David Cronenberg stunned many with his decision to remake his own film The Fly, involving himself as writer and potentially director of Fox’s reboot effort. But this certainly isn’t a bad idea. After all, Cronenberg’s version is already a redo of Kurt Neumann’s 1958 sci-fi/horror classic of the same name, and it’s considered one of the best remakes of all time. It is very likely that he will now also deliver one of the best examples in which a director remakes his own film.

Sure, there are plenty of bad examples, especially when it’s a French filmmaker attempting to translate his hit comedy for Hollywood (see Three Fugitives and Just Visiting) or a Japanese filmmaker rehashing his own horror sequel in the States (The Grudge 2 and The Ring Two). And let’s not forget the unnecessary redundancy of Haneke’s Funny Games U.S.

But some of the greatest directors have made remakes of their own works that are at least as good, if not better than their originals. We take a look at five examples that Cronenberg could learn from — though he probably doesn’t need the help.
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With Comic-Con beginning tomorrow, there’s so much movie stuff being talked about today that I almost didn’t know what the biggest topic was/is. And really, the most discussed film-related news of the day was the Sam Raimi/World of Warcraft movie announcement. But WOW fans have apparently gone back to playing the game and aren’t hanging out on the web so much anymore, so it appears the teaser trailer for Alice in Wonderland has taken over as the most exciting thing for movie geeks to drool over right now. Even more than the hot photos of Freddy Krueger, Jeff Bridges on the set of Tron 2.0 and the Megan Fox Fangoria cover.

All I can say is that if you told me 15 years ago that I’d ever be this disinterested in something involving either Tim Burton or Lewis Carroll, let alone both, I would have called you a liar and then beat you with my Edward Scissorhands DVD (see, the joke is that I was such a big fan back then that I had the DVD before it ever existed). It doesn’t look as bad as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I guess, but it looks a whole lot duller than I expected. Maybe this is just too perfect and obvious a pairing that there’s no need for it, in the same way we don’t really need a Terry Gilliam-directed Good Omens or a Chris Columbus-directed Percy Jackson (doh!). I guess that’s the main reason I have no desire to see this movie, but the fact that it somehow looks both murky and meretricious has me turned off completely.

Let’s see what the rest of the film blogosphere thinks of the teaser, after the jump:

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• Unfortunately, Fox is not making an X-Babies movie. Yet. Instead, the studio is continuing the franchise with X-Men: First Class, a kind of New Mutants or Generation X-like spinoff that will probably capitalize on the risen stardom of Ellen Page, who played Shadowcat in X-Men: The Last Stand, rather than a reboot/origin story a la the First Class comic book. And with Josh Schwartz writing the screenplay, it should be like The O.C. and Gossip Girl, only with mutant superheroes.
• In other Marvel adaptation news, First Avenger: Captain America will be scripted by Chronicles of Narnia duo Christopher Markus and Stephen McFreely.
• In other screenwriter news, Spielberg’s Oldboy remake with Will Smith will be adapted by I Am Legend writer Mark Protosevich.
• In other Asian cinema remake news, Gore Verbinski will produce a redo of the Korean monster movie The Host.
• And in other remake news, Are We Done Yet? director Steve Carr is helming a redo of the Depression-era road comedy Love on a Bet, which could start up a new trend of Economic Crisis-era road comedies.
• In other semi-redo news, Disney is re-rendering its Beauty and the Beast for a digital 3-D release in 2010.
• No wonder Hollywood likes familiarity when the most original movie announced today is about “aliens invading Earth by traveling backwards through time and wiping out humanity — yesterday by yesterday — while one man stays a yesterday ahead of them, trying to convince the world that the end is coming again.” The Days Before might just have the most confusing sci-fi synopsis of all time.

• Paramount will continue to distribute films produced by Marvel Studios, including 2010’s Thor, which Kenneth Branagh is now confirmed to be directing. The deal was expected, especially after Paramount’s handling of Iron Man. Also in the news: that film’s first sequel has been pushed back a week from April 30, 2010 to May 7, 2010. Iron Man 3 is also being planned, but hasn’t yet been given a planned release date.
• Meanwhile, Paramount and Dell have teamed up to offer Iron Man preloaded into newly purchased computers. For $20, the Iron Man add-on will include exclusive bonus footage. I can’t wait to see if there’s an “I’m a Marvel, I’m a DC” video related to this.
• Now that digital and 3-D projection systems are finally to receive an increase in numbers (see yesterday’s TR), short-attention Hollywood is already thinking about another moviegoing incentive: large-format projection. Thanks to the success of the Imax sequences in The Dark Knight, more and more filmmakers are shooting Imax segments for upcoming blockbusters, including Transformers 2, Iron Man 2 and Y: The Last Man. Hopefully this new trend will encourage someone to build a second Imax theatre for NYC. One screen per 20 million people is not cutting it.
• Very appropriate casting: actress Danielle Panabaker (Sky High), who graduated from high school and was valedictorian at age 14, and who got her bachelor’s at 19, will be the female lead in Prodigy, a sci-fi film about a prep school that creates geniuses through questionable means.

