Ack! Hands off my childhood!
Sorry for the outburst, but, seriously, it's one thing, I suppose, to take successful '80s franchises like The Karate Kid and update them for a new generation. It's kind of another to just start randomly selecting one-off gems from my youth for the sole purpose of giving someone a starring vehicle.
When I first saw that Drop Dead Fred would be remade with Russell Brand in the lead, I immediately thought: "Oh, great. What's next, Beetlejuice?" And then I read this:
The first Fred was critically drubbed and commercially unsuccessful. But it did achieve a certain cult status and is considered a film that fell short of its full potential. The take for the new Fred is to make a film in the tone of Beetlejuice, building a universe around the concept of imaginary friends. Brand would play the trouble-making pal.
The original Drop Dead Fred was dark, weird, off-beat, and totally absorbing. Why remake it at all? Why not just write a movie for Russell Brand about a girl with a zany British guy for an imaginary friend? Is there anything good about this news, or does it just make you want to . . . well, you know, drop dead?
