The other part anticipation.

Mel Godson = very bad

Martin Campbell = good

Mind you he wants to go back and do his series again? WHY??

Not just Bob Peck but who will play Jedburg? Joe Don Baker is a very very very hard act to follow.

Lets just hope this raises the profile of the original so thats sells more and gets to a wider audience and the Mel version sinks off the radar.

A BIT of a classic? It's probably the finest fiction that the Beeb have ever produced.

How are they going to compress 6 hours of political intrigue, supernatural mental shit and good ol' fashioned stealing plutonium from a mine in the yorkshire dales, into a couple of hours of film?

They'd better not screw it up, that's all I can say...

Noooooo , not another Hollywood butcher and hatchet job of a remake , that truly shows that they have sunk lower then Marianas Trench if this goes ahead and maker deader the any Ed Wood Horror Movie could have inflicted on the general public at large !

Mind you I did see a a true Hollywood puke and upchukka pack it was a DVD with all three Charlie's Stupid Broads dumb ass moronic films combined in one pack , that was indeed a horrible sight to behold and needed to visit the comedy section and see the Chaser's War on Everything selection to settle the queasy stomach !

They decide to revisit one of the best dramas shown in the 80's and they choose that fuckwit hypcrit revisionist Gibson! Jesus!

Considering this site's penchant for any excuse to write smutty comments about the laydeeez, it's strange that you lot forgot that Joanne Whalley played the daughter.

Mines the one with the boxing gloves tied on thanks.

The original worked in part because of the chemistry between Bob Peck and Joe Don Baker as the maverick yank. Peck was sewn up so tight, all the tension came from waiting to see him explode (although the scene with two bars of Plutonium was also quite good).

Someone will have to slip some horse tranquilisers into Mel's porridge each morning to make this work.

Not only that, but they'll 'update' it, like what they did with the Manchurian Candidate and many other substandard remakes of paranoia thrillers to have the usual stereotyped baddies. Nobody buys the idea that there's a terrorist living on every street, but everyone knew that the threat of global thermonuclear warfare was very real, which gave us all something to be really scared of back then.

Black helicopter, because the only thing we have to be scared of these days are imaginary threats. Oh, and those who protect us from them...

PLEASE!

Just don't do it... Same goes for the Dambusters - what is Jackson thinking of?

Paris because she would be dumb enough to remake Casablanca

<as if anyone gives a shit>He's actually a Yank</as if anyone gives a shit>

I was going to bring up Joe Don Baker, but I was beaten to it.

Black helicopter, because I live in NYC and those are always patrolling the skies, keeping me safe from my constitutional rights...er, from the terrorists.

I have the original on DVD already.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot are they THINKING??? Screwing with one of the finest drama series ever made (it was the most rapidly repeated drama that the BBC had ever shown, IIRC) = bad, very bad. Casting that impulse-control-challenged (as well as everything Peter James mentioned above) ****wit Gibson in it as anything other than a ****ing tree is a bloody travesty! Oh, and PJ's also correct; the article is incomplete without a picture of Joanne Whalley. On a beach. With an Eee, please....

There is so much wrong with this idea. A complex and detailed thriller will get 'dumbed down', and you know if Mel gets his way it'll all be down to Zionist conspirators.

But wasn't America kind of the bad guy in the original? It's just that I'm struggling to see how they're going to write Al-Qaeda into the new version.

Mind you, past experience has shown that Hollywood writers can be pretty flexible with this sort of thing, as the accurate historical documentary "U-571" proved.

BTW - if you are looking for the widest gulf between "original" and "remake" in the history of the universe, you can't do better than Sly Stallone's version of "Get Carter". I think I lasted about 10 minutes into that one.

If he's a fan of the original, why remake it?

I can't see Mel sniffing a vibrator, like Bob Peck did in the original.

With Gibson's "history", I shall be most interested to see his interpretation.

Is there no law we can apply that stops the yanks grabbing everything good in UK film and TV, re-writing it to make them seem like heroes, and totally trashing the original story Apparently this is to be located from London/Yorkshire to Boston (mass, not Linconshire).

Paris - because not even she is this dumb,

...will they keep the vibrator, or not?

Groan, yet *another* hollywood remake of a true drama classic.

Actually I can just see a vamped Susan Sarandon playing the maniacal Darius Jedburgh as she threatans a room full of innocent guests with two handfuls of fissile plutonium...

oh...hang on...wasn't that the end of Enchanted?

Ok, I'm confused now, so was it Amy Adams or Bob Peck who played Ron Craven? And who's Mel Gibson anyway I do so lose track of these hollywood remakes...mumble..mumble..(shuffles off stage left...)...that's right the dressing gown please...no the other pills...

will no doubt take all the tension and interplay between the characters out and replace it with scenes out of '24'.

What with the news that Blakes 7 is to be remade (doubtless without the essential tension between those characters), another TV classic with 3D characterisation will end up as shallow as Hannah Montanna.

After all, everyone said he'd never be a believable Scotsman. Now look at him: drunken, abusive...

Quietly dreading an Eddie Murphy remake of Kind Hearts and Coronets.

Never really got into the film of the Hitchhikers' Guide, the TV series was far superior.

<waits for the "and the radio version was better than the TV series" replies followed by "the book was better than the radio series" and do on...>

I like the sound of the Professionals remake, I'd definitely pay to watch that...

Can you imagine "Edge of Darkness" without the Clapton soundtrack?

After all, between being beaten up and radiation sickness 'Edge of Darkness' offers lots of opportunities for Mel's torture weird fetish.

Come on BBC, release a decent DVD transfer to show us how good it really was. The current version really sucks.

won't this fall under the "extreme pron" legislation?

I mean it should have him sniffing a vibrator, A room full of people getting fatally irradiated, and Mel Gibson.

