I need to talk about originality and appreciation. I don't mean creating something great and profound. I mean original. I just watched a trailer for a Hellboy remake. Before that, there was an ad for the live action Aladdin. Not to mention all the other remakes (Child's Play) or CG versions passing for live action coming out (cough Lion King cough).
I had a conversation with someone and to sum it up they said that remakes are a way to get younger viewers into films that if they watched the originals might not like them because of the film stock, technology, etc. So then teach kids and young adults why films were so much cooler back in the day when explosions weren't CGI'd in. They were real and on set which means a lot of the time one take was all you got. That Yoda at one point was an actual, tangible thing on set, not some blank spot the actor talked to or guy in a green suit that would later be added in.
Hollywood needs to stop spending money on remaking films that, in the end, are poor representations of what the originals were about. Not just because they are milking dead cows but because all it's teaching the younger generation is that fan art and fan fiction is the only way of the future.
So get back to being original. Create something. Take the time and patience to develop it and work with someone on it. Create something that is yours. Create a world that no one else can create because it's yours. Then when the world is all set up, share it with people and have them share it with people. Create these new worlds because being original is better than remaking a film that did not need to be remade in the first place. Yes, the original Aladdin failed on a few levels but that doesn't mean remake it. Leave it alone, move on. Create something new. Create a new Arabian prince or princess and new adventures. You are Walt f'in' Disney for Christ's sake. You could make a movie about a talking piece of lettuce and it would make hundreds of millions of dollars. It's seems to me that all these movie studio execs are trying to relive their glory days like some high school star quarterback who just can't let go of that winning touchdown pass, even thirty years later with a wife and three kids and a great job.
Fans of movies, cinema, books, are dying for something new and the means to find them are limited because the big companies and their remakes are being shoved down our throats. So, nurture your creativity, and make something original. Even if it's not great it can inspire something that is. Learn to watch an old action, horror, comedy or drama from 20, 30, or even 40 or more years ago and try to understand what made that movie so great for the time it was released. Try to understand what had to be done to make that happen when it was made. Let the forefathers of modern entertainment inspire you to be original. Anyone can do a remake. That's been proven time and time again. Be original, even if it ends up being a talking piece of lettuce.
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