The news might not be all good for the fans of Jason Momoa but they are certainly great for those who thought that remaking “The Crow” was a bad idea: both actor Jason Momoa and director Corin Hardy left the project due to ‘creative differences’ between them and the owner of the movie’s rights, Davis Films. They are the latest in the series of creatives and actors bailing on the project that, apparently, doesn’t want to happen. One thing’s for sure, though – the fans of the original starring the late Brandon Lee can now sigh in relief and go back to play Kiwi pokies and dealing with their everyday chores: the movie will not happen, at least for the time being.
The Crow is just the latest in a series of remakes that the public didn’t think was a good idea – and the filmmakers realized their mistakes, too. Here are some movie remakes that – fortunately – didn’t happen.
Escape from New York
Snake Plissken, played by Kurt Russell, was a unique action hero. He had a lot of tattoos, he had just one eye, and he was the biggest badass in future America, fighting baddies by choice or by necessity. When we last saw him in 1996’s “Escape from Los Angeles”, he shut down electricity all over the world.
New Line Cinema tried to revive the series in 2007, eyeing Gerard Butler for the role of the one-eyed antihero. Fortunately or not, the project never took off. The rights for the franchise ultimately ended up at Studio Canal. The studio doesn’t seem keen to revive the franchise, though – judging by their last attempt (Robocop), that’s not even a problem.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Few people know that “Buffy” had a big-screen version in 1992 starring Kristy Swanson and Donald Sutherland based on a script written by Joss Whedon. He, in turn, left the movie during filming because he didn’t like how it deviated from his original work. The movie was a modest success and quickly forgotten by the audience. Later, Whedon continued the story, ultimately turning it into a cult TV series that ran for seven seasons.
In 2007, Fran Rubel Kuzui (the director of the first big-screen movie) and Kaz Kuzui – who still own the rights for the character – tried to revive the franchise but (luckily, I must say) they weren’t happy with the script and put the project on hold indefinitely. And the fans of the TV series were happy with their decision.
Stargate
Dean Devlin and Rolan Emmerich’s 1994 movie about an ancient Egyptian artifact that proves to be a portal to a distant planet (a story filled with suicidal soldiers, nuclear bombs, and body-invading aliens posing as Egyptian gods) didn’t sit well with the critics but was enjoyed by the audiences enough to spawn a long-running TV series, two spinoff series, and several feature-length “special editions”. And when Emmerich announced his intention to revive the Stargate universe in an epic trilogy, the fans of the series (and the movie) rejoiced. But while preparing to film, the studio behind the movie forced the director to change way too many aspects of the story, diluting his vision for the arc and altering way too many things for the director (and probably all the fans) to be happy about it. This has led to Emmerich abandoning the project altogether – and it’s probably for the best.
