Metropolis Remake

Yup, they have run out of ideas.

That said, I've never heard of or seen the original, and considering the year it was made, it probably could benefit from modern day special effects. Kind of like Peter Jackson's version of King Kong.

You do realise that the original was a special effects wonder. To remake it is just wrong, unless they intend on making this film absolutely blow our forking minds, I'm affraid I don't see this one working out

I was going to make a Metropolis video game before realising that Neuromancer needed the attention, I'm glad I went with the latter since the Metropolis is just too damn precious.. compared to Neuromancer which has never had a decent adaptation done to it (there is talks about a Neuromancer film as well *sigh* which will also turn out bad IMO because the director is a forking wanker)

You're right, I am a bit annoyed. I love the original... probably one of the most innovative films of all time.

However, I am also interested in seeing a modern interpretation of the film. But I don't really expect it to be as good as the original... not by a long shot. I mean, I don't imagine anyone being able to add to the film, on any degree.

Intersting to see if they are actually going to stick to the original story of and having it set in 2029. In my opinion, I am usually interested in re-makes, if they are at least close to the original. But ones that take the original's setting and popularity and try to do something different, that annoys me!

-Cub. =o)

Following things will most likely die:

1. The asethetic and cyberpunk themes
2. The pro-socialist themes

They did make an anime version of Metropolis (which I'm positive was a commercial failure) so I have no idea why on earth anyone would want to dare forking with one of the greatest movies ever made?!

A special effects wonder to the 1920's is highly different from a special effects wonder of the new century. Did they even invent color by the time Metropolis came out?

It didn't even have sound.. whats your point?

The new metropolis won't be ground breaking. I'm dreading the CG built Tower of Babel because that would be just slack. The Modern film technologies would ruin the idea of the film unless they made this one ambitious film like the former Metropolis (the original cost over $200million dollars, which was one of the most expensive films ever made during the 1920s)

I'd draw the similarities to Old Star Wars (ANH,ESB,ROTJ) and New Star Wars.. (PM,AOTC,ROTS), Old Star Wars was better and always will be. Same applies to this film since Star Wars used a lot of Metropolis as its inspiration.

Why is the Old Star Wars better than the New Star Wars? I'd say because for the most of the new stuff, George Lucas spent the time with his head up his butt. It almost seemed as if his goal was to find great actors and make them appear as flat and boring as possible on screen.

As for assuming Metropolis is going to be tossed to the dogs, chewed up and spat out and turned into something that would make the Battlefield Earth film seem golden, I'd say it's unfair to stab the remake in the eyes just yet. Right now they've bought the rights to it. That's all nice and pretty, but that's just a first step. I'd wait until they sign a writer to pen the script, or a director before deciding fate.

Such as, if it turns out that it's going to be directed by Steven Soderbergh, then that might turn out well. If it turns out they end up handing it over to Michael Bay...

Michael Bay did an excelent job with Transformers, why does everyone hate him? I thought that film worked well and stayed true to the original story, of course it helped having some of the best guys in the biz working with him.

Battlefield Earth was a good movie, you just have to ignore that Scientologists made the film and not take the film seriously.

If anyone should touch either Metropolis or Neuromancer my first pick will always be Riddley Scott, he is by far the BEST person suited for working with Cyberpunk film - See Blade Runner. And I'm betting they go with someone much much cheaper than Riddley I mean I wasn't happy about Joseph Kahn (Director of that shitty Fast and Furious clone Torque) being the director for the new Neuromancer film.. I just don't see how such classic ideas can translate at the hands of an overly ambitious director?

That said they better get Riddley to do this Metropolis remake else fork it he's the only one I trust that could actually pull it off.

Michael Bay is a crap director. Ridley Scott however has the vision of a shaman and autistic skillsets with a camera.

My two bits worth on directors.

-Fred

They will have some trouble remaking it. Even the most complete restoration of it (and I have a copy) is missing about half an hour of footage in various places.

As for special effects, it took sixteen months to film (most films these days take about 3 months), at 1920s prices it cost over $2 million and the hardest part they'll have - it had a cast of 37,383.

Well, good luck to them but I think they'll have a tough job on their hands.

They should do a Tex movie instead. We want that one.

I've only seen the anime film of this story as far as I know. I did enjoy the anime version though, it was a decent film. I may get it on DVD sometime but am in no rush. It was apparently based on a manga by Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion etc. ). Wiki states it also had a pretty prolific team on it too but anime films in general don't make much of a splash in the West except Studio Ghibli films which Disney helps disrtribute. Big films like Ghost in the Shell 2 etc. are in and out of a limited amount of mainstream cinemas in the blink of an eye.

Anyway I really should see the famous live action one sometime.

I've seen the japanimation one. I didn't know they were in any way related.

-Fred

I sense the vibe of old techniques vs new and i'll throw in my two cents.

I personally think the older techniques make the movies more amazing and endearing because of the effort and all the solutions they had to go through. These days it seems to be so easy to slap CGI over something and call it a day, but anything having to do with miniatures or stop motion animation, or CG in its primitive form always come off a lot better to me.

I love the original Star Wars movies for it.
I love Blade Runner for what that movie looks like for being made in 1984.
I love the original King Kong for that Empire State Building sequence.

Hell even the original Jurassic Park is amazing with all the technical wizardry they had to pull out their ass to make that.

You can still see it in movies today, but yes, effort = win in my book.

Atomicvegetable wrote:I sense the vibe of old techniques vs new and i'll throw in my two cents.

I personally think the older techniques make the movies more amazing and endearing because of the effort and all the solutions they had to go through. These days it seems to be so easy to slap CGI over something and call it a day, but anything having to do with miniatures or stop motion animation, or CG in its primitive form always come off a lot better to me.

I love the original Star Wars movies for it.
I love Blade Runner for what that movie looks like for being made in 1984.
I love the original King Kong for that Empire State Building sequence.

Hell even the original Jurassic Park is amazing with all the technical wizardry they had to pull out their ass to make that.

You can still see it in movies today, but yes, effort = win in my book.

I agree 100% with that. What made Matropolis so good (and other films you mentioned) is the fact that almost everyone could turn around and say to the person next to them "How the hell did they do that!?".

these days the only thing you hear when you see a good CG influence movie is "Ahh, technology these days". There's really no surprise at all, becuase it's everywhere!

SinCity was probably the last original (for the most part) film in terms of the technical aspect.

The remake of Metropolis will be like using a microwave to cook a spit roast. None of the style or flavour of the original, but a breeze thanks to modern technology. I will see it just to see it, but I won't be holding my breath... I already did that when I saw the original.

-Cub. =o)