense to obtain the rights of reuse, and, with the huge profits from market tie-ins, make even more without needing to compensate the original authors or developers of the content.

A key indicator of the depth that this idea has taken in Hollywood is the fight that the Screen Actors Guild went through in its last round of contract negotiations. The major sticking point was not payment for current works, but who "owns" the imagery of actors captured in the motion picture and ancillary production works. The actors are very aware that Hollywood would just as soon make one film with, say, John Travolta, then use CGI reprocessing of these frames to "reuse" Travolta's doppleganger in many other films - without the inconvenience of having to pay the actor for his work. Precedence has already been set: Ted Turner was able to colorize many films over the "dead bodies" of their original producers, simply because the laws of a simpler time never imagined that they could be reused in another context.

So it's just more of the same that we read elsewhere in El Reg. Where will it all end...

For his part.

Rodriguez reckoned there was something new to be injected into the heroine.

He offered.

The possibilities are limitless.

i think that's what really matters, no?

Who else!!

Rose McGowan to play the lead role (as she is currently shagging the director,allegedly)

Angelina Jolie?

Remember Lara Croft.

Paris (Jailbait) Hilton!!

Who else?!

Nomad

Words fail me.

Outrage, however, does not.

Once you get over the fact that the original was made a million years ago and the fact that it has a provocatively dressed, strong female lead, it was actually a very poor movie so I'm just hoping he uses his talents to actually make a good version of it, instead of just doing a shot-for-shot remake.

I actually love his movies, they always make me laugh or cringe which is a good sign the film is well made. I rate 'Dusk till Dawn' and the 'El Mariachi/Desperados' franchise as some of my favourite movies ever...

"This, buddy, is a California Cantaloupe..."

How soon we forget , the only reason Hollywood came into existence was to avoid paying royalties to one Thomas Alva Edison and the maker of black and white film stock George Eastman Kodak back in New York State!

But hey, Hollywood has been pirating foreign film ideas and novels since the roaring twenties(Dracula , Sherlock Holmes and a rather large number of French Films in both innovative(eg Our man in Rio - Jean Paul Belmondo(1962)(Later James Bond Movies ripped a lot of ideas from that one) , Taxi(1998) and Classic category as well , and famous for not paying the French owners one centime in copyright royalties either! Or take the train scene from Dr Zhivago as it steams out of a railway tunnel , in a similar manner to one of the very earliest moving silent movies created)

But then again , anyone for new movies from Hollywood , such as Rambo XV , Shrek XXV , Jaws XXX or bad to the core Greco Roman Epics like Ben Hur X or Jerusalem AD70(oops , sorry I forgot they have already remade the very trashy "Alexander" and the equally sickening movie called "Troy" which makes the arthouse Italian Sword and Sandals comedy movies of the sixties using the ex Elizabeth Taylor "Cleopatra props" look first class in comparison) , that be the question?

Crap just ain't crap , unless it is made by the Hollywood mafiosi and pirate crapola ideas cash machine , for we aim to steal and crap on the audience at the same time! , and we will think of all the ways to continue to milk the customer of every last cent , for the next one hundred years!

Perhaps as the laconic intrepid French Film Makers would say , now we know we made a first class movie the Hollywood Pirates , have just made a large budget crap remake in American English , for a hundred times what it cost us , to film the same movie! , now we know why they can't afford to pay royalties to us for stealing our good ideas and concepts turning them into rubbish in the process and putting them on this loser and tax dodge write off! , becuase it is truly crap in any language!

I'd put my money on Jessica Alba.

Also, I hope this isn't going to herald another Duran Duran comeback. Please no!

For the record, I thought the original was awful, apart from the intro.

Paris Hilton? I just sprayed coffee all over my keyboard. Either you're a great jokester or you use some mighty fine drugs.

Paris Hilton - a skank who couldn't act her way out of a bag

Pamela Anderson - just a little too inflatable, and I question her acting ability

Angelina Jolile - she said she'll never do a topless, never mind nude (and you know this is going to require full nudity)

Jessica Alba - I'll need to IMDB her

Of course, I agree with others, except for Jane Fonda's intro, the movie stunk. I recently watched it on AMC (complete with appropriately place stars) and I'm not sure when I got up to have a beer and some chips & salsa and forgot to go back in the living room.

Barbarella "the ultimate science-fiction adventure heroine - smart, strong and

sexy". Yeah right. Go watch "Aliens" then get a grip.

But I DO know I personally WILL be looking for Duran Duran to do @ least one song for this. As will MANY people I know. I just hope he does it justice and they cast it well. Jude Law would be such a gorgeous Pygar. I thought of him in that role from the first time I saw him. Of course, they will most likely go with someone younger. They always do. Reserving judgement until I know more.

Yep - they have definately run out of ideas.

Or it could just be a matter of following the money...

...you see, they are remaking lots of stuff these days and making a lot of money in many cases.

So when people get bored of that or the critics get bored, then they will do something else, and a new Quentin Tarrantino or Robert Rodriguez will emerge.