Boycott!
Some evil producers who don’t understand the meaning of “art” or “classic” are going to remake seminal musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Fuck that, man. We’re not seeing it. [MG]
No no no no no no no no.
no.
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Um, a little more detail please?
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Wrong! There is only one Sweet Transvestite from Transylvania!
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Why?!
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Get over yourselves. The Rocky Horror Show has been regularly re-made since its initial launch, with different casts and different interpretations. What makes the film more sacred than the stage show?
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I don’t care what anyone says, the movie sucks dick in the ear. I still can’t understand how this forced, badly directed, badly choreographed and dismally self-important piece of claptrap ever became a hit at the midnight shows. It’s not even entertaining as a bad movie, like Plan 9 From Outer Space or any of the disasters they used to show on MST3K. It is a group of str8 people’s idea of what gay-themed decacence is. I’ve seen more real decadence at a first-grade school play. Rocky Horror has the same kind of phony bizarreness found in David Lynch’s overrated schlock or Kevin Smith’s supposedly “scandalous” film Dogma. If it wasn’t for the great Tim Curry, this piece of overripe cheese would have been cut up into guitar pics in 1978. If I want decadence in a musical, I’ll stick to Cabaret. At least that’s well-made and entertaining.
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Ngh….y’know though, I’ve given it a bit of thought and I think if anyone need be cast as Frank N. Furter…judging by his performance in Cabaret I’d say Neil Patrick Harris could possibly do it. However I’d rather they scrap the whole thing @_______@ or at least hand it off to another more competant studio…
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As a perennial Frank N. Furter for Halloween, Dom, you lost me after I tried to reconcile the phrase “sucks dick in the ear.” All those negatives you listed are exactly what’s appealing about it. What’s “entertaining” is the most subjective element of any kind of art. I don’t think Cabaret is entertaining at all. I find it to be … overrated schlock, perhaps.
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To answer Alan and Dom:
The difference between this film and the stage productions is just that – the difference between film and stage.
Hairspray is a seminal camp film. It was made into a musical and it was just as well loved but it lost its camp. The film took even more of the camp out of Hairspray by casting a heterosexual man in the role of Edna Turnblad (a role traditionally played by gay men.) Now they want to make a sequel to Hairspray (according to Variety magazine). This further waters down the camp and makes it more mainstream.
Rocky Horror is an abysmal film. That is it’s genius. The fun of Rocky Horror is not in sitting on your sofa with a bag of popcorn and watching this travesty expecting it to be good. The fun of the film is the fact that it is sooo horrible that people will pay to see it in a theater and heckle it. The art in it is not what happens on the screen but what happens in the theater as a reaction to what happens on the screen.
If you have ever seen the stage version of Rocky Horror, you would find that while it is fun, it is limited and not as enjoyable.
Frankly, between Richard O’Brien’s two films, this one is by far the superior film. Shock Treatment is even worse with less opportunity for stupidity (unless you really like conga lines).
If you go to any wedding, these days, there is always one point where the DJ feels obligated play “The Time Warp.”
Audience: Where are your tits?
Magenta: In another dimension.
Audience: What’s your favorite hobby?
Magenta: With voyeuristic intention.
Audience: Where are your eyes?
Magenta: Well secluded
Audience: What do you see?
Magenta: I see all.
Riff Raff: With a bit of the mind (Audience over: fuck)flip.
Riff Raff: You enter in the time slip.
Audience(in reaction to Magenta’s actions): Fuck that bird.
These lines cannot be shouted at a wedding but it is still mainstreamed. It takes away from the fun of doing the Time Warp. (Note: Rocky Horror has different lines in different theaters but some scenes are the same no matter which theater you attend. The above scene is one of these latter types.)
Rocky Horror is a terrible movie. Anyone who loves it will tell you that it is terrible.
Oh, two more things, MST3K aired Rocky Horror. It took an already bad movie and made it worse.
And, both Tim Curry and Richard O’Brien are gay. It is rumored that Peter Heywood is as well but he disappeared after Rocky Horror and has never been seen since. Again, there are rumors that he owns an antique shop in Liverpool but these are all unsubstantiated rumors which contribute to the urban legends of the film and help promote its campiness.
Like Frank – n – Furter says, “Don’t see it, be it.”
See it in your living room, be it in the theater.
I am with you Queerty, I am not going to this. It is a waste of time and money and it is just a way for corporate Hollywood to make money on something that they rejected 33 years ago. If it weren’t for RKO, we would never have this film. Now, Hollywood sees money making potential and they want to remake a classic. Let them remake Citizen Kane, then they can remake Rocky Horror.
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I don’t suppose Ken Russel is being considered to direct? Or is he still dead?
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Excellent PJ. I was on the fence about this seeing as to how often Rocky Horror has been done on stage WITH audience participation. I myself was one of the only commenters in a theater (and cast) of Rocky Virgins who did the show at a local community theater. The best part about the play though is the ability to make up new lines to play with. Especially if, after having the director falling out of his chair with laughter on the first night, you are asked back every single show.
But no matter what, any new version of the movie and any stage production since the movie have just been poor imitations of the original. If MTV wants to remake it, do a Broadway revival like they did a few years ago. Leave the movie alone. Hollywood has gotten so lazy and so uncreative that they are forced to go back and remake classics…usually with artistically disastrous results. Just look at the ending of I Am Legend, or Planet of the Apes. This movie is the ULTIMATE cult phenomenon and I think it’s earned a high enough status and enough of a following that it should be left alone.
BTW PJ, it’s “Don’t DREAM it, be it.”
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I never bought the “we love it because it’s terrible” perspective. I think it’s a great film. The look of it is amazing and the music’s amazing. The whole concept was very innovative for the 70’s.
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If it’s done right (which is unlikely, fair enough) then it could be an awesome way to re-introduce the musical to people these days. Loot at what happened with Hairspray!
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I’d want to see who is directing and the cast to decide if it could be updated.
It’s frought with danger attempting to re-do a classic, especially a classic cult movie.