MGM Reboots We Need Along with CHILD’S PLAY and ROBOCOP
Mike Sprague
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Recently we were hit with the news that MGM is rebooting not one but two of their classic franchises. First, we got word that the studio will be remaking their classic killer doll flick Child’s Play from the producers of IT and the director of Polaroid.
And then shortly after we received the news that the studio will be producing a direct and true sequel to Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop with District 9 director Neill Blomkamp at the helm of RoboCop Returns.
This rash of reboots has got us thinking that MGM is looking to reboot themselves from the ground up; and thus we will see more a more of their classic properties remade, sequelized, and reimagined over the course of the next few years. And so we wanted to take a look back at some of MGM (and United Artists) great properties and not only figure out what they will reboot next – but figure out what they should reset next.
Might as well go ahead and put this out there now: I’m saving Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper’s classic Poltergeist because not only has it already been remade/rebooted once, but the pitch we have for that particular project is too good, and it must get an article to itself. That out of the way, let’s get to today’s list.
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The Hunger
Director Tony Scott’s feature directing debut The Hunger starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon is the story of a love triangle between a doctor (Sarandon) and a vampire couple (Deneuve and Bowie). Scott’s film was a loose adaptation of the 1981 novel of the same name by Whitley Strieber, with a screenplay by Ivan Davis and Michael Thomas, and we think this film (and its source material) would make for a great new TV series. Vampires for adults, you could say. Sophisticated, erotic vampire-horror is another way you could put it. Think of this reboot as Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive: the TV Series. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a golden piece of prime-time TV to us. Bonus points awarded if the powers that be could snag Sarandon again.
After Midnight
Like many of you out there, I love a good horror anthology. And one of my favorite hidden gems out there is directors Jim and Ken Wheat’s 1989 anthology After Midnight. If you haven’t seen this underrated flick, make sure to slap it up on your must-watch list as soon as possible. While this anthology doesn’t have to be adapted story-by-story, this could be either a Tales from the Crypt/Tales from the Darkside style anthology series with new stories every week or it could go the American Horror Story route, with a new story every season. Either way, After Midnight deserves more love than it gets. Plain and simple. Especially the segment called “A Night on the Town” which is one of my favorite segments in any horror anthology. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil it here for you. I’ll say that I could AT LEAST watch a full film based on this segment alone.
Species
This sexy sci-fi flick is a film that I have a lot of love for in my horror heart. Sure it’s a bit silly, but the pedigree of the cast and crew is phenomenal. It features Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Alfred Molina, Forest Whitaker, Marg Helgenberger, Natasha Henstridge, and even a young Michelle Williams, with the whole affair directed by Roger Donaldson (No Way Out). While I wouldn’t expect (most) of those people to return for a reboot of this franchise, I say this would make for a great HBO series – what with all the blood-n-boobs. And if the series could snag Williams as the new adult Sil, that’d be perfection; especially considering she could then play off herself in the flashback sequences. Too cool, right?
Little Monsters
This entry is one for the kids. Sure Little Monsters dazzled all of us as little ones, but the movie doesn’t hold up so well these days. Chief reason among many is that the film LOOKS cheap, the cinematography I mean, it looks like a made-for-TV movie of the week. Let’s get a bit more production value in there, but let’s keep the monster designs and the designs of the world under the bed. Let’s have Fred Savage return and play the father this time. And hell, let’s even have his real-life brother Ben Savage return as well for more monster-mashing. Little Monsters would be an utterly delightful reboot, and it quite possibly tops my list of the films I hope MGM reboots the most. What about you? Watch it again and then give me your response.
