BODY SNATCHERS Starring Nicole Kidman -- Coming Soon?

[AndyDursin]

Well let's hope this turns out better than BEWITCHED and THE STEPFORD WIVES. Nicole's track record in remakes ain't so hot...

http://www.moviehole.net/news/6010.html

I agree with the guy who wrote this up...looks like a check-cashing affair all the way.

On the other hand, I seriously doubt she'll top Meg Tilly's "memorable" scene in the otherwise pretty disappointing 1993 Abel Ferrara version...which I saw again for the first time in a while and really found disappointing. Whatever happened to Gabrielle Anwar, anyway?

[MarkB]

Sounds like she's alternating projects -- one for the money, one for the "art." As long as she keeps doing films like BIRTH and DOGVILLE in between the "junk," it doesn't bother me. The girl's gotta make a living, right?

Although there's very little to go on at this point, I can't say there's anything to this BODY SNATCHERS remake that sounds appealing to me. Guess we'll see.

Mark

[Monterey Jack]

While I have nothing against another go-around with the pod people, the presence of remake queen Nicole Kidman, coming off the awful-looking re-dos of The Stepford Wives (the original of which was already a riff on Body Snatchers) and Bewitched, gives me pause. I mean, Kidman's translucent skin and spooky stare already makes her look like an alien, but doesn't the woman need to take a break? She's been in, what, a dozen movies over the past three or four years? Nicole, go back to Australia and spend some time with the kids.

That said, the '78 Philip Kaufman remake was the best of the bunch (that final shot... ), and Abel Ferrera's version was pretty good as well (and what did happen to Gabrielle Anwar? She was quite the hottie back then ), so I'm not opposed to another version, but I'd like to see at least a 15/20-year gap between the release of the '94 version and this new one. Body Snatchers remains an endlessly disturbing and maleable sci-fi alegory for the political or social boogeymen of whatever era its adapted to (the Red Menace in the 50's, the "Me Generation" of the 70's, the advent of AIDS in the 90's), so imagine this new version exploiting the current haze of post 9/11 paranoia? I've heard good things about Downfall (which is made by the German director who's attached to the Body Snatchers re-re-re-do), so I'm not going to condemn this remake until I can see it for myself.

And BTW, the "memorable" Meg Tilly scene in Abel Ferrara's '94 version is basically cribbed from Kaufman's '78 version (although it's still every bit as chilling in both).

[AndyDursin]

That said, the '78 Philip Kaufman remake was the best of the bunch (that final shot... Surprised)

I have to say I've always found that last shot to be kind of amusing, in an unintended way. It's just so '70s...Sutherland with his hair and moustache, the typically "bleak" ending where the villains win just because that was the "cool" thing to do at the time (certainly wasn't how Finney's original story concluded)...Nimoy wearing a jacket with elbow pads...lol. I know there are a lot of people who like that version, but it really is a relic of its time IMO, and hasn't aged well.

Then again it's still better than the Ferrara version, which has some good moments but really never comes together, despite the scope cinematography.

I'm with you, though, on the choice of director -- seems to be an inspired choice, though Kidman having done STEPFORD WIVES also gives me pause.

[AndyDursin]

Sounds like she's alternating projects -- one for the money, one for the "art." As long as she keeps doing films like BIRTH and DOGVILLE in between the "junk," it doesn't bother me. The girl's gotta make a living, right?

BIRTH was anything but "art"...in fact it was more "junk" than most of her recent mainstream films.

[Monterey Jack]

I know there are a lot of people who like that version, but it really is a relic of its time IMO, and hasn't aged well.

That's what I actually like about the Body Snatchers movies, is that each one is so specifically rooted in the particular era it was produced in. I like the Kaufman movie the best due to it's unflaggingly bleak ending (unlike that terrible, studio-imposed ending that marred the otherwise very fine 50's Don Siegel version) and eerie Denny Zeitlin score, plus the skillful performances and sleek, film noir-ish visuals. I never saw any version of the story until last year, and the Kaufman one was, for me, the creepiest and hardest to shake. It's truly one of the best horror remakes done (along with Carpenter's The Thing).

[AndyDursin]

I like the Kaufman movie the best due to it's unflaggingly bleak ending (unlike that terrible, studio-imposed ending that marred the otherwise very fine 50's Don Siegel version)

Yet, how it does it "mar" the material if it's more along the lines of how the actual novel ended? To me Kaufman's ending smacks of a typical '70s film with its unbearably (and unintentionally humorous) bleak conclusion, and bears less connection with the actual source as a result.

At any rate, it just doesn't work for me. I'd take Carpenter's THE THING as a superior horror remake in a heartbeat over Kaufman's movie.

[MarkB]

Sounds like she's alternating projects -- one for the money, one for the "art." As long as she keeps doing films like BIRTH and DOGVILLE in between the "junk," it doesn't bother me. The girl's gotta make a living, right?

