Posted on: September 24th, 2009 ‘The Fly’ Remake… by Cronenberg?!
It’s not even 9AM and I’ve already had my ‘WTF’ moment for the day.
The tubes are buzzing with word of a remake of The Fly – well, another remake of The Fly, the original being the 1958 Vincent Price film that is tonally very different from the 1986 Cronenberg film starring the great Jeff Goldblum. The news of the remake isn’t what surprises me though, I’ve learned to expect every film to be remade at some point. No, the true source of my morning eye-dilation is the rumor of who may be writing and directing this retelling of the sci-fi/horror classic… David Cronenberg.
Yes that David Cronenberg, master craftsman of film and force behind the first re-telling of The Fly. Could this be the classic take of “if anyone ruins this flick, it’s going to be me“? Never in a million years would I have picked Cronenberg to remake any of his films and I find this idea of a Fly redux by him to be both exciting and worrisome. On one hand, Cronenberg has proven to be so capable of telling this story with such horror and emotion, that I have the utmost confidence in him explore that avenue once more. On the other hand, The Fly is one of my favorite films of all time, one which I consider one of the few perfect movies. The Fly just seemed to be one of the films created when all the stars aligned just perfectly; everything from the performances of the leads to set design to score to practical effects are in my mind, exquisite.
In the past, Cronenberg has even been outspoken against remakes or unnecessary sequels. So what happened? Was it the opera production of The Fly that caught his eye? Is it the leaps in technology for visual effects since 1986 that gave him the remake bug? Whatever it is, this is exciting news, should it turn out to be true. I just really hope that Cronenberg truly has something to say with tackling Seth Brundle and his telepods again.
We had a similar news story this year with the announcement of Ridley Scott returning to the Alien franchise. That was originally being heralded a ‘remake’ but is now considered a prequel. I wonder if perhaps a new Cronenberg take on The Fly will indeed be considered a remake or complete retelling.
Oh fuck it, they’re all remakes.
Source: Slashfilm