If it’s a day ending in a ‘y’, then there must be a news story about a remake of a movie that probably doesn’t need to be remade, right?
Right. Today’s possibly unnecessary remake is…
Angel Heart.
Yes, the Alan Parker-directed, genuinely disturbing horror/noir that gave Mickey Rourke one of his finest roles, Robert De Niro one of his most memorable bad guy turns, and Bill Cosby a funny turn as he watched his on-screen daughter, Lisa Bonet, get rogered senseless by Rourke. And yes, the same Angel Heart that’s only twenty-one years old.
Anyway, grousing about it isn’t going to help and, besides, we’ve seen enough ‘unnecessary’ remakes turn out well by now. And let’s be frank – the original, in which Rourke’s scuzzy private eye, Harry Angel, investigates occultish goings-on in New Orleans, may be creepy as all get out, but it’s also a little OTT at times, what with the dream sequences and the chicken killing and the rutting and whatnot.
And the remake has a solid creative team behind it – it’s being developed by former New Line big shot, Michael De Luca, Alison Rosenzweig and Michael Gaeta. The trio bought the remake rights from an anonymous UK firm and, in a masterstroke, also picked up the rights to the book, Fallen Angel, on which the film was nominally based.
So, instantly, they’ve got leeway with the remake by giving themselves the ability to draw upon the book, and jettison anything from Parker’s original that they didn’t like. And it also means that they might be able to sidestep one major problem: how can they make the big twist fresh and exciting?
It’s all early doors yet, so there’s no news of a director yet. But here’s an idea: it’s been a while since Sir Alan Parker got behind the camera – why not give him the chance to remake his own movie? We’d be fascinated to see what he’d do with the same material, 21 years down the line.
Any other suggestions? You know where to put ‘em…