Saturday, February 17, 2007

Ron Howard to remake "Cache"


I read a truly bone-chilling rumour today on Variety. Apparently Brian Grazer has bought the rights to remake Michael Haneke's 2005 masterpiece "Cache" (Hidden) and if that wasn't bad enough, consider the news that Ron Howard is eyeing the directors chair. To me, this is unspeakable horror. Ron Howard is the absolute definition of mediocrity, in fact, I bet if I went out and looked up mediocre in the dictionary, it would have a picture of Howard's ugly ginger grin staring straight out at me. "Hidden" was a highly complex and profoundly disturbing picture which made incisive points about collective French guilt when it comes to the treatment of Algerian immigrants in their country. The idea that the director of "Backdraft" and "Far and Away" would have the gall to tackle this kind of material brings tears to my eyes. The article also said to "expect the suspense and consequences to be amped up", which basically means that they'll be taking the basic premise of the original, which is a middle class couple receiving threatening letters and videotapes from an anonymous source, and then Americanizing it, turning it into a formulaic cat and mouse thriller, thereby stripping the story of any intellectual content, much like the 1994 remake of The Vanishing. The dastards!

No comments: