OUTLAND Remake announced

Outland At this point there’s no sense fighting the parade of remakes being announced as they appear to be never-ending. The latest is Warner Bros giving the heads up that they have hired director Michael Davis (Shoot ‘Em Up) to helm a redo of the terrific 1981 Sean Connery sci fi movie, Outland, that was written and directed by Peter Hyams.

Virtually a High Noon remake in outer space, Outland was a very entertaining movie with one of the greatest screen legends in Connery as the lead. Connery played a police Marshal stationed at a remote mining colony on one of Jupiter’s moons where he uncovers a murderous conspiracy threatening the entire Outland with collapse. While fan appreciation has grown over time the film was not a big hit, grossing around $20 million at the box-office on a $16 million budget.

Some remakes infuriate me as I feel they’re just unnecessary; like the recently announced remakes of Poltergeist and Total Recall. In fairness, though, some work out fine. The classic Philip Kaufman version of 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, John Carpenter’s The Thing, and even the remake of Carpenter’s Assault on Precient 13 were all top notch re-tellings as was Zach Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead which I’ve championed many times on this site. I’m still waiting on production starts on long planned remakes of Westworld and Soylent Green which I think have the potential to be pretty good in the hands of the right filmmakers.

The question here is what actor do you get to fill the large shoes of Sean Connery? I would love to see George Clooney do it although, sadly, I’m sure the studio will look for a twenty something actor for the role.

August 19, 2009 - Posted by Entertainment Today & Beyond | And Beyond - Trailers & News

1 Comment »

Loved this movie – huge Sean Connery fan and agree George Clooney would be an excellent choice as he is, by far and away, the closest thing to Sean Connery we have today.

Who else could do justice to the role? Maybe John Cusack, Will Smith, Gabriel Byrne, Harrison Ford…

I would add Pierce Brosnan to the list but that singing thing he did pretty much killed his HOT image.

Comment by annetampabay | August 19, 2009 | Log in to Reply