Director And Star Announced for PELAM Remake!
Wyv ruined my day when he announced that list of pre-strike movies planned and I saw the number of remakes of genuinely great films that don’t need remade that were being prepped. One hurt more than all the rest though and that was The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 – the 70s Walter Matthau classic that transcended it’s place as an Old Childhood Favourite of mine that gave me fond memories of Friday nights watching it on the sofa with my Grandfather into recognition as a genuine vintage masterpiece (with one of the best friggin’ final freeze frames of all time!).
Pelham 1, 2, 3 has already had a made-for-TV “redo” in 1998 at the hands of Félix Enríquez Alcala with Edward James Olmos channeling Walter Matthau and Michael Madsen doing his best Robert Shaw (in the story of a hijacked subway train and the transit official playing mindgames with him over the radio to try and save lives) to relatively favourable acclaim, it should be noted.
As if making us nervous regarding his upcoming remake of The Warriors wasn’t enough, Tony Scott has jumped upboard this latest rendition of Pelham 1, 2, 3 (pardon the lame punnery!) and he’s bringing Denzel Washington, his leading man from Crimson Tide, Man on Fire and Deja Vu over to the project with him.
I’d heard a rumour that Denzel Washington was considering Pelham as a movie to adapt into an Inside Man sequel with Spike Lee which would have been almost bearable as they’d be taking the “concept” and not necessarily the whole notion of the “remake” yet this is obviously not the case. Pelham was always about the art of the word-play and the power of deduction through nothing but radio transmissions but with Tony Scott on board, and the need to entertain blockbuster-greedy audiences, you just know this is going to turn into some maverick cop jumping on to moving trains/fighting on tracks action extravaganza.
I like Denzel Washington as an actor and I’ve got a lot of love for ALL of the movies he and Scott have done together. If anyone positively HAD to be cast in a remake of this then I’m pretty glad that it was him, truth be told.
I’m just gutted that they’re going to remake the original if I’m honest. Not just for personal reasons but also because whenever Hollywood does this, they always re-release onto DVD the original movie and a whole legion of pretenders lie about loving the original “for years”. when really they only got round to watching it AFTER the remake!
What will be interesting is that whoever they announce to play Denzel’s advesary will be a pretty huge and clear cut indicator of which direction Scott and company are planning on taking this remake.
Stay tuned for information as and when we receive it!
One Response to “Director And Star Announced for PELAM Remake!”
I haven’t seen the movie, but it’s been on my list of movies to see for a while. I’ll probably get to it before the remake gets made.
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