Return Of The Body Snatchers

It's official, there are no new ideas left in the world. No, we're not about to go off on one about Jung's theory of expressed archetypal motifs, rather we wish to lament the sorry state of affairs that sees the same tired tales dredged up decade after decade and passed off as 'new' movies. What has kicked this off you ask? News that Invasion of the Body Snatchers is being remade. Again. The Executive producers behind (actually rather good) US remake of The Ring have opted to dredge this particular length of old rope back from the abyss for a 21st Century take on Jack Finney's story of alien infiltration. Originally coming to the screen via Don Siegel in 1956, Invasion of the Body Snatchers has been resurrected several times since, most famously with Donald Sutherland in 1978 and most recently as a straight-to-video 1993 version starring one of the girls from Beverley Hills 90210. That's not to mention the countless rip-offs in all but name and, as Clea Duvall so astutely points out in one such film, The Faculty, Finney totally ripped off Robert Heinlein's 1951 book The Puppet Masters in the first place. Surely there are some new ideas floating around out there. Come on people, pull your fingers out before we're forced to assume that Hollywood has been replaced by mindless automaton pod people as well.