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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Plan 9 From Outer Space remake
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Brad Miller
Administrator
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Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 05-30-2008 03:13 AM
Could a remake stink even worse than the original?
quote: May 24, 2008
In 1959, a film was released that would live in the minds and hearts of science fiction and horror fans for years to come. That film was Edward D. Wood, Jr.'s magnum opus, "Plan 9 From Outer Space", a story about aliens re-animating the dead in order to kill Earth's population. Though widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made, genre audiences could not resist the exuberance and love for the art of filmmaking that showed in Wood's work, and the movie has become a cherished cult classic that still survives on home video and in midnight screenings across the world.
Cult film Madman John Johnson
Now, in time to coincide with the 50th anniversary of "Plan 9 From Outer Space", director John Johnson – along with his production company, Darkstone Entertainment – is poised to remake the classic film. Simply titled "Plan 9", the remake will be a serious-minded retelling of the original story, paying homage to the spirit of Wood's film without resorting to camp or parody. The film will focus on the horror and science fiction aspects of the original, but will also be largely character-driven. Johnson's goal for "Plan 9" is to make a film that honors not only the original source material, but also Ed Wood's intentions when he made "Plan 9 From Outer Space". Wood's plan was to make a very scary sci-fi/horror film, and Johnson wishes to do exactly that – create a film that Wood would have enjoyed, or perhaps even made himself, if not bound by the technological limitations placed on filmmakers 50 years ago.
Plan 9 from Outer Space cast alum Conrad Brooks
"Plan 9" is being made with the blessing and participation of Conrad Brooks, the sole surviving member of the original film's cast and crew. To go as a sister project to the remake, director Johnson and actor Brooks plan to do a commentary for the original film with a Q + A retrospective for its 2 disc DVD release with no set street date at the moment, however the new film is scheduled to premiere on September 9, 2009 (09.09.09).
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Dave Macaulay
Film God
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Posts: 2321
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 05-30-2008 10:01 PM
I wish they had explained plans 1 to 8... plan 9 was so utterly stupid the first 8 had to be real bowzers to be worse. In case you missed it: Plan Nine (adopted after the failure of plans 1 through 8) involved reanimating corpses to use as soldiers to conquer the living earthlings. The alien goal is to prevent us from using the "solarian" energy we are about to discover and our newly developed space ships against the peaceful aliens of the universe. This has two serious problems. One, reanimated cadavers as soldiers? As the policeman in Night of the Living Dead puts it regarding zombies "they're dead, they're all messed up". Two, each zombie requires an alien to continuously control it as it maims, destroys, kills, and commits mayhem. So the brilliant Plan Nine is to gather and transport an alien invasion force strong enough to conquer Earth and then, instead of having the invaders pull out ray guns and vaporize us (a la Mars Attacks!) they issue each with a cumbersome remote control box with which to control a corpse they have to find. Then stumbling zombies line up against live Earth armies while the aliens hope we don't notice that each drooling zombie attacker we pump ineffective bullets into happens to have someone much less bulletproof nearby twisting knobs on some weird gizmo. This is entirely mental. The other problems with the film (famously bad acting, lack of continuity, pathetic sets and props, day-for-night taken literally, the star managing to die after shooting one scene, etc.) are inconsequential to the basic illogic of this idiotic plot. I don't get the reason for a remake. If the basic idea had any merit but had been crippled by incompetent direction... OK, go for it. But there's just no plot to remake. Remake "The Day the Earth Stood Still". At least the (all-powerful robot cops who will destroy us if we take our childish aggression into space and threaten the superior yet pathetically vulnerable aliens there) plot makes some sense. And Gort could look really cool with modern CGI.
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Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000
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posted 06-04-2008 10:57 AM
What would be the goals for remaking a movie like this? What would one try to emulate? In any case, the qualities of the original that they'd try to reproduce would be fake. They'd probably try to emulate the quality of the sets in the original. Would they do it in B&W?
BTW, the "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" reference was quite startling to me, since just two hours on Monday before I saw that, I'd Googled "Jalor Productions" because I thought about a movie I'd seen in school in 3rd Grade (on film, December 1976) and I never had remembered the name of it though the years but remembered it ending with "A Jalor Production". They only seemed to have one movie, so that was it. Then later that day, I read film-tech and saw the reference. Amazing. 31.5 years after seeing it, I figure out what it was, then see a reference to it the same day. What are the odds?
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