DB7

Lurie dons 'Straw' hat for remake
By Tatiana Siegel

March 30, 2007
Rod Lurie is on board to direct a remake of the 1971 thriller "Straw Dogs" for Screen Gems. "The Shield" scribe Reed Steiner is penning the screenplay.

Screen Gems is in the process of acquiring the rights to the Dustin Hoffman starrer, which originally was produced by ABC Pictures Corp.

The original, directed by Sam Peckinpah, revolved around a young American and his English wife who move to rural England and face increasingly vicious local harassment. Plot details for the remake are being kept under wraps, but sources said it will take place in the U.S.

Lurie's producing partner Marc Frydman will produce.

Lurie's film credits include the political thriller "The Contender." He is in postproduction on the Samuel L. Jackson starrer "Resurrecting the Champ." He also is the creator of ABC's "Commander in Chief."

Harleybloke

DB this is a wind-up..........right...........? Pls..........a wind-up.........yeah..........??

.......oh no..............he means it...............

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

Carmel

Straw Dogs how can they remake this film one of our best of British although disturbing, noone can take the place of George and Hoffman Please rethink this plan, if it turns out anything like the remake of the wicker Man all americanised and The Haunting and to many to go on that they spoiled.

ChristineCB

I have hopes that the New Straw Dogs will be American-Idolized, where a husband and wife singing duo is tortured relentlessly. If they forget the nonsense of farmhouses and isolation, and make it a cross between TRUMAN SHOW and AMERICAN IDOL, how can it lose?

AND it would be a musical. Maybe in 30-40 years, a new DVD will be released claiming it's "Smartly Styled!" (Well, in the modern world, the DVD will be released in 30-40 days.)

Brett Sinclair

Sorry to be so cynical, but don't forget that many younger cinema goers will never even know about films made in the 70s...let alone the 60s...50s. So there will undoubtedly be a whole raft of remakes coming our way. Don't lose track of the fact that major studios make films to make money, smaller studios make films that they hope will make money.

There's no need to kneel, I'm a very democratic sort of lord.

batman

Indeed many younger cinema goers may not know not of the originals of films which have been recently re-made .... it's a shame that their first experience of such great stories is via mediocre and third rate hollywood 'blockbusters' instead of a real film

Bats

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Carmel

im sure like my own children that grew up like myself with the carryons and so forth do have some knowledge of older comedies and films, my kids are 24,21 and 13 and know all about the older movies as they watched them with me when they were growing up and really enjoyed them as they do today, my 13 year old loves Norman Wisdom and done a project in school at aged 10 all about him so there we go

batman

My boy (4yrs old) loves Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Singin' In The Rain .... next stop ... Will Hay!!!!

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DB7

Not as far fetched as it seems. Switch Vietnam for Iraq, but imho locating it in the States will lose some of the main characters alienation. And the Susan George scene will have to be shot more tastefully.

But without a Triumph Stag it's destined to flop...:

batman

I used to love Triumph Stags ... my mate had one in the 70s and we were all so jealous, especially when Nicholas Ball drove one in 'Hazell'.

WIN YOURSELF 10 LORD PETER WIMSEY DVDS WITH BAT-QUIZ, NOW ON UNTIL OCTOBER 15TH!

Brett Sinclair

Yes, but we all like films...we have a duty to inspire our kin by introducing them to all sorts of different stuff. My children are 10, 8 and 5 and we have all sorts of weird and wonderful likes, from The Belles of St Trinians and Murder Most Foul through Blazing Saddles and James Bond to Les Bronzees and Le salaire de la peur

Which reminds me, with four days of hols coming up, there will be time to Go down to the cinema room in my stately pile, dust off the super 8s and have a laugh:

There's no need to kneel, I'm a very democratic sort of lord.

noglea

As 'Get Carter', 'The Wicker Man' have already been remade and a new version of 'Don't Look Now' is on the way I suppose it should come as no suprise that another seventies British classic is to get a new version. Persumably for no reason other than a commercial one. I wonder what's next. 'The Devils' or 'A Clockwork Orange'?

Carmel

My kids and i all think that the remakes are rubbish compared to the originals

samkydd

Apart from the fact that IMHO all remakes are a cop out for talentless people who have no creative instinct whatsoever and shouldn't even be in the film industry, the theme of Straw Dogs has been done to death in many films over the years, and it's really not that interesting any more!

Why do they bother? Why not come up with something new? Why waste all that time and money on something that will probably be in the bargain DVD basket within days of its release? Let me see, would cashing in on the name have something to do with it ? I suspect that the producer was top of his class in accountancy and bottom in anything artistic or creative!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"