ANNIE remake will include some of the classics

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 11:34am

And is being adapted from the the 1982 screenplay. Yikes... Will it include the bridge chase?



http://www.playbill.com/news/article/169278-Annie-Remake-Starring-Willow-Smith-Will-Begin-Production-in-2013-Rapper-Jay-Z-Is-Writing-New-Music#.UDQKVLv0mvk.facebook

[ChiChi]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 11:36am

I think they make their own new adaptation of the comic strip, or they should adapt it faithfully. I am not that interested in a hybrid of reworked old stuff and new music by Jay-Z

[Kad]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 12:24pm

This is going to be miserable, isn't it? It's just a vanity project for the Smiths.

[Huss417]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 12:32pm

Is she going to be whipping her red hair back and forth? :)

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 12:41pm

This is one movie I won't be attending, what's the point I thought the '99 remake did great justice with the material.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 12:43pm

This is about a little girl who watched a DVD of a bad kiddy movie and just LOVED it over and over again, so one day, she turned to her daddy and said, "I wanna be in this!"

And Daddy made it happen.

[latitudex1]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 12:45pm

It probably won't be quite that bad, Kad. The Karate Kid with Jayden turned out ok. And even though I don't think the man has ever scored a movie or a musical, Jay-Z is an excellent artist. I'd bet the last thing Will wants is his kids looking bad.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 12:45pm

I'm pretty sure it's about a daddy who showed his little girl a 1982 movie and said "You're gonna be in this!"

[Starship]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 12:46pm

I'm trying to be happy about this, I really am. Then I listened to Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life."

[Kad]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 12:54pm

"I'd bet the last thing Will wants is his kids looking bad."

The last thing Will wants is for his kids not to be famous.

[FlowerChild67]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 1:12pm

Oh god, I can't even come up with words to describe my horror. And I don't even LIKE Annie! :P

[sparepart973]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 1:25pm

I don't understand why everyone is against this. Commercially, I think there will be a huge niche market for it-so it makes total business sense why they are doing it. Artistically, like his music or not (I generally don't), Jay Z is a very successful artist. He will make it work.

I'm not saying that I am all that excited about it, simply because I am indifferent to movie musicals. I just don't think they've managed to make them work post the classic movie musicals like West Side Story and the Rogers & Hammerstein films.

But as a concept, why not?

I wonder if there was a similar reaction when people heard that there will be an all black stage adaptation of Wizard of Oz called The Wiz. The result was the discovery of a major talent called Stephanie Mills and a beautiful rich score.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 1:41pm

Except The Wiz wasn't really an adaptation of the film or used the film's score. I'm really not expecting much of this project other than it would probably be most successful as a TV movie rather than a feature film. But they better work fast. Willow will already be 12 in a couple of months.

[jv92]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 1:43pm

Commercially viable or not, it's a really terrible, misconceived idea. I'm trying to be as color-blind as possible, but Oliver Warbucks wouldn't be caught dead adopting a black orphan in 1933. And if they decide to make Warbucks black, I ask you, what black billionaire was around in 1933?

Aside from that, if they're setting this in 1933, isn't hip hop and rap music sort of NOT what they'd be singing?

Charles Strouse is a lovely man and a fine composer, but he's really lacking artistic integrity here. As is Martin Charnin, but he always seems willing to exploit ANNIE in every way possible.

OZ is a fantasy. It doesn't really take place in a set era. THE WIZ works because of that reason-- although it's far from a good show. ANNIE tries to take a comic strip and give it some realism. It won't work.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 1:49pm

^The Wiz was completely different. The source material was reinterpreted and adapted with an all new score. This movie of Annie is using the existing stage score and morphing it into an R&B and rap score. It's not the same at all.

[sparepart973]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 2:47pm

Is it confirmed that it's set in 1933? I think if they take a license in giving it the R&B treatment they should also make it make sense.

I really think it could have potential if it is cleverly adapted.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 4:25pm

That article is wrong. John Huston's screenplay?! He directed it, he didn't write it. Carol Sobieski was the screenwriter.

Anyway, this sucks all around. GARBAGE.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 5:05pm

"Artistically, like his music or not (I generally don't), Jay Z is a very successful artist. He will make it work."

Yea, because successful artists, NEVER make mistakes. Or crap.

[JP2]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 6:17pm

Eh, the music will probably be the best part of this film.

[Starship]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 6:21pm

I guess I'm not interested in it because it sounds like it will just be a black-gangsta extravaganza. With all the rapping and adding and cutting of songs by Jay-Z, it looks like it'll just be a Disney Channel-esque attempt at making a classic feature film a hip new movie.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 6:48pm

You know, I'll bet most of the Broadway fans and Broadway folk will be horrified by this when it comes out. They will hate it and protest loudly and tell everyone not to go and how horrible it is.

And in the grand scheme of things, that's a very small number of people. Most of the people who will line up to see this at a multiplex haven't heard of Orphan Annie, except for that "kiddie" DVD from the '80s, they haven't seen a stage musical ever, and they've probably never heard of Broadway.

Which means it will be a big, fat Madea-sized hit.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 6:54pm

So now the screenplay is back to being written by Emma Thompson? Because less than a month ago, BWW reported someone else was writing it now.


Aline Brosh McKenna to Pen ANNIE Film Remake Updated On: 8/22/12 at 06:54 PM

[westcoast_wannabe]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 8:14pm

Who would have thought a worse film adaptation than the 82 movie was possible? I kind of can't wait for this. I hope it's so bad that I love to hate it.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 11:48pm

I can't wait until they remake "A Chorus Line," based on the '80s movie.

Or maybe use the 1978 film script for "The Wiz," by Joel Schumacher, for a remake!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/22/12 at 11:49pm

Willow Smith IS Cassie.