spaced remake?!; viva laughlin

[amezri]

gypsyjr alerted me to the fact that there's a US remake of Spaced in the work. No. Just... NO.

Edgar Wright mentions in his blog that neither he nor Simon has been contacted about the thing, not that he will be making any money from it anyway. And I quote the same entry gypsyjr did:

I'm calling for everyone to refer to the U.S. version of Spaced as "McSpaced" from now on.

I can't think of a better distillation of the whole idea.

Edgar, I love you.

There's a really great story at CHUD.com basically ripping the remake apart. Normally I'm not one to just jump all over something before I hear about it, but really. Fox + McG - Pegg&Wright = DISASTER. It's simple maths, people!

Twitchfilm mentions the fact that Adam Barr from Will & Grace has been contacted. Uhm. Even more no.

In other crappy remake news, CBS has pulled Viva Laughlin. THANK GOD. Look, I love Hugh Jackman, I do. But I watched 10 minutes of that show and the acting, singing, and dancing of everyone except Hugh Jackman was awful. Abysmal. Tragic. Unwatchable. Seriously. I wanted to like it... I did. Blackpool was awesome, and not just because of David Tennant. Everyone on that cast really threw themselves into their roles. Everyone on Viva Laughlin just fell flat.

The really extra funny thing is that not only did they pull Viva Laughlin off the schedule, they pulled everything related to the show off the website. XD

Anyone... to see what I mean, go to IGN's Laughlin video page. Watch the "Whatcha Got?" clip (this is actually the Viva Las Vegas opening) (youtube alternate). Contrast that with the original Blackpool Viva Las Vegas opening. One is fun and exciting and the other is... phoned in.

Why, America? WHY?! Why can't you stop snurching other people's ideas and just come up with your own?!

Comments

[fyrdrakken]

Erg to the Spaced news -- I've got the UK originals and agreed that an American remake is likely to screw it up. (I'm reserving judgement on the Life on Mars remake that's in the works, since it's got Colm Meaney playing one of the main characters and David E. Kelley is apparently writing it.)

I haven't seen anything of Viva Laughlin (and can't watch the vids from work) and only just last weekend got around to actually opening the envelope to the DVD-Rs of Tennant goodness you'd sent me ages ago (so hopefully I'll be finally watching Casanova and Blackpool this weekend), so I can't personally compare. But I can link you to parrotfish's insightful comment on why the concept can't be Americanized.

[amezri.livejournal.com]

Colm Meaney?! I hope he is playing Hunt! :D I can totally see him in that role. Meanwhile, I have no idea who Jason O'Mara is... I'm waiting for Life on Mars to air before making a judgement as well. The production team is iffy in my opinion -- they could to a fab job or it could bomb. No way to tell yet.

I'll read that link at home. Thanks! Check out the vids when you get home. You can tell straight away from the opener that the US version is an inferior replica.

[fyrdrakken]

Yeah, Meaney as Hunt, which is good. Where is Jason O'Mara? (And for that matter, who's the McG the CHUD piece was ripping into?) Since it's David E. Kelley and Mom and I have been having such a fantastic time watching his Boston Legal, I'm somewhat optimistic.

And I'll try to remember on the vids -- if nothing else, I think I'll finally be watching Blackpool this weekend, since I've got a fair bit of knitting I want to crank through.

[amezri.livejournal.com]

Jason O'Mara's going to be playing Sam Tyler. He was in Resident Evil 3 I guess? And Men in Trees. I dunno. Never seen him.

McG. Eh. He's a lot of flash and stuff he thinks is edgy and cool. Faux geek isn't going to work for Spaced -- it needs to be genuine geek.

[fyrdrakken]

Maybe if I hit IMDb I'd have seen something O'Mara was in. And thanks for the McG link -- the only things he's done I've seen are the Charlie's Angels movies (and I'm not sure I actually saw the second one) and Supernatural, and neither impressed me. So agreed that odds don't look good for the Spaced remake.