Jeremy Irons - "Toddy" MacFarland
Bruce Spense - Cabman John Grey
John Grey- Sean Bean
Dr. MacFarland- Alan Rickman
Joseph- Andy Serkis
Meg Camden- Alex Kingston
Donald Fettes- Jared Leto
Street Singer- Holly Chant
Mrs. Marsh- Cate Blanchett
Georgina Marsh- Bailee Madison
"Kid, don't threaten me. There are worse things than death, and I can do all of them."
It's weird, that when I saw this movie, Jeremy Irons was constantly on my mind whenever I saw that MacFarlane character.
shareEw, no remake! :X
Though I secretly think it would be interesting to see the Tim Burton spin on it. >>
I take back that Tim Burton idea. >_>
shareNope, absolutely no remake. There is no need. People donate their bodies to science, so it would either be a period piece, or they would make it dystopian. They would also totally screw it up with CGI or some zombie BS (not that all zombies are bad... I enjoyed the book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and really liked the Abe Lincoln movie... and watch Walking Dead and iZombie, this just shouldn't be added to the mix).
This is perfect the way it is and needs no reboot.
I wouldnt be dumb enough to remake it, but if it were remade; the stars would be dane cook and rob schnieder.
shareI think Jeremy Irons has, for some years now, been tagged as somewhat of a Boris Karloff lookalike/sound-a-like.
Perhaps they should do a biopic of Karloff with Irons in the part! Karloff certainly had an interesting career.
ecarle, venturing into Val Lewton's dark territory, eh? Care to share your thoughts on Cat People, Isle of the Dead, or the famous Psycho ancestor The Seventh Victim?
What's the spanish for drunken bum?
SPOILERS for "The Body Snatchers":
"No can do," fringomania. I'm not that familiar with his work. I tend to talk about movies I'm familiar with -- not as an expert so much, as much as at least in that I know the scenes, history, etc (Hitchcock, obviously, as a fan of long standing; others mainly from the sixties on because that's when I started watching movies.)
I think I came over here because I recently watched the Turner Classic Movies documentary on Val Lewton (produced/semi-narrated by Martin Scorcese), and took in the tour of his works. I'd seen "Body Snatchers" before -- there's a book called "Alternative Oscars" (by Danny Peary) that awarded the Best Actor Oscar of 1945 to Boris Karloff over the real winner, Ray Milland for "The Lost Weekend."
I will say that the scene in "Body Snatchers" in which Karloff suffocates Bela Lugosi with one hand while stroking a cat with the other remains rather stunning in its long and lingering single-take brutality. Rather amazing to me that it got past the Hays Code censors in '45. And the director of that was Robert Wise, who would go on to "West Side Story", "The Sound of Music," "The Haunting"(most relevant to Lewton's influence), and....giving Alfred Hitchcock his Thalberg Award on the Oscar stage in 1968.
I was rather amazed to see how "Curse of the Cat People" was really about a little girl's dreamworld, with the title (and actors?) of the original "Cat People" superimposed on it for box office purposes.
As for "Cat People" itself, I know that it has often been offered as the kind of horror film in which almost everything is left to the imagination, the swimming pool scene being perhaps the major explication of this (though that cat's shadow looks a bit "cartoony" today.)
I have great respect for the imagination of "Cat People," but I tend to prefer a little "steak with my sizzle," horror-wise. "Psycho" is a prime example. The murders and Mama in the fruit cellar are memorable, concrete representations of terror with no particular punches pulled, even as much is STILL left to the imagination (as to the realities of the murder wounds, etc).
For now, and after watching the Scorcese show on Lewton, I'll say that I'll TRY to see more Val Lewton films in the future, and I will ask this question:
How is "The Seventh Victim" a "Psycho ancestor"? I'm honestly seeking an education here.
Hey, I get to enlighten ecarle!
Anyway, The Seventh Victim includes a scene where the heroine is confronted in the shower by a menacing female character. Some people think that Hitchcock saw the scene, and it maybe inspired the shower scene in Psycho. It also has a shadowy knife-murder. You should definitely see it. If you're a DVD collector, the "Val Lewton Horror Collection" from Warner Bros. is excellent.
What's the spanish for drunken bum?
I can always be enlightened.
I guess I'll go to more threads where I DON'T know the movies in question, and get that education!
P.S. Maybe Robert Bloch saw "The Seventh Victim," seeing as he came up with the shower murder in his novel before Hitchcock made a movie of the book.
Everytime MODERN Hollywood tries to remake a great old movie, they screw it up beyond belief.
For example: Born Yesterday, Sabrina, All The Kings Men.....
Let the original stand. No remake.
A film about Scotsmen set in Scotland.... some American or English actors please. How about some actual Scottish actors? Gerard Butler, Robert Carlye, Brian Cox, Dougrie Scott, Ewan McGregor, David Hayman, Robbie Coltrane, James Cosmo, James McAvoy hell even Billy Connolly!
AND it wouldn't be a re-make anyway,
It's R.L.Stevenson's novel not Lewton's movie. A newer movie would be a new adaption and if any of the cast above was involved a far more accurate one, I like the 40's movie but as an Edinburger it drives me mad that everyone speaks with American and English accents.
The Stevenson story was actually a short story, not a novel. The Lewton movie padded the story (and for the most part quite well IMO) with the addition of the subplot involving the injured girl and her mother, and the supporting characters of McFarlane's wife and the shifty Joseph (Lugosi).
Since the short story is in the public domain, in theory any studio could film another adaptation of it. However, a remake of the actual RKO film has been greenlit, and unfortunately it's in the hands of Twisted Pictures, the folks who brought us the Saw franchise.
As for the non-Scottish origin of the cast members, I think you just need to be forgiving when it comes to American B-movies of the 1940s. It's not like they're known for their historical and cultural accuracy.
I noticed that the recently released John Landis movie Burke and Hare cast mostly English actors (including the leads) along with a handful of Scots (and Isla Fisher, who I believe is technically Australian with Scottish parents).
AND it wouldn't be a re-make anyway
I'll tell you how I and many people define re-make and re-boot.
If a film is based on an original screenplay and presented to the world as a movie. The years later someone decides to revisit that story it is a re-make. Robocop 2014, Rob Zombie's Halloween etc.
If the story was originally a book, a historical event and myth etc and is adapted into a film more than once they are simply different adaptions. Red Dragon, Frankenstein, The Lost World.
If a film is based on a character from a long running backstory such as Batman or James Bond etc and a series has run its coarse in a particular film adaption then the brand new beginning of that character is what I'd consider a re-boot. Batman Begins, Casino Royale...