A question that often comes up in regard to Hollywoood is why it only ever seems to make remakes of successes. If a film was great anyway, why remake it (audience recognition, basically) and ruin it? Why not remake the crap to see if it can be improved?
Now Sony is rising to the challenge. Although challenge may be too strong a word. Because according to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony has picked up the movie rights to one of the most godawful telefantasy shows ever – Manimal – the 1983 show that was cancelled after eight episodes about a wealthy crime-fighting doctor who could change into… well, you may be able to work it out from the title.
Honestly, making a remake that’s better than the original in this case will be about as challenging as finding an irritating DJ on Radio One.
The original show starred Simon MacCorkindale (Casualty) as Dr Jonathan Chase and Melody Anderson (Flash Gordon) and was created by Glen A Larson (Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century). Produced in the days for CG, it spent a fortune (well, a few dollars) on transformation scenes in the pilot, then used them as stock footage in pretty much every episode thereafter. So although Chase could theoretically change into any animal, he tended to change into a panther or a hawk an awful lot… because those were the animals he changed into for the stock footage. Metamorphosis into other creatures tended to happen off camera, or behind sofas. The show did have a certain camp charm, though.
Glen A Larson is attached as a producer on the new feature, which will be a blend of live-action and CGI. Like The Smurfs.
Read our Manimal DVD review.
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