The great remake...

[J D]

It almost seems as if the industry has run out of good ideas.... just go to the movies to see Freddie Kruger or some other villain rising up out of the ashes again. Clearly good literature today isn't so much on how something is told, but how it is re-told by an author. Just curious.. any thoughts on this?

[Jena Grace]

There really are no new ideas, just twists on the old ones. As for movies, I rarely see a remake I like. Even the remake of "The Shining" which is much truer to the book, and truer to the theme of the book, wasn't as compelling as the Jack Nicholson version.

[Avonne Writer]

Aren't there only like seven original plots?

[leslee]

I've seen three original and fascinating projects this year. It was fun to edit them. The rest, not so much.

[Smiling Curmudgeon]

Aw hell, I'm heading to Topeka. Me and Mrs. Cur.

It's gonna be a renewal of the old Bob Hope and Bing Crosby road movies.

Mrs. cur shall wear a veil or some goddamn thaing. I'm goin' in sporting an Armani suit, brogans, and a Gatling gun.

Whilst Mrs. Cur entertains folks by merely smiling at 'em (I ain't joking. The good woman's smile lights up the sky on a dark night.). I'll deal with the Westboro Baptist Church loons. My Gatling gun is filled with cat urine.

Cur

It'll be plenty of fun, you betcha!

[Robin Teeter]

Only a few times have I been impressed with spin-offs. Most literature today isn't written with passion. It seems only a few authors' works are consistent and even then they're writing for repeat audiences.

[The Tinman]

They remade the Shining?

[Jena Grace]

It was Stephen King-approved: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118460/

[Cat]

Remakes are not a recent phenomenon. A lot of early movies were taken from classic literature. Shakespeare retold lots of stories - like Romeo and Juliet. Chaucer recast well know stories. Tge morality plays were based on Biblical stories, and some of those had antecedents.

[The Tinman]

Jena. Thanks!!! It was a miniseries apparently, that's how I missed it.