• As expected, Eagle Eye came in at #1 at the box office over the weekend with $29.2 million, and as speculated, adult moviegoing was down Friday because of the presidential debate. The real box office news, though, is the success of the Christian-themed Fireproof, which came in at #4 with $6.5 mil. despite playing on fewer than 1,000 screens. Especially interesting because another seemingly red-state-geared (though definitely more blue-state-friendly) limited release, The Lucky Ones, opened to a tiny fraction of that amount ($209,000) on only half as many screens.
• In one of the best ideas from Hollywood ever, Kenneth Branagh has been offered the gig to direct Thor for Marvel Studios. An appropriate move given that Stan Lee originally wrote the character as speaking in a Shakespearean manner.
• Still on the subject of comics, Hollywood continues its feeding frenzy on the work of Mark Miller (Wanted; the upcoming Kick-Ass), whose super-soldier tale War Heroes (created with Tony Harris) will be made into a film by Columbia Pictures.
• A majority of the major studios has apparently finally agreed on a suitable virtual print fee. In the next two weeks, Universal, Paramount, Disney and Fox will announce the long-overdue, billion-dollar-financed plan to put 15,000 digital projectors in theaters owned by Regal, Cinemark and AMC. Interestingly enough, as the deal will allow more screens to be 3-D-equippable, Warner Bros. is not reportedly involved, despite the fact that it could have done better with its Journey to the Center of the Earth had there been more 3-D screens. Also, it has the fourth installment of Final Destination, which has been shot for 3-D, out next year.

• A few record openings happened over the weekend, though unfortunately some came too late. As the Coen brothers experienced their greatest ever debut with Burn After Reading (or, as I call it, “Forget After Watching”), which also gave Focus Features its biggest opening ever, the same was true for Picturehouse, which saw its best bow with its final release, The Women. Meanwhile, newbie distributor Overture Films had its best debut with its fifth release, Righteous Kill, and Warner Independent opened its own final feature, Towelhead, to the weekend’s best per-screen average ($13,250).
• Despite his latest box office failure, Vin Diesel is getting another another chance. The actor will reunite with director Rob Cohen for a third xXx movie after having skipped the first sequel. It would seem to be Diesel’s acknowledgment of career misdirection had he not already recently signed on for the fourth Fast and the Furious installment, too.
• Speaking of things that came too late: where was Framelight Productions when Alan Moore began his naive relationship with the movie biz? According to The Hollywood Reporter, this new company’s goal is to work very closely with creators every step of the way in its adaptations of their comics, video games and toys.
• And finally, for the too soon department: Jeffrey Katzenberg is still pimping 3-D, this time via a live 3-D broadcast and talking of a time when all movies are 3-D, all viewing formats are 3-D (including computers and handheld devices) and everyone fashionably wears their 3-D glasses at all times.

• I’m skeptical about James Franco portraying Allen Ginsberg in the courtroom-set biopic Howl (can anyone but David Cross be cast after I’m Not There?), but now that Paul Rudd, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, Alan Alda and David Straithairn are also aboard, it could at least be a decent ensemble piece.
• Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, U2 and now … Blue Man Group? The painted trio is the latest group to be given a 3-D concert film. I wonder if David Cross just blue himself in the hopes of getting a part in it.
• New Line has acquired an upcoming novel from Richard Doetsch about a man accused of killing his wife and his trip back in time — in one-hour increments — to save her. Titled The Thirteenth Hour, Variety says it’s being described as The Bourne Identity meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, but obviously it’s more like The Fugitive meets Memento (meets — hopefully — David Cross).
• New Line is also making a romantic comedy that’s an obvious cross between Slap Shot and The Devil Wears Prada. And, not obviously, it’s based on a true story.

• Suddenly, G.I. Joe became the Summer 2009 movie to avoid — not intentionally, of course, but we all know Sienna Miller, like her ex- Jude Law, is a bit of a box office kiss of death. Yet, Paramount has cast her as “the female lead” anyway. Don’t think she’ll be playing good-girl “Scarlett”, either; Miller’s character is apparently Baroness, the black-leather-clad femme fatale who works for COBRA.
• Two more high-profile films have been delayed thanks to the WGA strike. This time it’s Mira Nair’s Shantaram, which is being produced by and is to star Johnny Depp, and the next Rob Marshall musical, Nine, which is partially based on Fellini’s 8 1/2. These films join previously postponed Angels & Demons and Pinkville. At least strike talks are set to take place next week.
• John Singleton will never get another shot at Oscar with this kind of thinking, but at least he’ll have the honor of giving us yet another alien-invades-a-small-town movie.
• I may be the only one, but I am indeed looking forward to Final Destination 4, which is a little late in being the 3-D installment. Typically, and obviously, they make more sense as the third in a series. Whatever, as long as they have cooler kills than #3, and not just because they look neat with the technology. Yeah, I’m probably thinking too highly of the franchise. I don’t care.