Manchuria Revisited

Who needs the Cold War when you've got Bush and Blair's war on terrorism, eh? The planned updated version of 1962 Cold War classic The Manchurian Candidate has made a major military step forward by landing Denzel Washington for the role Frank Sinatra made famous. After setting up the project earlier this year, Frank's daughter, Tina Sinatra, told Variety that her crooning Dad had given his blessing to remake one of his best movies commenting, "He believed, as we do, that the premise can be brought into the future." And now with the heavyweight Washington on board, there seems no holding them back. The fantastic 1962 original centred around Sinatra's true-blue veteran of the Korean War, who starts to have more than disturbing nightmares about his time in the East which hint at the brainwashing of American troops and hypnotised killers at large in America. And before any wag jokes what's so unusual about such a situation, the nefarious mis-doers behind the scheme turn out to be the crafty communists of China who have kidnapped and brainwashed a whole platoon of plucky U.S. soldiers in Manchuria and transformed their Lieutenant into an assassin programmed to murder a Presidential candidate. So that's where the guys behind 24 got their storyline from, then. Now with the ever-reliable Denzel Washington involved – can he choose a bad script? - it only bodes well for the remake which will hopefully retain the refreshing cynicism and satirical edge that made the original so darn good.