'American Werewolf in London' Director Told Max Landis 'Not to Do It'
The horror movie genre has been full of remakes for decades, as the power of some of literature's [...]
"My son is brilliant, he really is..."
While John might not agree with his son helming a remake of his movie, he does exhibit confidence in his son's abilities.
"My son is brilliant, he really is, and he wants to do it," Landis reveals. "So what am I going to say? No? I know it won't be as bad as An American Werewolf In Paris, which was sh*t. So, I don't know. He's a great writer. He's been writing since he was 7. He wrote a whole series of scripts about these characters called Yelp and Dopey, two dumb dogs, when he was under ten. They were so funny."
As far as whether John himself will be involved in the remake, he explained, "I get money."
prevnext"An idea has no real value."
This wouldn't be the first time Landis has shared his thoughts on why doing remakes are bad ideas. Earlier this year, he spoke to Entertainment.ie about why Tom Cruise's The Mummy was going to be a disappointment.
"First of all, it's not a new idea," Landis stated. "If you remember with Universal back in the '40s, once they made all their classics, they started cross-pollinating. House of Dracula, House of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf-Man – you know what they used to call those? Monster rallies! (laugh)"
Landis added, "And then, of course, one of the great ironies is...Abbot & Costello Meets Frankenstein, which is actually a very funny movie and very respectful of the monsters. I think, y'know, maybe that's one of the problems with Universal's Dark Universe is that it isn't respectful of the monsters."
"What's happening is the studios now will make a film for $150, $200 million but they're afraid to take risks," Landis said of casting decisions. "You asked me about the Dark Universe, if you're gonna make a movie of The Mummy, why the f**k do you need Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe?!"
Expanding on the casting decisions, Landis said, "As soon as you announce that Tom Cruise is in The Mummy, you know you're not going to see a horror picture! It's not gonna be The Mummy, it's going to be the Tom Cruise Show. I don't know. What no one understands, ideas are a dime a dozen. An idea has no real value. It's all about the execution of the idea."
prevnext"I can’t make no promises."
Max himself has been candid about his progress on the film and his dad's thoughts on the endeavor.
"We'll see if I can do it. We'll see if I can pull it off. We'll see if they even make it," the filmmaker revealed to IMDb. "My goal is…I feel like all of the best remakes focus on one thing in the original movie, take a lot of the images of the original, and then remix that really tightly. With American Werewolf I'm doing that, but I'm also just gonna try and do American Werewolf as best I can. We'll see. I can't make no promises."
The filmmaker also expressed that, were he to take on the project, he would be subjected to cries of nepotism and critics would be stapling his "face to a bullseye," but considering how passionate he is about the project, he didn't seem dismayed by the idea.
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