RED DAWN remake slated for a September 2010 release
June 17th, 2009 by Scott Marks
The cast of John Milius’ “Red Dawn”
Here is another title to add to my list of 40 Remakes Coming Soon to a Theater Near You.
John Milius’ “Red Dawn” is a fine, fun fascist romp. The startling image of schoolkids watching commie paratroopers touch down outside their classroom hearkened back to simpler times when kindergartners practiced hiding beneath their desks in case of a nuclear assault. Rehearsing how to exit a burning building is one thing. Those grade school air raid drills used to spook the hell out of me.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, “Josh Peck and Adrianne Palicki have been cast in MGM/UA’s remake of ‘Red Dawn,’ set to begin filming in September. They join the already cast Chris Hemsworth in the story of a group of teenagers who form an impromptu insurgency when their town is invaded by Chinese and Russian soldiers.”
Not unlike “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” it’s a story that could probably withstand a retelling every other decade. Wish the technical specs were more impressive. Dan Bradley, a stunt coordinator and second-unit director on “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “Quantum of Solace,” will direct. Carl Ellsworth (”Disturbia”) and Jeremy Passmore (”Special”) will write the updated screenplay.
“Red Dawn” will descend upon theaters on September 24, 2010.
Tags: adrianne palicki, Hollywood, Josh Peck, M.G.M., Movie remakes, Movies, red dawn, red dawn remake, reddawn, Upcoming remakesFiled Under Rants
Dig A Hole: Van Johnson
December 12th, 2008 by Scott Marks
Does anyone have a scan of this article?
Dig a hole and park a Van.
Van Johnson’s greatest and most enduring contribution to world cinema, was a mention in Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, a film Mr. Johnson did not personally participate in. Mel Brooks’s satiric western offers the premise that everyone in the town has the last name of “Johnson.” With Howard, Olsen and Dr. Samuel Johnson already covered, Van was a shoe in.
Popular movie star Van Johnson died Friday of natural causes at Tappan Zee Manor, an assisted living center in Nyack, N.Y. He was 92.
Johnson was born in Newport, Rhode Island; the son of a Pennsylvania Dutch homemaker, Loretta, and Charles E. Johnson, a Swedish plumber and later real-estate salesman. His mother, an alcoholic, left the family when her son was a child. His acting career began in the 1936 Broadway revue New Faces of 1936. He was Gene Kelly’s understudy in Pal Joey and in 1939, he landed a part as a college boy in Rodgers and Hart’s Too Many Girls. RKO signed him to a short-term contract to star in the film adaptation, which became Johnson’s screen debut. MGM picked up his contract from RKO soon after and cast him in several bit parts.
During his two decades under contract to MGM, Johnson played opposite many of the studio’s star beauties: Elizabeth Taylor, June Allyson, Esther Williams, Spencer Tracy, etc. I initially thought that what the American moviegoing public found so appealing about Van Johnson was precisely what kept me at bay. All that red headed, freckle faced, boy next door wholesomeness makes me want to retch. Johnson was in the right place, at the right time, with a metal plate right in his head. On April Fool’s Day, 1942, his DeSoto convertible (”Tell ‘em Groucho Sent You!”) was struck head-on by another car while en route to a preview screening of George Cukor’s Keeper of the Flame. The accident left him with a metal plate in his forehead. This was enough to exempt him from service in World War II. In three Hollywood patriotic programmers, A Guy Named Joe, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Battleground, Johnson was billed as the all-American boy when the studio’s star roster were overseas helping the real all-American boys fight the axis threat.
Continue reading Dig A Hole: Van Johnson
Tags: brigadoon, M.G.M., Obituary, red socks, the caine mutiny, van johnson, van johnson dead, van johnson dies, van johnson gay, van johnson obituaryFiled Under Obituaries
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