SF Signal: The Andromeda Thing

The Andromeda Thing

Sci Fi is currently working on re-makes of The Thing and The Andromeda Strain., with Ridley Scott set to direct Strain. Now, I'm not complaining (well maybe a little), but do we really need two more remakes? Both were decent movies, is the cache surrounding both stories that big to convince people to do re-makes as opposed to creating something new? Do they think the viewing public will be more accepting of re-hashses as opposed to new stories? Must be...

I'm dissapointed in that it shows that for some reason people feel that the only safe (read: money-making) sci-fi that can be made is a remake of something else.

I'm just stunned that there isn't a movie to be made from lots of great Niven sci-fi (and almost all of it would be accessible to the masses.)

Posted by Scott on Tuesday September 07, 2004 at 9:46 PM

I guess the thing that is doubly frustrating is the fact that the Thing has already been re-made once and that second remake was not that bad, and the original is pretty good as well. I think its just easier sometimes to take a known formula. Combine this with statements made my Kevin Smith about folks not so interested in good dialog - only action...

Posted by Tim on Tuesday September 07, 2004 at 10:19 PM

And neither version of "The Thing" is as good as the original story ("Who Goes There?") by John W. Campbell, Jr. (Want a thrill? Read it at night, during a blizzard!)

The remake of "The Haunting" sucked. The remake of "Psycho" sucked. Etc.

I guess Ridley Scott will have guns blazing during the remake of "Andromeda".

Maybe they can save money and combine the two pictures. The Andromeda Strain is brought to Earth by the flying saucer in The Thing. It's transmitted when the intelligent carrot bites people in the neck (that way we can bring John Carpenter and his silly vampire movies into themix as well).

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Tuesday September 07, 2004 at 11:28 PM