Fire up the remake klaxon! And this one's a doozy! It's Citizen Kane, but this time about tech bro obsessed with a social med… Just kidding. About the movie, at least. But the level of classic status? Not so much. Easy Rider is the latest title in the crosshairs.
According to Variety, a "consortium of stakeholders and producers" (always your sign of focus on creativity) is looking to do for the 1969 counterculture classic what Creed has for the Rocky movies. So perhaps not a reboot, but a legacy sequel? It'll surely be better than the ill-advised 2012 follow-up.
Easy Rider, just in case you weren't aware, stars Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper (with an early role for a young Jack Nicholson) as hippie biker buddies who, fresh off a lucrative coke deal, head from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of independence. But their journey is dogged by violence and danger.
Hopper directed from a script he wrote with Fonda and Terry Southern, and the result went on to earn two Oscar nominations, around $60 million from a reported $400,000 budget and a shot at Cannes' Palm D'or. Not to mention a place on a plethora of Best Of lists.
"Our goal is to build upon the counterculture and freedom narrative the original left us with, and give the youth of today a film that pays serious attention to their own countercultures and challenges," producer Maurice Fadida tells Variety. "What the young viewers of today are experiencing in their everyday lives may seem crazy to older generations, but it can very well become the societal norm, as was the case with the cultural shift of the late 1960s. We are hoping to play a part in that shift." Good luck, and best not check the online reaction, then…