Disturbing Behavior
Disturbing Behavior is a film I have always believed deserved a bit more love. Starring James Marsden, Katie Holmes, and Nick Stahl this 90’s sci-fi horror flick was directed by David Nutter, who was a director and producer of The X-Files as well as a director and co-executive producer of Millennium. The man knows his sci-fi horror, right? The movie is The Stepford Wives for teens, but that’s not a bad thing if you ask me. An MTV series (ala Scream: The TV Series) based on this movie is the best way to go, I think. It could not only be a massive hit with all its sex and violence, but I suspect it might also teach kids a thing or two about blind conformity. Maybe. Possibly. I guess they’ll wait until their friends react that way, or not.
Mr. Brooks
Mr. Brooks is a movie that WAY too many of my non-horror fan friends and family love. They think it is a truly intense and insightful journey into the twisted mind of a serial killer. I don’t agree. That said, the movie does lay the groundwork for a lot of much more interesting situations for Brooks to come up against than just Dane Cook. And Kevin Costner’s Mr. Brooks is made for TV. Meaning he’s a character that you could drop into any given situation and I would be down to see how it all plays out. Plus, more William Hurt as Marshall would always be a welcome thing every week. Think of it as Breaking Bad but without the meth. Keep all the murder, ditch the meth. And Jesse. We don’t need him anymore, bitch.
Carrie
Stick with me here as this might be the most controversial entry on this list. But I think a TV series based on Stephen King’s Carrie would be the best of the bunch. Think about it, “What if Carrie didn’t kill everyone at the prom that night?” What if she was calmed down by that friendly teacher? What if said teacher – along with maybe Sue Snell – helped Carrie gain a better understanding, and thus a slight bit of control over her powers. Carrie White as a superhero? More or less; probably less is more here, because there have to be more people out there with the power of telekinesis. And who better than a reformed Carrie to bring them down if they ever enter her hometown? I think this could work as an on-going series.
1408
This Stephen King adaptation is yet another film that would again make for a killer horror anthology series. Like HBO and Mark Duplass’ series Room 104 recently taught us, an anthology series set within one hotel can work. You have to collect a roster of talent writer-directors in your arsenal. Plus, this series could work like gangbusters as – due to its supernatural aspects – can take place in any time. Hell, it could even take place in the future. Plus, as the movie laid out, the action doesn’t 100% have to be contained to the one room. It could spill out into the hotel as a whole. And a haunted hotel horror anthology series sounds like just the thing we all need in our lives. That or we could follow the story’s lead character Mike Enslin to different haunted rooms around the world. That could work too.
Leviathan
Personally, the idea of rebooting George P. Cosmatos’ Leviathan is appealing to me in that I crave more underwater horror movies. Whether this ends up as a big-budget R-rated spectacle film like The Meg or a TV series, I’m always down for some aquatic terror. Plus a tentpole horror feature following the crew of an underwater geological facility stalked and killed by a hideous mutant creature – with creature effects designed by Academy Award-winning special effects artist Stan Winston (RIP) – sounds like the most fun in the whole world. If MGM owed Sean Cunningham’s Deepstar Six, that would have ended up on this list as well. We don’t have to keep this film’s creature, just the underwater horror aspects if need be. Plus the simple title Leviathan is one that is just too good to pass up. Set it in the near-future where the audience doesn’t know the horrors that may be lurking in the murky depths, and this could be a new classic.
Pathology
Ask almost any horror fan what their top underappreciated horror films of the past ten years have been, and at least half of them will add Pathology to their lists. Directed by Marc Schölermann from a script written by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) this 2008 film is much better than you’d expect. It features a group of medical students, lead by Milo Ventimiglia at an elite pathology program, where they play a game in which one tries to commit the perfect, undetectable murder, then the others compete to determine the victim’s cause of death. And if THAT doesn’t sound like the plot of a fucking killer TV series, I don’t know what to tell you. This potential series is like CSI or one of those shows, but with a much more twisted cast of characters.
Honorable Mentions: He Knows You’re Alone, The Ice Pirates, The Vagrant, Lord of Illusions, Stigmata.
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And there you have it. Those are the MGM/United Artist properties that we think the studio should and or will reboot in the next 2-3 years. What did you think of this article? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
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