The Hitcher remake

[kainedamo]

I'll start off by saying remaking The Hitcher is completely pointless. The original is a cult classic with a very simple storyline. Why couldn't they simply come up with a similar concept, and just call it something else? But nooooooo, now they're gonna remake it and lift scenes directly from the original and completely do it wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWgfac8fz9o

There is the trailer. I'll tell you what they've done right and done wrong so far.

What they've done right - Hire Sean Bean to play Ryder.

What they've done wrong.

1. Give the girl a bigger part. Way to completely miss the point, Hollywood. The original film was all about two men facing off - Jim Halsey and John Ryder. And now they're giving the girl a bigger part. Typical cliche of having an attractive girl and making her more heroic and having more romance.

2. You can clearly see that there are many scenes directly lifted from the original. In fact, you can see that the tone, setting, etc looks pretty much identical. What the **** is the point?

And the original isn't even that old. It was only made in 87. I really wish hollywood would just do more re-releases. They re-released Alien and that was a success. Instead of remaking The Thing and The Hitcher (niether of which can possibly pulled off with any class) just ****ing give them a re-release. Hype it up to ****, and it would be very succsesful.

I'll tell you another thing. I'm willing to bet any money they're going to attempt to give more background info on John Ryder and attempt to explain why he is who is. Which would be totally wrong.

 

[blind_fury]

Nothing against Sean Bean, he's a great actor, but there's no way he'll be more creepy/scary than Rutger Hauer.

 

[kainedamo]

That's true. But still, I didn't expect them to get someone of Sean Bean's level.

I'm hearing horrible rumors on the forums of IMDB that they have switched the roles gender wise of the girl and guy on the run from Ryder. The girl is supposedly the hero in this one.

I'm sick of this bull**** "attractive heroic female" nonsense in horror/thriller flicks. The movie wouldn't have half the impact if it's true about the roles being reversed.

 

[blind_fury]

If they wanted to go that route they shouldve made the hitchhiker female too.

or better yet MAKE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT/ORIGINAL MOVIE!!!

 

[KenK]

What they've done right - Hire Sean Bean to play Ryder.

That is pretty good casting, 'cause you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who could make Hauer's intensity. The eyes, so much of his performance was in his eyes, the way he could look so sinister one minute, and inviting the next. As good as Bean could possible be, I can already see from the trailer, his "I Want To Die" scene can't hold a candle to Hauer's.

What they've done wrong.

1. Give the girl a bigger part. Way to completely miss the point, Hollywood. The original film was all about two men facing off - Jim Halsey and John Ryder.

THANK YOU!! When I heard a woman was going to be the primary character, no offense but, that sucks! I totally agree with you on the original being based around the interactions of two men. It was two men challenging each other, testing the other's masculinity. This is way the the "freight truck scene" is gonna be pointless if the victim is a man, and it's up to the woman to save him. The whole point of that scene was the fact that the man couldn't save the woman!

2. You can clearly see that there are many scenes directly lifted from the original. In fact, you can see that the tone, setting, etc looks pretty much identical. What the **** is the point?

Well, certain scenes do need to be included, so that doesn't really bother me. What bothers me is, like you said, switching focus to the girl, and furthermore giving her a boyfriend from jump, and some pointless backstory. The great thing about the original film was that it just started on the road, and you had a bare minimum of details. None of this crap where you have to see where these characters were before they get on the road. The original Hitcher didn't waste time lulling you into a false sense of security with a sunny college campus montage, the film starts, and it's a cold rainy night on a highway out in the middle of nowhere. And putting two characters against Ryder from the beginning, again defeats the purpose. How chilling and frightening was it to see C. Thomas Howell ALONE with this psychopath. Putting an extra person in the car diffuses that tension, 'cause subconsciously, either one of them has the other to look to to cope with that fear.

And the original isn't even that old. It was only made in 87. I really wish hollywood would just do more re-releases. They re-released Alien and that was a success. Instead of remaking The Thing and The Hitcher (niether of which can possibly pulled off with any class) just ****ing give them a re-release. Hype it up to ****, and it would be very succsesful.

An Alien re-release works 'cause Alien is a far more successful film than tThe Hitcher or The Thing. I've always loved the Hitcher, but I don't think it has the level of popularity that Alien has.

I'll tell you another thing. I'm willing to bet any money they're going to attempt to give more background info on John Ryder and attempt to explain why he is who is. Which would be totally wrong.

Yeah, everyone needs a backstory for some reason. Can't a muh-f***kah just be crazy?!?!

And on another note, do all of these remakes get their trailers edited by the same company? 'Cause they all have this look about them like they're trying to play it off as archival footage; really grainy, a series of still frames broken up by scatterings of blacked-out frames, crap like that.