Yep definitely extreme pron.

Mel in his undershirt with an Uzi in each hand and a headband around his greying locks?

But how can he get that final feel-good, family-reunited moment in this particular story line? Does he team up with an attractive widow with an adorable young son???

Jackson should stick with what he knows... do you mean Braindead (Dead Alive), an absolute classic film. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do...Very low budget, unlike the Mings Yawnology, but incredibly funny.

The best version of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy was the Broadway version with Nathan Lane as Zaphod Beeblebrox.

ps Thanks for the memory jog for The Edge Of Darkness. My inner freetard is off next to find a torrent (as well as the torrent for latest episode of the true aussie crime drama Underbelly)

If I send a cheque can I have the Miley Cyrus pics instead?

I'm going to hell for that.

Mine's the asbestos one with added pitchfork rearguard.

And it is extremely extremely extremely difficult to see how you can improve on this one, which was a classic back then, and is still a classic now, for the reasons already mentioned...

When the DVD is £12, who needs a torrent? I bought the DVD a year or two back and watched the whole lot in one edge-of-the-seat session.

Troy Kennedy Martin, Bob Peck, Jo Don Baker and a few others no longer with us won't be enjoying their share of the £12, but...

In fact, why isn't this classic BBC production available online to licencepayers in the BBC Creative Archive, announced back in 2003? [1] In fact where is the BBC Creative Archive, full stop?

This was classic classic classic TV. A repeat would be especially timely as the UK appears to be about to begin the dangerous journey into a new nuclear era. Should be compulsory viewing, for so many different reasons.

Thumbs up for the original, not the remake.

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3177479.stm

The original Edge of Darkness was so so good because of its timing. Just at the very height of the Cold War, and the Thatchers 'relations' with the Miners; it just hit everything at once.

I cannot praise this series enough. I would love to make a 'Fan Film' version of this because it touched on everything i'm interested in, even when I was 15 at the time of it original transmission.

I think what i'm trying to say is 'HTF are you going to re-jig Troy's script for todays scenario? Al Qaeda?'

Anyway, I won't be in a hurry to see this. I can almost regurgitate the script i've watched it that many times.

'Where's the Plutonium?'

'Jedburgh's got it'

Cheers.

Bob.

Let's have Michael Caine in a remake of Rocky Balboa - get his own back for Carter ...

(Mel, you're a big bloke, but you're out of shape ...)

couldn't agree more. Why screw with what was a masterpiece in the first place? DOZENS of iconic classics have been ruined by remake or, worse, "reimagining." No, Mr. Lucas, I do NOT need an "updated" Episode IV where Greedo shoots first. Han shot first because he's just that kind of guy. Nothing wrong with that. Stop repairing that which is not broken!

The bozos in Gollywood continue to churn our this crap and then have the audacity to wonder why no one is interested in paying to see it. Here's a thought: how 'bout something ORIGINAL?!? Say it with me! O-RI-GIN-AL! NEW I-DE-A! NE-VER BEEN DONE BE-FORE! Now, that wasn't so hard was it? Oh wait, it was? Tough shitsky, comrade. If you want MY hard-earned cash, that's the only way to get it.

[/rant]

The moviemakers ruined The Avengers, and The Saint, and radically changed Mission Impossible, and I expect little of Blake's 7. Maybe Z-Cars or Last of The Summer Wine? No I have it: Doomwatch! I want to see those boneless fishes again. And the plastic-eating thing that eviscerated aeroplanes. But the Murkins would make the scientific advances that Dr Quist fought against all come from Terrorist plotters, instead of well-meaning scientists. Maybe better to keep them in my memory rather than risk that.

The timing was amazing, esp. given the subsequent deaths at Marconi Underwater Systems (glad I didnt take that job!) and the paranoia and secrecy in the defence industry at the time-

http://www.rense.com/general18/themarconideaths.htm

It might work if there is a scene with James Lovelock giving a lecture on DaisyWorld and Richard Belzer (John Munch) replacing Ron Craven and Mad Mel as Jedburg as I think Munch should go out finding the biggest conspiracy ever.

...maybe they try to up the anticipation by releasing the BBC version on DVD around these parts. That way, you can pick it up, ignore the bound-for-failure rehash, and live happily ever after?

...wearing a skirt and painted in woad in this movie ??

@heystoopid - We, the inhabitants of the Marianas Trench, do seriously object to your slur on our home !! You should try living here where the local pressure is measured in tons/sq. in. !! I'd bet you'd feel a little squeezed !!

Had the been able to recruit Renee Zellwegger, they could have called it 'Bridget Jones PI, the Edge of Dark Reason'

And she nicer to look at than Mel Gibson. If she played her cards right she could have me.

Bootnote note. :P

The Avengers? My casting tips: Good classically trained actors who have done theatre and other things that have never been seen before on the big screen or TV. All done anywhere but Hollywood.

If Hollywood can't even do a rework of Godzilla right what in the world would make anyone think anyone from Hollywood should even touch the classics like the Avengers?

Paris? Because Hollywood likes her and that is enough of a reason in itself to say no to Hollywood.

sn't Mel Gibson a vertically challenged, anti-English Antipodean Thespian of doubtful ability? Edge of Darkness was really, really good this remake will be a complete balls up but may result in reruns of the brilliant original. Anyone remaking Howard's Way?

GIBSON!!

NO!!!

The world does not need a remake of "Edge Of Darkness", but /I/ need badly to murder the person who came up with this one.

For me one of the best parts of the original was the score composed by Kamen and played by Clapton........given the mess hollywoods traditionaly made of the score used in most of the other remakes and Kamens death can't see God playing on this one

Why would anyone want to see Mel Gibson kiss a CGI rabbit?