Apparently Hollywood isn’t happy enough ruining my generation’s childhood, so it’s now also reaching back to my dad’s. Steven Spielberg is set to direct a remake of the 1950 classic Harvey , which stars James Stewart as an alcoholic who talks to an invisible, 6½-foot-tall rabbit. Based on Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, the movie kept “Harvey” the rabbit up to viewers’ (and Stewart’s) imaginations, but many are fearing that this new version will feature a computer-generated character. Because that’s how Hollywood ruins childhoods best, with CG.
But this is Spielberg we’re talking about. No stranger to remakes — he redid A Guy Named Joe as Always, gave us an updated War of the Worlds and apparently did some second-unit work on Jan De Bont’s The Haunting — he’s still a lot classier than most Hollywood directors. He may go a somewhat boring route by casting either Tom Hanks or Will Smith in the lead, but there’s no way he’d show us Harvey. I think.
Check out what the rest of the film blogosphere is saying about this news after the jump:
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Last month, a New York Times article focused on the Wall Street worries over Pixar’s Up. The film lacks commercial appeal, apparently, because it features a 78-year-old protagonist. This is no country for old men (on the big screen), claim the experts. “We doubt younger boys will be that excited by the main character,” says one analyst quoted in the piece.
Even if kids were that anti-elderly (and we don’t believe they are), we can point to many other accessible elements of the film, from talking dogs to a young co-protagonist who serves as an identifiable gateway for adolescent viewers, that allow the target demographic to enjoy the animated film in spite of the cantankerous codger at its center.
Chances are, though, the little ones will also enjoy the character of Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner), maybe enough for them to seek out their own elderly person to assist (whether or not its for a merit badge). We’re hoping that it additionally leads to a greater cinematic appreciation of old men. But not just because, as Alonso Duralde writes at MSNBC, we have a shortage of realistic films about old folks. Rather, primarily because we think there’s a number of other old man protagonists that young audiences would like. Meet ten of them after the jump.
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Will Smith walks the streets alone, the last of an almost-extinct breed. This sounds like the synopsis of Smith’s new movie, I Am Legend, but it is also relevant to the actor’s status in Hollywood these days. Often called our generation’s James Stewart, Will Smith is almost the last real movie star standing, a rare actor who can still be depended to bring moviegoers to theaters, no matter what the movie. The only other male movie star with such old fashioned movie star distinction is Tom Hanks. But is it problematic to put so much weight on one person? Is it true that we will watch Smith in literally anything? I know it’s true for me; I’d probably sit through Alvin and the Chipmunks this weekend if it starred Will Smith instead of Jason Lee. And a lot of others would probably do the same.
Regardless of what the critics think of it (and so far they seem to be mixed), I Am Legend is going to be a huge hit. That is pretty much a guarantee — so much so that Smith has acquired this dual role as both a savior of Earth in and a savior of Hollywood with many of the action movies in which he appears. This holiday season, according to a Reuters article, box office is down 7% from last year, and of course Smith is looked to for rescue.
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