BIRTH was anything but "art"...in fact it was more "junk" than most of her recent mainstream films.

Sorry, Andy , but I have to respectfully disagree with you. I thought it was a moody, thought-provoking little movie -- until the end, which I thought was a complete cop-out.

Just because a film has artistic pretensions doesn't necessarily mean it's going to achieve them. But I've got to give those filmmakers and actors props for at least trying to do something outside of the safety of the mainstream.

Mark

[romanD]

I like all 3 versions of BODY SNATCHERS! And now I feel you are used to it getting a remake every 15 years or so... so Im looking forward to this new version. Or better I was. That Oliver Hirschbiegel is doing it is already a warning sign... haven't seen DOWNFALL because I don't need any Nazi-movie ever ever in my life again... the Germans put out these movies all the time, because that is the only thing that may create some interest outside of Germany. But Ive seen his EXPERIMENT movie which was so annoying that I turned it off after 30 minutes...
Our movies are just total crap... so sad what happened to our filmindustry, which was long ago the leading one in the world... so long ago nobody remembers it actually... sniff.

And now add DARK CASTLE as the production company to this remake? Hell... Hirschbiegel turned down BLADE 3 probably because that was too crappy for him and now he works for a company which made only crap movies so far???? They must offer a lot of money... lol...

HOUSE OF WAX was actually the only entertaining movie they did so far, but that is not saying much. The entertainment factor mainly was the over-the-top-splatter (and nice production design)... so why a director of such an "oh-so-important"-movie like DOWNFALL turns to this slaugtherhouse company is a good question...

[AndyDursin]

It's official -- here's the story on the wires from E!

It's not Dark Castle, Roman, but "Vertigo," the company behind the U.S. remakes of GRUDGE, DARK WATER, THE EYE, and apparently the forthcoming re-do of THE ENTITY (if it ever gets made).

This story is already contradictory about the film's tone, with the writer saying it's not as splashy/effects-driven as WAR OF THE WORLDS but Joel Silver saying Kidman has a "gritty action role" she's not known for in it!

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Kidman Prepares for "Invasion"

By Josh Grossberg

A mysterious alien force has altered the behavior of human beings and it's up to Nicole Kidman to save the day.

Not more trouble in Tom Cruise land?

Nope, that's just the plot of her new flick, Invasion.

With her ex coming off the biggest hit of his career with the remake of War of the Worlds, the Oscar-winning Kidman will play a Washington, D.C.-based psychiatrist (what would Tom say about that?) in the update of the classic sci-fi thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Whereas the original focused on the pod people, the new version will center on Kidman's shrink, who begins to suspect that a strange new epidemic is extraterrestrial in nature and must protect her son, who may hold the key to stopping an alien assault.

Invasion is being produced by Joel Silver and Vertigo Entertainment, the company behind the The Grudge, and is being directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, the German filmmaker whose Downfall, about the last days of Adolf Hitler, raked in more than $87 million worldwide last year.

Unlike Cruise's effects-heavy War of the Worlds, Kidman's Invasion will be close in tone to the creepy 1956 original.

"Invasion gives Nicole an opportunity to bring her depth and range to the kind of gritty action role that we haven't see her play before, as Oliver infuses the film with the brand of provocative, character-driven storytelling he's known for," Silver said.

Directed by Don Siegel, the first Invasion of the Body Snatchers mined Cold War fears of a potential Communist takeover. It followed a small-town doctor who finds his patients--whom he initially diagnosed as suffering from paranoid delusions--are actually being replaced by alien clones bent on taking over the Earth.

Phillip Kaufman helmed a critically acclaimed remake in 1978 that moved the setting to San Francisco and starred Donald Sutherland as one of a group of people whose friends are taken over by E.T.s devoid of emotion.

The second remake, 1993's Body Snatchers, was directed by Abel Ferrara and set the story on a military base.

We can only hope that the third remake turns out better than the previous two that Kidman starred in, last summer's disastrous The Stepford Wives and this summer's equally woeful Bewitched, neither of which endeared itself to critics or moviegoers.

And aliens aren't the only thing invading Kidman's calendar.

The statuesque beauty's teaming up with director Tony Scott for the humanitarian drama Emma's War; costarring with Jennifer Lopez in a swing musical American Darlings; headlining the romantic comedy Wedding Seasons; playing revered photographer Diane Arbus in Fur; and lending her voice to George Miller's animated penguin adventure Happy Feet.

If that wasn't enough, Kidman's also considering a possible reunion with Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann in an untitled Australian romance that described as the Down Under version of Gone with the Wind. That project would also feature Russell Crowe, with whom she was supposed to star in another Australia-based film, Eucalyptus, before that project was derailed due to script woes.

The new Invasion will begin filming in late September on location in Baltimore, New York and D.C. It is targeted for release sometime in 2006 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the original.