This version claims it will be more faithful to Heinlein’s novel, which is actually one of my favorites.
The original movie version with Casper Van Dien differed from the novel in several respects.
In the book, Johnny Rico is a Filipino from Manila. In the movie, he’s a white guy from Buenos Aires.
In the book, each mobile infantry soldier wears an exoskeleton which both protects them from most small arms fire, AND gives them enhanced running and jumping capabilities, together with an assortment of weapons. In the movie, they are far more conventional and have no exoskeleton.
In the book, while women serve in many military roles, the mobile infantry are all male. In the movie, the mobile infantry are coed, and the Soldiers of both sexes even shower together in one famous scene.
In the book, military service becomes a requirement in the future for someone to be able to both vote and run for public office. While this is obliquely mentioned in the movie, it is presented in a more satirical and dystopian way. This movie supposedly will take those themes more seriously and philosophically.
92010Coogs
(I took a lie detector test...No I did not)
2
What happened to Hollywood? Where are original scripts, great stories?
Where did this creative mind go to?
Instead of another reboot I invite you all to watch:
But reboots of crappy movies are often better than the original. See both the Sci-fi channel miniseries and more recent cinematic production of “Dune.” Both absolutely blow away the original “Dune” film adaption by DeLaurentiis/Lynch.
The remake of 3:10 to Yuma with Christian Bale was definitely WAY better than the original.
Duce630
(DustinK - Damn it feels good to be a Cougar. -Dwight Davis)
6
This would be an original script, though. Just a different adaptation of a novel. It isn’t refilming the original script.
I agree that there are too many retreads, though not all of them are bad or destined to fail.
Some reboots/remakes that did very well or are highly regarded:
Ocean’s 11
Man on Fire
The Fly
Scarface
A Star is Born
True Grit
True Lies (remake of a French film)
The Departed (remake of a Hong Kong film)
Casino Royale
Director of the original, Paul Verhoeven of “Showgirls” fame wanted to make a war movie at the time, but this was the only project he could get greenlit. I actually think it’s a great movie for what it was trying to do.
Can’t speak to the sequels, but they don’t look great.
Neil Bloomcamp makes movies I like, so I’m looking forward to it.
I saw the movie when it came out at the theaters in 1997, and it was mindless fun.
It wasn’t until many years later that I realized that it was based on a novel that was on a number of military reading lists.
When I read the novel, I LOVED it! Couldn’t put it down. Finished it in just under a day.
At that point, I realized just how much more political/philosophical the book was than the movie, and how the movie had changed a lot of the book’s key features.
Hopefully, this reboot will follow the book more closely.
The book is hardcore military science fiction, and has a lot of Heinein’s philosophical and political views on what he thinks a more ideal democracy might be.
It’s set on a future earth that has essentially a global government (the Terran Federation). In this future world, people aren’t allowed to either vote or run for public office, unless they have completed two years of military service.
The main character, Johnny Rico, is a rich kid who decides he wants to be a “citizen” and earn the franchise by doing two years of service. Unfortunately for him, he can only qualify to serve in the “Mobile Infantry” (MI), which is arguably the most dangerous and difficult job.
At that future time, the Earth is now involved in an interstellar “Bug War” against an alien world inhabited by sentient insects/arachnids. Johnny Rico ends up being involved in that war of course, as a member of the Mobile Infantry.
I assume you haven’t seen the 1997 movie with Denise Richards, Casper Van Dien, and Neil Patrick Harris, if you are asking, right?
If so, you can watch it, but it differs from Heinlein’s masterpiece novel in all the ways that I mentioned.
Some of Heinlein’s beliefs/philosophy are included in the movie, but as I said, as a sort of “side bar” plot element, and presented in a way that is almost more dystopian and satricial/critical.
Hopefully, this reboot gets it right.
See here:
If you haven’t seen it, the movie is famous for a very interesting “shower” scene.
A very famous quote from the book, that also appears at the start of the film in a greatly abridged version, is this:
“Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms”
I thought the movie was clearly satire, from the first commercial showing kids joining the fight. I thought it was pretty clear and was always surprised to hear some people didn’t get it. That always made me assume the book was making fun of fascism.
Yes I’ll be interested to see the new interpretation, i assume it will be very different
Can I assume the love triangle is not in the book. I still yell at Rico to get over Denise Richards quicker
1 Like
Duce630
(DustinK - Damn it feels good to be a Cougar. -Dwight Davis)
18
You are right, technically Heat was a remake of reboot. Uniquely it was from the same writer/director as the show that was being remade. That is one of my favorite movies, just forget about it being a remake sometimes.
I want to say I’ve seen the original but I’m not sure, I might be confusing it with a movie that has similar type of scenes and themes.
