Coming to terms with the remake

So somebody (fucking Michael Bay) is maybe gonna make a remake of Rosemary's Baby. While I'm still smarting over that Halloween debacle Rob Zombie hoisted onto the masses, I'm starting to get over the remake thing. Slooooooowly.

It occurred to me this weekend when watching John Carpenter's The Thing again. I have to wonder how many people were super-pissed back in 1981 when they learned that was being remade. I mean, Carpenter admitted to being a fanboy of the original, much like Zombie talked about the beauty of Carpenter's classic Halloween. Wouldn't people of Carpenter's generation have been appalled to learn that this so-called fan was trying to improve on what they considered a classic? (Granted, I think he did improve on it, but I'm a spring chicken compared to those guys.)

There are also the classics like Dracula (or Nosferatu, if you prefer) and Frankenstein which have been redone and reimagined to death over the years. Think of life without the Hammer versions of those films. *shudder* Now, think of life without Coppola's Dracula...wait, bad example.

While the seeming lack of originality is verging on unbearable, the movie industry is still pretty young (considering, you know, human existance). It makes some sense that Hollywood would want to reinterpret old stuff for new (younger dumber) generations.